How Pharmacists Improve Disease Outcomes Through Community Partnerships

A newly announced partnership between Humana Healthy Horizons in Ohio and CPESN USA is putting community pharmacists at the center of value-based care. According to Kevin Day, PharmD, managing network facilitator at CPESN Ohio and president of Day’s Pharmacy in Glendale, Ohio, the program’s results could benefit everyone from individual patients to Ohio taxpayers.

The initiative, known as the Pharmacist Quality Rewards Program, is nearly 2 years in the making. Modeled after quality-based programs that Humana already uses with primary care groups, the program attributes Medicaid patients directly to CPESN-participating pharmacies, tasking pharmacists with improving health outcomes in a meaningful, measurable way.

The program's initial focus centers on 2 of the most pervasive and costly chronic disease states in the country: hypertension and diabetes.

According to Day, these conditions were chosen both for their prevalence within the plan's membership and because they represent familiar clinical territory for pharmacists—areas where the profession can act with confidence and deliver real results.

What makes this program particularly noteworthy is its alignment of incentives across every level of the health care system. When pharmacists succeed in improving patient outcomes, the health plan's metrics improve, patients experience better health, and the broader Ohio Medicaid program stands to reduce costs.

Watch the full video to learn how community pharmacists are stepping into a provider role and what this model could mean for the future of pharmacy practice.

READ MORE: Why Pharmacy Schools Are Urged to Partner with Community Pharmacies

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