Journal of managed care pharmacy : JMCP
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The rising costs of health care and, in particular, prescription drugs remains a challenge. Health professionals' ability to promote cost-effective prescription drug use is critical, yet this subject is not included consistently in the curriculum of most health professional schools. As experts in prescription drug selection, use, and cost, pharmacists are in a unique position to help manage prescription drug regimens for the best therapeutic outcome, while also helping to keep patients' out-of-pocket (OOP) prescription drug costs low. In addition to promoting interprofessional collaboration, pharmacy student-led lectures may provide an effective means to teach prescription drug cost-savings strategies to other health professional students and current prescribers. ⋯ This study demonstrates that a single lecture given by pharmacy students to other health care professional students and current prescribers can improve knowledge of prescription drug cost-saving strategies targeted toward vulnerable patient populations and may increase the likelihood of collaboration between prescribers and pharmacists. The format of this lecture is an efficient and effective way to disseminate important and timely policy information to health care professionals.
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New cytotoxic agents and regimens, as well as immunotherapeutics, have recently been introduced for treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC). ⋯ The health care cost of CRC treatment is increasing significantly over time, which is most likely caused by the use of new regimens, higher chances of surgery and radiation, and occurrence of various comorbidities and metastatic diseases due to increasing survival time.
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Antiviral regimen complexity index as an independent predictor of sustained virologic response in patients with chronic hepatitis C.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects more than 170 million people worldwide, and one-third of them have human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection. Multiple studies have been conducted in order to identify the factors that may explain different responses to treatment among patients. However, the reasons why HIV-HCV coinfected patients have lower responses to treatment are not clear. In addition, no studies have evaluated the influence of the complexity of the therapeutic regimen for hepatitis C infection on clinical outcomes. ⋯ The medication regimen complexity may be a crucial factor to achieve therapeutic success when treating patients for hepatitis C. The adaptation of this index in patients with HCV provides an objective value of the antiviral regimen complexity and could help us to identify patients in clinical practice who require multidisciplinary attention. Simplification of the antiretroviral regimen might result in a greater response to treatment for hepatitis C.
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Schizophrenia is a chronic, debilitating disease that affects approximately 1% of the U.S. population and has disproportionately high costs. Several factors, including age, gender, insurance status, and comorbid conditions, have been hypothesized to be associated with schizophrenia- related costs. ⋯ Identification of factors associated with a high-cost population may help decision makers in managed care, government, and other organizations allocate resources more efficiently and health care providers manage patients more effectively through assignment of these patients to case managers and appropriate monitoring and treatment.
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Health plans and pharmacy benefit managers have implemented utilization management strategies for newer type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) medications to control pharmacy expenditures. Little is known about the impact of utilization management strategies on overall health care costs and subsequent use of T2DM medications among members who request, but do not receive, a T2DM medication requiring prior authorization (PA). ⋯ This study found higher plan-paid health care costs (overall and medical alone) among members who requested a type 2 diabetes medication requiring PA, but never received it, compared with those who qualified for and received the requested medication. A notable number of individuals who were assumed to have met the criteria based on a claims-based equivalent, but who never received the medication, made no change to their current therapy. Failure of a member to take medication deemed necessary by his or her physician could translate to inadequate control of the diabetic condition and result in an excess of resource utilization and costs for treating the disease and associated comorbidities. In light of the present findings, health plans should consider not only the impact of utilization management strategies on reducing pharmacy costs, but the broader implication for overall health care costs and subsequent treatment patterns among members.