Pharmacy Daily | Pharmacy’s $1.9b saving

COMMUNITY pharmacist-led medication adherence interventions are delivering significant savings for the Federal Government, with a $1.9 billion impact over a 12-month period, a newly released study reveals.

Researchers from the Graduate School of Health at the University of Technology Sydney called on policy and decision makers to increase funding to combat the cost of non-adherence, which they reported was $517 per adult.

With up to 30% of scripts never being filled, and approximately 50% of people with chronic conditions stopping medications within the first year, the study's co-author, Rachelle Louise Cutler (pictured), warned the cost to the health system likely to grow dramatically in the coming years.

"It is estimated that spending on health care by [the] government as a percentage of gross domestic product will nearly double by 2050," she said.

"There are fears that the current level of funding is not sustainable and new models need to be considered.

"Subsidisation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme represents 30% of the funds administered by the Department of Health and the Medical Benefits Scheme 52%.

"Funding of strategies including pharmacist-led services to improve medication adherence, removes wastage and inefficient usage of the current system, resulting in more sustainable, cost-effective resource allocation."

Using de-identified dispensing data from the GuildLink database, the researchers were able to show that the 6th Community Pharmacy Agreement MedScreen Compliance intervention program boosted adherence across the three conditions covered by the program - hypertension, depression and dyslipidaemia.

"Pharmacists are ideally placed to implement, modify and sustain clearly defined adherence-enhancing interventions across a dynamic population," Cutler said.

"Community pharmacist-led medication adherence interventions have been demonstrated to improve adherence rated by 9.3% over a 12-month period, reducing the burden incurred by non-adherence by $1.9 billion."

"Given these findings, policy and decision makers should consider funding medication adherence programs to improve patient health outcomes and save money."