How Can Patient Care Models Reduce Costs?

O’Connor: The ultimate goal of pharmacy to reduce costs is what I call the teeter totter and that’s balancing out the medical spend versus the pharmacy spend. Sometimes there’s that push ‘oh we need to take more and more out of the pharmacy side. It’s getting too expensive.’

Well, typically what you then get is an out balance and then too much is on the medical side. I think we really need a keen focus on what is it on the pharmacy side—again, focusing on these complex patients that are typically the frequent flyers—getting them under control is what will ultimately keep them out of the ERs, keep the diabetic patient from going into acute or congestive heart failure, or curing a hepatitis C patient.

I think more focus is needed not just on the expense of specialty but how it balances out the ultimate spend on the medical side.