Silver award-winning program also identified six most prevalent drug interactions and resolved potential problems for 40% of program participants
Irvine, Calif. – April 2, 2009 – A Drug Interaction Alert Program (DIAP) developed by Prescription Solutions, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, is one of the first of its kind to identify potentially harmful and dangerous drug interactions in real-time and over multiple pharmacies and providers.
Directly addressing the lack of coordinated care that often exists with patients under the care of multiple prescribers, the unique intervention specifically targets dangerous drug interactions prescribed by at least two different physicians. Using real-time faxed patient-specific notifications to alert physicians of clinically significant drug interactions, the program helped to resolve potentially dangerous drug-drug interactions (DDIs) for 40 percent of 8,000 targeted plan members. An analysis of savings from the program for just one of the top three most common interactions – potassium-sparing diuretics/potassium supplements – estimated more than $13,000 per avoidable adverse event , highlighting the significant savings plan sponsors could achieve over larger patient populations.
“Dangerous drug interactions are costly and usually preventable,” said Brian K. Solow, M.D., Vice President and Medical Director for Clinical Services for Prescription Solutions. “However, traditional drug interaction programs only check for problems after a patient has been taking a medication, or look at prescriptions from a single physician, when many people see more than one physician. To overcome these limitations, we created a collaborative program with pharmacists and physicians that would find and stop these interactions in real-time, before they could be harmful to our members.”
DDIs account for almost four percent of ER visits and about one-third of the adverse drug events in hospitalized patients. They are detrimental to the patient’s health, and can even be fatal. And they are costly. The Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL) estimated that eliminating 2.1 of the nation’s 3 million preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) (out of an estimated 8.8 million) that occur in the outpatient setting annually would save $20 to $44 billion annually.
Recognizing the importance of preventing ADEs, and the value of Prescription Solutions’ program to plan sponsors and to members, the DIAP program was recently named one of the winners of URAC’s Best Practices in Consumer Empowerment and Protection Awards, receiving a silver medal.
In addition to improved patient safety, as well as cost savings for members and plan sponsors, Prescription Solutions’ DIAP also identified the six most prevalent DDIs within the targeted population. They are:
Overall, for the 8,000 plan members in the intervened population, the program saved the plan sponsor an estimated $375,000, $3.72 per intervened member per month, in medical costs for just the top three most prevalent drug-drug interactions.
Even more savings that are significant can be achieved from preventing other DDIs. For example, the risk for serious gastrointestinal bleeding (hemorrhaging) is about five-times higher in patients exposed to a combination of Warfarin and NSAIDs as compared to patients taking Warfarin alone. In one study of 1.7 million health plan members, the direct medical cost of hemorrhage events in one year was $3.3 million.
“Expanded over larger patient populations, this program could likely save health plans and employers millions of dollars a year,” noted Dr. Solow. “Members’ health status will improve, and the resulting savings could be used for other valuable health services, from disease prevention to the treatment of chronic illnesses.”
About Prescription Solutions
Prescription Solutions is an innovative pharmacy benefit management company managing the prescription drug benefit of commercial, Medicare and other governmental health plans, as well as those of employers and unions. A UnitedHealth Group company, Prescription Solutions serves members through a national network of 64,000 community pharmacies and state-of-the-art mail service pharmacies in Carlsbad, California, and Overland Park, Kansas, which have both earned the prestigious Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites™ (VIPPS®) accreditation by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy® (NABP®). The company was recently ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction among Mail Order Pharmacies” in the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 National Pharmacy StudySM, as well as being named by WilsonRx® as the No. 1 National Top-Tier PBM, and No. 1 National Mail Order Pharmacy for customer satisfaction two years in a row. Prescription Solutions also won URAC’s 2008 Best Practices for Consumer Empowerment and Protection Award in the PBM category. Additional information can be found at www.prescriptionsolutions.com.
About UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to making health care work better. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through six operating businesses: UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, OptumHealth, Ingenix, and Prescription Solutions. Through its family of businesses, UnitedHealth Group serves more than 70 million individuals nationwide.