US pharmacists call on congress to expand older patients’ medication management services
US pharmacists are calling on congress in Washington DC to allow them to provide comprehensive medication management services to all patients in the Medicare health system. Medicare provides health care for those over the age of 65 years.
A law passed last year will mean that certain
patients will be entitled to limited medication management services from
January 2006. Patients with multiple chronic diseases, multiple drug
therapies and high cost drugs are among those included. Pharmacy is currently
only regarded as a supply service but the changes that are being requested
would mean that pharmacists would be added to the list of recognised
health care providers (which includes physicians, nurse practitioners,
dentists, etc) as well as providing reimbursement for medication management
services to all patients.
Assessing a patient’s health status, formulating a treatment plan,
selecting, initiating and modifying medication therapy and performing
a medication review are all services that a consensus document of American
pharmacy organisations has defined as being part of medication therapy
management.
At the American Society of Health-System
Pharmacists mid-year clinical
meeting in Orlando, Florida, on 6 December, T. Mark Woods, ASHP president,
said he hoped that legislation would be passed in the next session of
congress to make these plans a reality. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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