The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD) recently emphasized that increased coordination and collaboration between pharmacy and primary care experts could save countless lives and billions of health care dollars.
It is important for health experts to identify the best supporting programs and synergies to save costs and encourage overall coordination for better well-being. This could also help scientists fight against the expenses of chronic disease.
More than one in two Americans have at least one chronic medical condition. Medication is usually the first treatment option people choose. Unfortunately, because there are more and more people with these health needs, treatments are becoming more complex and expensive: an estimated $310 billion is spent on medications each year in the U.S.
To find solutions, PFCD held a briefing on Capitol Hill called “Optimizing Medicine Use to Improve Health, Lower Costs: Integrating Pharmacy into Primary Care.”
“Finding ways to uncover value while also improving quality remain the pursuit of our increasingly value-driven U.S. health care system, but by digging in to root issues like medication adherence it is easy to illustrate how team-based care can manage chronic diseases effectively, improve health and lower the total cost of care,” Ken Thorpe, PFCD chairman, said. “Supporting a system where primary care providers collaborate with pharmacists would measurably improve care, particularly for the millions of Americans struggling to navigate the ins and outs of their medical care while managing multiple chronic conditions.”
