Managed care interface
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Managed care interface · Aug 2005
Prescription drug formulary design, preferred-product marketshare, and formulary noncompliance: a study of proton-pump inhibitors.
The intent of a prescription drug formulary is to shift utilization toward preferred products, but health plans must balance the benefit of these products' lower price with the cost of potential formulary noncompliance. Using proton-pump inhibitors as a model, the authors studied the influence of formulary restrictiveness and drug preference status on formulary noncompliance and marketshare. They found that although drug formulary restrictiveness increases the use of preferred products, it also leads to a high level of formulary noncompliance. The net financial effect on drug spending is ambiguous.
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Managed care interface · Jul 2005
Are employees informed about their health care coverage? Evidence from the buyers health care action group.
More than half of all Americans receive health insurance coverage through an employer. The rising costs and escalating complexity of health insurance has led many employers to embark on extensive employee education campaigns. In 2002, 1,365 randomly selected employees from 16 Buyers Health Care Action Group firms in the Minneapolis region were surveyed to evaluate their awareness of employer-provided health plan quality information and the extent to which this information influences their enrollment decisions. ⋯ On one hand, employer communication does not significantly increase the probability that an employee responded correctly to the pharmacy benefit question posed in the survey. However, employer communication has a large effect on the awareness of quality information. How well those campaigns work, and by extension how well employees are informed about the health benefits decisions they make, is a key issue in health care today.
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Managed care interface · Mar 2004
Patient satisfaction with point-of-care international normalized ratio testing and counseling in a community internal medicine practice.
Point-of-care international normalized ratio (POC INR) testing is increasingly used to monitor anticoagulant therapy. This study assessed patient satisfaction with registered nurse--managed POC INR testing in a primary care internal medicine practice. ⋯ Eighty-eight percent of patients indicated that they were very satisfied or satisfied with the POC INR system. The authors conclude that nurse-managed POC INR testing is quick, convenient, less painful, and more satisfying for patients compared with traditional venipuncture and telephone follow-up.