Why LTC Pharmacy is Health Care’s Most Overlooked, Undervalued Sector

Long-term care (LTC) pharmacy may be health care’s best-kept secret. Despite the fact that this sector of pharmacy practice faces similar pressures, challenges, and opportunities as the retail and independent industries, LTC pharmacies provide crucial services for some of the nation’s most vulnerable patients.

According to experts like Esmé Grewal, JD, president and CEO of the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC), LTC pharmacy needs the recognition it deserves.

“LTC pharmacists are going into the facilities and are meeting with the patients, with their families, and reviewing the drug regimen that the individual’s on,” Grewal told Drug Topics.®“Something that I really think needs to be looked at is how the role of LTC pharmacists can be heightened and then also applied in other parts of our health sector because I really think it’s just a phenomenal role that we offer.”

In this episode of the Over the Counter podcast, Grewal pulls back the curtain on a sector of pharmacy that most people have never fully understood. Drawing on her years of federal affairs experience as well as a personal connection with the complexities of navigating Medicare and Medicaid as a family caregiver, she makes a compelling case for why LTC pharmacy deserves to be at the center of the national conversation on aging, medication safety, and health care spending.

The statistics she shares are staggering. With general medication adherence hovering around 50%, nursing home residents supported by LTC pharmacy services achieve 92.5%. One study applying LTC pharmacy principles to home settings found a 73.1% reduction in hospitalizations. And yet, the US continues to spend $528 billion annually on avoidable costs tied to non-optimized medication therapy; a problem Grewal believes LTC pharmacy is uniquely positioned to solve.

From the unsung work of consultant pharmacists conducting individualized drug reviews in nursing homes, to the unintended consequences of the Inflation Reduction Act on Part D reimbursement, this conversation runs the gamut of what LTC pharmacy is offering patients today and what can be done to improve outcomes going forward.

Stay tuned for weekly podcast episodes of Over the Counter powered by Drug Topics. Check out our most recent episode with Lisa Lavin, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Ōmcare, who joined to discuss how her company’s technology is making a difference in medication access across rural communities.