Dive Brief:
- A new study examining whether ACOs are ready to maximize the value of medications found high readiness in some areas of study, and significant weaknesses in other areas.
- The survey, which reached out to 46 ACOs, found that most ACOs could transmit prescriptions electronically, and that roughly one-half could integrate medical and pharmacy data into a single database and offer formularies encouraging generic use as appropriate.
- On the other hand, very few ACOs could notify physicians when a prescription had been filled. 17% have protocols in place to avoid med duplication and polypharmacy; 22% have quality metrics in place for a broad range of conditions. Few could quantify the cost offsets achievable through appropriate medication use.
Dive Insight:
It's hardly surprising that ACOs are still at the beginning stages of developing medication management strategies that work for them. After all, most are just getting started as an entity, and their leaders are dealing with broad operational issues first and foremost. Still, it makes sense to look at how ACOs use medications, and whether they're getting the most value from medication use. It will be interesting to see if ACOs make progress on these objectives this year.