Bridging the gap between the hospital and alternate-site care Volume 2 • Number 2 • Spring 2013 • specialtypharmacycontinuum.com
In This Issue Operations & Mgmt
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Price not the key to a successful payer– specialty pharmacy partnership.
Helping To Close the Gaps in Specialty Care
Goads & Games Can Bolster Med Adherence
Part 1: Holistic patient management
San Diego—The staggering $317 billion that medication nonadherence costs our health care system each year can be chipped away at if pharmacists encourage proper medication use, an expert told attendees of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy’s (AMCP) 25th Annual Meeting and Expo. “None of the medicines we develop, none of our efforts to make sure these medicines are accessible to patients, none of the guidelines we create, none of these matter if we don’t actually get the medicine into a patient’s body,” said
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‘ The Wheel’ keeps clients’ drug spend in check.
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N ASP panel: There is strength in numbers from SP stakeholder collaboration.
Disease State Spotlight
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A stepwise guide to IVIG product selection and use.
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Clinical
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Payers, providers need to be ready for Actemra in wake of positive studies.
Policy
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K ynamro for HoFH gets SP distribution; FDA keeping close eye on drug.
Corporate Spotlight Medi-Dose/EPS see page 21
see ADHERENCE, page 17
Programs Cut Specialty Drug Spending in Half
San Diego—Specialty pharmacists are well positioned to narrow the significant and persistent gaps in patient care, experts told attendees of the National Association of Specialty Pharmacy’s Inaugural Specialty Pharmacy Conference. According to Diane Sullivan, vice president of the Payer and Channel Group at Pfizer Specialty Care, and the moderator of a roundtable discussion on the topic, approximately 55% of all patients in this country are receiving inadequate care. “It’s been 10 years since this number was first reported and we have the same gaps in patient care today,” said Ms. Sullivan, referring to a study from 2003 showing that preventive, acute and chronic care fell below evidence-based guidelines in 45% of patients (N Engl J Med 2003;348:2635-2645) and a more recent study showing that there have been no significant improvements in patient care since (Express Scripts 2012 Drug Trend Report). In light of the frequency of interactions between specialty pharmacists and patients as well as the contribution of specialty pharmacists to improving medication adherence rates, there is a significant opportunity to raise the bar for patient care, Ms. Sullivan suggested. “Seventy percent of our specialty products are distributed and managed by specialty pharmacists, and for three of our products, it’s 100%. So, we really rely on the expertise of specialty pharmacy,” she said. “We know that from an adherence perspective, a patient will actually have a better experience with specialty pharmacy than with retail, where adherence rates are 8% lower.”
mployers who use multiple cost management programs to control their spending on specialty drugs spend an average of 50% less on these medications annually than employers whose specialty spending is totally unmanaged, according to a recent study by Express Scripts. Specialty pharmacy is expected to account for one of every four dollars spent on prescription medications by next year, and utilization management programs often are depicted as a critical element in controlling the runaway growth rate of specialty spending. But the actual impact of utilization management on spending is still being determined.
see CARE GAPS, page 18
see SPENDING CUTS, page 8
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The Book Page Remington: An Introduction to Pharmacy
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Special Report
Loyd V. Allen (Editor)
Understanding Key Differences Between Biosimilars and Small Molecule Generics
See page 25.
See insert after page 14.