Guide Offers 15 Actions to Foster Adoption of Pharmacist-Provided Care

A Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) task force has identified 15 actions that pharmacists and payers can take to foster the adoption of pharmacist-provided care.

According to PQA, pharmacist-provided care can transform the pharmacist’s role in health care from a medication dispenser to an indispensable clinical care team member providing affordable, accessible and high-quality health care services that improve patient outcomes.

“Pharmacists are the clinicians most accessible to patients and uniquely positioned to provide care that effectively engages patients in medication management and chronic disease management,” said Laura Cranston, RPh, PQA Chief Executive Officer, in a prepared statement. “The recommended actions identified by this task force can help pharmacists sustainably partner with payers and other healthcare stakeholders to deliver essential, value-based care.”

These actions are the centerpiece of a PQA guide, “Strategies to Expand Value-Based Pharmacist-Provided Care.” A project supported by Pfizer, the guide was shaped by a multi-stakeholder roundtable and an industry survey of more than 50 community pharmacy chain organizations, pharmacists, health care payers, and technology vendors.

The recommended actions—5 each for health care payers, community pharmacists, and pharmacists and payers together—highlight the need for risk-sharing partnerships, the potential of innovative payment models and the importance of improved data sharing for outcomes-focused care.

These actions include:

• For health care payers-Implement hybrid reimbursement models with pharmacists that combine fee-for-service with value-based care.
• For community pharmacists-Optimize efficiencies and efficacy of care delivery to allow pharmacists to be profitable while delivering valuable care.
• For pharmacists and payers together-Identify clinical areas to expand the use and demonstrate the value of pharmacist-provided care.

The goal of the action guide is to spark conversation and collaboration between community pharmacy organizations and health care payers. According to PQA, the organization is a neutral convener that supports the collaboration of stakeholders and works to expand awareness and support adoption of pharmacist-provided care.

“Pharmacists and payers share the same goal,” said Loren Kirk, PharmD, PQA’s Director of Stakeholder Engagement, who managed the task force and action guide. “Both want to improve patient outcomes. Now is the time for pharmacies and payers to align their efforts and develop sustainable partnerships that are mutually beneficial and advance high-quality patient care.”

In addition to the 15 recommended actions, the guide contains real-world examples of successes and challenges of implemented pharmacist-provided care programs. Insights on trends in pharmacy practice and details on the surveys and roundtable also are included in the guide.

References

• PQA Task Force Identifies 15 Actions to Foster Adoption of Pharmacist-Provided Care [news release]. Alexandria, VA; March 26, 2019: PQA website. https://pqa.memberclicks.net/assets/Newsroom/Pharmacist_Provided_Care_Release_2019-03-26.pdf. Accessed March 26, 2019.
• Strategies to Expand Value-Based Pharmacist-Provide Care: Action Guide for Community Pharmacists, Healthcare Payers and Other Stakeholders. Pharmacy Quality Alliance. https://pqa.memberclicks.net/assets/S2S/Pharmacist-Provided%20Care%20Action%20Guide.pdf. Published 2019. Accessed March 26, 2019.