The Prescription Drug Care Coordination Program (the Program) is an initiative developed as a pilot by the Funds to help physicians advance the quality and effectiveness of the prescription drug therapy they provide to the elderly and chronically ill patients in their care.
The emphases of this Program are on:
- Using up-to-date drug information and patient-specific data to heighten physician awareness and understanding of drug-related risks; and
- Affording practitioners ready access to a set of innovative resources and services designed to promote recognition and effective management of those risks.
Each quarter, participating physicians receive a list of all the medications that have been prescribed in the preceding four months for each Funds beneficiary who has designated that provider as his/her primary care provider. This Patient Medication List (PML) lists all drugs prescribed in the covered period, regardless of who prescribed them. Prescribers other than the recipient physician are identified by name.
A second phase, under development, will develop and implement programs and services designed to engage beneficiaries (and their caregivers) in managing their medications in ways that promote effective high quality drug therapy.
Physicians who are members of the Funds’ Primary Care Physicians Network and who have been selected as their primary provider by five or more beneficiaries residing in selected Pennsylvania counties are enrolled in the pilot Program. A Funds’ network physician who has been designated as a primary provider by fewer than five beneficiaries is also enrolled in the Program if he/she is a member of a practice where one of more of the physicians has been so designated. The Program focuses on beneficiaries who reside in the Pennsylvania counties of Allegheny, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Somerset, Washington, and Westmoreland. The Program involves some 500 physicians and providers who care for more than 7,000 Funds beneficiaries.
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