pharmacy claims data improve physician quality of care

PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 404 - 22 Mar 2003

Pharmacy claims data improvephysician quality of care

The provision of pharmacy claims data is a useful toolto help primary-care physicians detect patients’nonadherence to therapy and provide improved qualityof care, according to researchers from the US.

Their prospective, blinded study examined 231patient visits involving 32 physicians in a US healthmaintenance organisation, where physicians received a6-month comprehensive medication-refill history fortheir patients on the day of consultation (n = 106) orconducted care as usual (controls). Physicians detectedsignificantly more nonadherence to drug therapy amongintervention, compared with control, patients (30.5% vs0%); however, abstracter-detected nonadherence wassimilar in both groups. The number of drug additions,dosage changes, drug discontinuations andsubstitutions for formulary medication was alsosignificantly higher in the intervention than in thecontrol group. There were no between-groupdifferences in median drug costs before or after theintervention.Bieszk N, et al. Detection of medication nonadherence through review ofpharmacy claims data. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 60: 360-366,15 Feb 2003 800925448

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 22 Mar 2003 No. 4041173-5503/10/0404-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved