ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation entitled "The Potential Effects of Pharmacy Management Tools on Access to Medications" takes an extraordinarily alarmist view of worst-case scenarios in the provision of the new Medicare Part D drug benefit.
While the report acknowledges that appropriate use of formularies and other managed care tools can control spending without harming access or quality of care, its short-sighted view of opportunities for abuse draws extreme conclusions. Judith Cahill, executive director of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy says, "By interpreting each managed care pharmacy tool as a malicious method for withholding drugs from patients, and painting a picture of pharmacy benefit providers as actuaries solely obsessed with the bottom-line, the report does a disservice to the value that managed care tools bring to medicine, and to those who provide these services."
Marissa Schlaifer, AMCP's director of Pharmacy Affairs, adds, "The authors stray from their technical overview in their medical examples. For instance, their description of antidepressant prescribing is misleading. There are now two gold-standard selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) available by generic name, fluoxetine and paroxetine. A third, citalopram (Celexa(TM), Forest Pharmaceuticals), will be available in generic form early next year. These generic drugs will effectively treat nearly all cases of major depression that are responsive to pharmacotherapy. The fact is, a generic- only list for antidepressants is expansive and would include fluoxetine, paroxetine, citalopram and bupropion (Wellbutrin(TM), GlaxoSmithKline) as well as about a dozen tricyclics and monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Finally, if any of these medications were not appropriate, the exception process, which is included in the Part D benefit, would address that issue."
"Managed care tools have value when they are applied according to rational, evidence-based methodologies that take numerous factors into consideration, including safety, efficacy and efficiency -- the bedrock of any rational formulary design," Cahill states. "This report offers nothing constructive that can be used to advance better patient care. Further, the government will not allow a plan to come forward with such discriminatory designs as described in this report, which would effectively eliminate treatment for diabetics or the chronically ill. Numerous reports and surveys by both independent entities and the government itself have proven that managed care tools effectively drive down the cost of medications, while providing needed care to more than 200 million Americans."
The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's mission is to empower its members to serve society by using sound medication management principles and strategies to achieve positive patient outcomes. AMCP has more than 4,800 members nationally who provide comprehensive coverage and services to the more than 200 million Americans served by managed care. More news and information about AMCP can be obtained on their website, at http://www.amcp.org/.
Academy of Managed Care PharmacyCONTACT: Carolyn Stables of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy,+1-703-683-8416, ext. 308, or cstables@amcp.org
Web site: http://www.amcp.org/
