Managed Care Pharmacy Experts – Change Agents Extraordinaire
Some things never change, or so I thought. In the midst of budget preparation, the end of school year activities, the AMCP Leadership meeting and an FMCP Board of Trustees retreat, it happened. I got sick –and I never get sick. After seven days of high fevers, the inability to breathe and coughing up at least half a lung, all while continuing to work (don’t you say a word – you do it, too), my husband convinced me to go to the doctor. Actually, I believe he threatened bodily harm if I didn’t go, but somehow or another I ended up at the doctor’s office.
And that’s where I discovered that some things in health care had changed. The first change I was presented with was the option to visit a retail clinic, which I must admit was an appealing option in light of all the work I had to get done. However, I hadn’t visited my physician in a while, so I opted to call the practice I had not visited since 2004.
After conferring, the patient (me) and my physician decided that an antibiotic was probably warranted. I was really pleased that the doctor had given such careful consideration as to whether or not an antibiotic was needed, and I appreciated her careful deliberation as to which antibiotic was most likely to succeed. Gone are the days when antibiotics are prescribed as precautionary measure and it made me smile knowing that managed care pharmacy had played a role in furthering this change.
But then came the most delightful change of all. The doctor asked me which pharmacy I wanted to use because they had implemented e-prescribing! The prescription was waiting for me when I arrived and there was little possibility that the pharmacist had difficulty interpreting the writing on the prescription. Definite progress.
This encounter made me reflect on the fact that things do change for the better and the annual “FMCP Emerging Trends in Healthcare” internet survey of managed care pharmacy experts is a tool that helps us measure, monitor and share the exciting news of the changes taking place.
If you are a managed care pharmacy expert practicing in a health plan, a pharmacy benefit management company or consulting, can you contribute 30 minutes of your time to help your Foundation by participating in the survey that launches this month?
The third annual FMCP Emerging Trends survey seeks knowledge regarding topics such as e-technology, consumer drive health care, disease management, P4P and value-based insurance design, areas of change requiring the expertise of managed care pharmacists and other health care professionals. The more managed care pharmacy experts who participate in this 30-minute online survey, fielded in mid-July through the first of September, the more meaningful the knowledge collected.
This survey is valuable to numerous parties involved in health care. Your customers, the patients and employers you serve, are clamoring to know what you think. FMCP, as a 501 (c) (3) charitable trust charged with serving the public, has the reputation of providing credible, unbiased information, and we are sharing the results with employers, reiterating the points you are conveying.
Additionally, findings from the FMCP Emerging Trends survey serve as a resource for you to see what your peers are thinking and how your organization compares, as well as a mechanism to assist AMCP in selecting the topics you want to hear about. It is the perfect tool to learn about what’s changing in the world of managed care pharmacy and you can help make this resource even better by participating.
Watch your inbox in mid-July for the Emerging Trends email from the Foundation for Managed Care Pharmacy. The donation of your time to complete the survey is one way you can help your Foundation show patients that managed care pharmacy experts are change agents working on their behalf to help them optimize their medication therapy.
Thank you in advance for your participation in the third annual FMCP Emerging Trends survey of managed care pharmacy experts and I look forward to sharing the results with you at the AMCP Fall Educational conference on October 15-18 in Kansas City.
