Tuesday, March 18, 2014

California Assembly Bill AB 2418 Aims to Increase Medication Adherence

Ramsell MTM Features and Benefits, click here to enlarge picture
The California Healthcare Institute and the California Pharmacists Association are co-sponsoring a bill with Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla to promote better patient medication adherence, by means of Medication Therapy Management or MTM.

Up to half of patients do not take their prescriptions correctly, which has been estimated to cost nearly $300 billion a year for emergency room visits, hospital admissions, lab testing, and other medical expenditures. Medication Therapy Management (MTM) optimizes therapeutic outcomes for individual patients, with MTM returns on investment ranging from $3.50 saved for every $1 spent to $12 saved for every $1.

AB 2418 will improve the process for medical patients to obtain their prescription drugs and follow their doctor’s instructions on taking their medications. It will provide patients with a choice between picking up their medications at a local pharmacy or by having their medications delivered through mail order programs. In addition, this bill streamlines the medication refill process by making it more convenient for patients to pick up all their medications on one trip to the pharmacy and allows patients who run out of eye drops to obtain an early refill.

California Assemblywoman
Susan A. Bonilla 
“Health plans and insurers are doing what they can to improve medication adherence. The solutions I am proposing will encourage interaction between patients, pharmacists and doctors to ensure patients receive medications in a timely, convenient manner.” said Assemblywoman Bonilla.

She also added  “Patient adherence to medication improves health, reduces the risk of hospitalization and lowers the overall cost of healthcare,” said Eve Bukowski, California Healthcare Institute’s vice president of state government affairs. “We are thrilled to work with Assemblywoman Bonilla to help make California patients healthier.”

“Patient adherence to medication improves health, reduces the risk of hospitalization and lowers the overall cost of healthcare,” said Eve Bukowski, California Healthcare Institute’s vice president of state government affairs. “We are thrilled to work with Assemblywoman Bonilla to help make California patients healthier.”

MTM will allow the medical community and pharmacists to improve and measure clinical outcomes, standardize clinical interventions, control costs and resolve medication therapy problems, saving the California state billions a year.

RamsellMTM™ helps the medical community and pharmacists standardize quality interventions, improve clinical outcomes and control costs. For sponsors struggling with changing regulatory requirements, complex populations lacking care coordination, and the high cost of clinical staff or inflexibility of MTM tools or programs, Ramsell provides direct patient MTM Services and/or a customizable, flexible MTM Technology Solution.

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