Pharmacy leaders find common ground on population health.

Abstract

Participants in ASHP’s August 24 Pharmacy Executive Leadership Alliance (PELA®) and the Section of Pharmacy Practice Leaders forum say that the profession’s path forward on population health management runs through strategic initiatives focusing on quality metrics for public and private payers. What’s still unclear is exactly where to direct the profession’s efforts to meet payers’ quality expectations. “Do we prioritize putting pharmacists in internal medicine practices versus family medicine, [because] internal medicine patients tend to be more complicated?” asked presenter Fern Paul-Aviles, assistant vice president for population health strategy, 340B, community clinic pharmacy services, behavioral health, and long-term care for Charlotte, NC–based Atrium Health. “Do you put more pharmacist resources in the practices that have more value-based contracts? Or do you look at where the worst quality scores are and allocate pharmacists where the worst quality scores are in the hope of improving the quality scores in those practices?” Fern-Aviles said her health system has shared-savings contracts with 4 Medicare Advantage plans. To secure the full financial incentives and attain the highest Medicare star rating, the healthcare team must meet medication adherence targets for beneficiaries taking statins, antihypertensive drugs, and diabetes medications.