PBMI Launches Industry's First Pharmacy Trends in Accountable Care Organizations Report

PLANO, TX--(Marketwired - Jan 25, 2016) - The Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (PBMI) released today the industry's first report examining pharmacy trends in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). More than one hundred providers representing 6.5 million enrollees were surveyed. With the addition of this report, PBMI now publishes four national industry trend reports to help health care stakeholders stay on top of marketplace and emerging drug benefit trends and management challenges.

"ACOs represent a critical and growing part of the solution to help improve value, quality, and care in our nation's health care and pharmacy plays an important role in achieving those goals," says Jane Lutz, Executive Director of PBMI. "Our new ACO report looks specifically at valuable information regarding contract and financial incentive structures, current practices in pharmacy management, and plans for the future."

Key findings from PBMI's inaugural Pharmacy Trends in ACOs report include:

• The pharmacist role in ACOs is underutilized, with only 57% of respondents currently employing or contracting with clinical pharmacists.
• Managing population health is cited as very or extremely important by 93% of respondents and 98% believe the focus on population health will increase in the next three to five years.
• Clinical integration of systems varies across the board. Less than a third of respondents are on a single electronic medical record (EMR) system; 59% are on multiple systems, while 23% use paper charts.
• Most respondents utilize support tools (90% - quality reporting tools, 60% - point of care decision tools) yet only 34% find them easy to use.
• Improving adherence and persistency, reducing inappropriate utilization, and drug selection that improves clinical outcomes are the top three goals for managing medications.
• Expectations for the future:
  • Fifty-six percent of respondents say ACOs will decrease cost of prescription drug therapy, while 69% see them increasing quality of prescription drug therapy.
  • Use of biologics/specialty products and genomic testing will increase (65% and 63% respectively) over the next three to five years

PBMI will host a free webinar on January 28^th at 1:30 pm EST to showcase the results of this report. Register today. Order the report, click here.

About PBMI

The Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute provides research and education to help health care and benefits professionals work with pharmacy benefit managers to design prescription drug benefit programs. Learn more at www.pbmi.com.