Value-Based Care Models Improve Health Outcomes, USC Pharmacy School Dean Says

Value-based care models help improve patient health outcomes, Steven Chen, PharmD, FASHP, FCSHP, FNAP, associate dean for Clinical Affairs at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy, said during a presentation at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Regional Meeting 2023 in Orlando, Florida.

“Meditation-related harm is inevitable, long before the pandemic, [and] it’s even worse today,” he said. “One of the things we think about is: Why don’t we put more money into the health care system?”

Value-based care teams can take the burden off physicians, while helping the health care system more broadly, Chen said.

One way to optimize medication therapy is through comprehensive medication management (CMM), which is a standard of care for improving health care outcomes for patients, he said.

“[CMM] is taking an accountability for the optimization of patients’ medications,” Chen said.

Part of that is choosing the right medication, which is more than just determining the drug class, but also includes ensuring that the drug dosage is correct, patients can afford their medications, patients can use medication devices properly, and that there are no drug-disease or drug-drug interactions, he said.

Follow-up until all treatment goals are met is also essential to complete care for individuals, Chen said.

Applying CMM to lower-risk populations yields benefits, but the results are not as evident as for individuals who are part of higher-risk populations.

High-risk individuals often must see their care teams more frequently than lower-risk patients, Chen said.

Seeing patients frequently could help with adjusting their medications to meet the treatment goals, he said.

Even when patients meet the treatment goals, Chen trained his pharmacy technicians to follow up with patients every 2 to 3 months to help maintain these treatment goals, because the ultimate goal is to keep patients healthy.

“The pandemic had a mixed message. On one hand, the pandemic provided great attention to the value and the greater importance of pharmacy, but it also conditioned people to accept and be more comfortable with remote care,” Chen said.

He also discussed 5 pillars that can help for advancing pharmacy practice: align with health-system and payer priorities; education; equity; evidence; and legislation and policy, which help leverage the benefits that pharmacies offer.

Reference

Chen S. Incentivizing what matters: transforming payment models to improve health outcomes. Presented at: National Association of Chain Drug Stores Regional Meeting 2023. Orlando, FL. January 30, 2023.

For more on this topic, watch the Pharmacy Times® interview with Steven Chen here.