American health & drug benefits
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Am Health Drug Benefits · Sep 2013
Impact of glycemic control on healthcare resource utilization and costs of type 2 diabetes: current and future pharmacologic approaches to improving outcomes.
The incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes continue to grow in the United States and worldwide, along with the growing prevalence of obesity. Patients with type 2 diabetes are at greater risk for comorbid cardiovascular (CV) disease (CVD), which dramatically affects overall healthcare costs. ⋯ As the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and its associated comorbidities grows, healthcare costs will continue to increase, indicating a need for better approaches to achieve glycemic control and manage comorbid conditions. Drug therapies are needed that enhance patient adherence and persistence levels far above levels reported with currently available drugs. Improvements in adherence to treatment guidelines and greater rates of lifestyle modifications also are needed. A serious unmet need exists for greatly improved patient outcomes, more effective and more tolerable drugs, as well as marked improvements in adherence to treatment guidelines and drug therapy to positively impact healthcare costs and resource use.
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Am Health Drug Benefits · Jul 2013
Rapid expansion of new oncology care delivery payment models: results from a payer survey.
Oncology practices are seeking to adapt to new care delivery models, including accountable care organizations (ACOs), patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) in oncology, and oncology pathways, as well as new payment models, such as bundled payments or pay-for-performance contracts. ⋯ Payers anticipate that there will be a rapid expansion of the use of innovative approaches to oncology cost management over the next 2 years. As payers and their network providers gain more experience in collaborative care delivery, it is expected that demonstration of cost-savings will become more robust and convincing, and a variety of approaches will become more widely adopted.
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Am Health Drug Benefits · May 2013
Opioid utilization patterns among medicare patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.
Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) affects a large percentage of patients with type 2 diabetes and is associated with moderate-to-severe pain. Patients with DPN bear a substantial economic burden as a result of increased overall healthcare utilization. The reported costs of treating DPN are nearly $11 billion, with elderly (aged ≥65 years) patients with type 2 diabetes accounting for 93.1% ($10.2 billion) of the total costs. ⋯ Results from our retrospective pharmacy claims analysis demonstrated that elderly patients with painful DPN use doses of LAOs above those recommended in the package insert, with some patients using high doses of acetaminophen and utilizing multiple pharmacies to obtain their opioid prescriptions. In addition, this population had prevalent concomitant use of opioids and prescription GI medications. The use of software, such as the Opioid MUE, to monitor opioid drug utilization trends and examine other utilization measures can assist healthcare decision makers and payers in their utilization reviews to appropriately manage this population.
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Am Health Drug Benefits · Nov 2012
Hematologic complications, healthcare utilization, and costs in commercially insured patients with myelodysplastic syndrome receiving supportive care.
Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is rare in people aged <50 years. Most patients with this disorder experience progressive worsening of blood cytopenias, with an increasing need for transfusion. The more advanced and severe the disorder, the greater the risk that it will progress to acute myeloid leukemia. Therapy is typically based on the patient's risk category, age, and performance status. Supportive care alone is a major option for lower-risk, older patients with MDS or those with comorbidities. The only potentially curative treatment option is hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation, which is typically used to treat high-risk, younger patients. ⋯ MDS is associated with frequent and prolonged hospitalizations, frequent outpatient visits, and high costs in younger and in older patients who are receiving supportive care. Although this study shows that younger patients aged <50 years do not have significantly higher costs overall, a small proportion may have a higher healthcare utilization and cost-related burden of MDS than patients aged ≥50 years.
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Am Health Drug Benefits · Nov 2012
National burden of preventable adverse drug events associated with inpatient injectable medications: healthcare and medical professional liability costs.
Harmful medication errors, or preventable adverse drug events (ADEs), are a prominent quality and cost issue in healthcare. Injectable medications are important therapeutic agents, but they are associated with a greater potential for serious harm than oral medications. The national burden of preventable ADEs associated with inpatient injectable medications and the associated medical professional liability (MPL) costs have not been previously described in the literature. ⋯ The incremental healthcare and MPL costs of preventable ADEs resulting from inpatient injectable medications are substantial. The data in this study strongly support the clinical and business cases of investing in efforts to prevent errors related to injectable medications.