California Pharmacists Association Warns Employers About Potentially Dangerous Pharmacy Benefit Changes

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 06 Apr 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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At a time when the overall health care of Americans is at risk from economic factors, many employer groups and health plans are making changes to their pharmacy benefit programs that have the potential to compromise patient care and impact California's economy negatively.

"We are receiving calls on a weekly basis from community pharmacies telling us of patients who are upset by the changes to their pharmacy benefit plans," states Lynn Rolston, Chief Executive Officer of the California Pharmacists Association. "Most often, changes to the plan require that routine medications be filled by mail-order pharmacies and can no longer be filled at a pharmacy of the patient's choice. Not only are patients upset at having their choice of pharmacy provider taken away, they are at a greater risk of medication complications without direct pharmacist oversight. The patient-pharmacist relationship is the cornerstone of appropriate medication use, patient safety and improved health outcomes."

Recently the Los Angeles Unified School District and the State Center Community College District (SCCCD) have enacted such changes. "Financially-driven decisions such as these stand to make matters worse for California's economy, where community pharmacies generate $2.7 billion in tax revenues, which in turn funds multiple state programs," said Rolston.

CPhA strongly encourages health plan administrators around the state to carefully consider the pharmacy benefit design and allow employees to receive pharmacy care from the provider of their choice. Study after study have exposed the pitfalls of disrupting or limiting patient access, and the resultant decline in health outcomes. Those declines in health outcomes far outweigh the short-term potential savings from these types of pharmacy benefit changes.

CPhA would be happy to explore other options with employers which would meet the needs of their employees and support the best health outcomes for California's most valuable asset - its employees.

The California Pharmacists Association is the largest state pharmacy association in the nation and the professional society representing all pharmacists in California. The mission of the Association is to act as the leader in advocating the role of the pharmacist as an essential provider of health care and to support pharmacists in providing optimal patient care.

For more information about CPhA, please visit http://www.cpha.com.

Source
California Pharmacists Association

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