Managed Care Snubs Pharmacist’s Skills

Everyone has read about people under managed care insurance programs who are being denied lifesaving medical treatments, or new mothers and their babies being sent home from the hospital before it is safe to do so. But one horror story hasn’t received much attention--what managed care is doing to patients who depend on medications to maintain their health.

Managed care is increasingly taking away these consumers’ right to choose their own pharmacy, severing long-standing relationships with their local pharmacists whom they have come to know and trust. These patients are being herded into using unregulated mail order pharmacies hundreds of miles away or high-volume dispensing outlets that process hundreds of prescriptions a day at assembly-line speed.

This approach is penny-wise and pound-foolish, and patients are being put at real risk. When patients no longer have a highly trained pharmacist who counsels, monitors, and, as appropriate, intervenes in their medication therapy, they dramatically elevate the chances that they will take their medicine incorrectly or not take it at all. Nearly one-fourth of patients taking blood pressure medicine, for example, stop taking it correctly in the first year, placing themselves at risk for a stroke.

A recent University of Nebraska study found that in only a two-month period, five Nebraska pharmacies saved the health care system $752,391 in averted hospitalizations, doctor visits, and other medical services--that’s $75,000 in savings a month per pharmacy.

But insurers continue to ignore the concerns of patients and health providers in their short-sighted pursuit of savings and profits. Because they won’t act, we must. During the week of Sept. 16-20, many pharmacies will participate in a nationwide High Noon for Your Local Pharmacy campaign, which will culminate in a drive to enact pharmacist care laws in every state, including California, to require insurance plans to cover pharmacist care as a core health benefit.

Consumers deserve nothing less than quality pharmacist care. It saves money. It saves lives. That’s why there ought to be a law.

CURT DAVISON JR.

Pharmacist,

Brand’s Buena Pharmacy

Ventura