ECONOMIC-EVALUATION OF PHARMACIST INVOLVEMENT IN DISEASE MANAGEMENT IN A COMMUNITY PHARMACY SETTING

This study evaluated the economic impact of patient-focused pharmacist intervention in the community retail setting in patients with hyperte nsion, diabetes, asthma, and/or hypercholesterolemia. Specially traine d pharmacists intervened by providing targeted patient education, perf orming systematic patient monitoring, offering feedback and behavior m odification, and communicating regularly with patients' physicians to enable early intervention for drug-related problems. We evaluated pres cription drug costs and total medical costs by comparing claims data f rom 188 patients enrolled in the program at three intervention pharmac ies with data from 401 control patients at five nonparticipating pharm acies from the same retail chain. For all disease states, the average cost per prescription was significantly higher in the group receiving intervention than in the control group. Differences in total monthly p rescription costs were significant only for patients with asthma, with higher monthly costs in the group receiving intervention. Substantial savings were demonstrated across all cost analyses for total monthly medical costs. Savings ranged from a conservative estimate of $143.95 per patient per month to $293.39 per patient per month when accounting for the possible influence of age, comorbid conditions, and disease s everity. Our data indicate that pharmacist intervention in this commun ity pharmacy-based disease management model substantially reduced mont hly health care costs in patients with hypertension, hypercholesterole mia, diabetes, and asthma.