On February 6, 2020, GTMRx held its first policy summit as part of an exciting collaboration with the prestigious Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). Get the Medications Right: Innovations in Team-Based Care was an all-day event that provided a platform for experts from across the entire health delivery continuum to provide updates and solicit input on collaborative, multi-stakeholder activities that encourage practice transformation, create pathways for disseminating evidence and innovation, and encourage payment and policy reform. The summit brought together business, policy, and health care leaders at the forefront of delivery and payment models that support comprehensive medication management (CMM) services.
Suboptimal use of medications – prescription drugs that make people sicker, are wrong, or are not taken as intended – costs $528 billion across the health care system each year. As concerns about prescription drug costs began to dominate the national health care debate, the Get the Medications Right Institute (GTMRx) was formed in April 2019 to advance a solution – enhance health and drive down costs through coordinated, team-based, patient-centered care models that leverage technology and diagnostic breakthroughs and engage medication experts.
After ACCP and other founding board member organizations provided the financial foundation to formally launch GTMRx, the institute established four key workgroups built around key foundational focus areas:
- Practice Transformation
- HIT & AI Support
- Payment & Policy Solutions
- Precision Medicine Enablement
Within this structure, 70 volunteers have committed collectively over 500 man-hours to establishing core principles and strategies that will ultimately fix the trial-and-error approach to medication use that costs 275,000 people their lives annually.
About the Bipartisan Policy Center
BPC is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank that actively fosters bipartisanship by combining the best ideas from both major political parties to form policy solutions. BPC-driven policies are the product of informed deliberations by former elected and appointed officials, business and labor leaders, academics, and consumer advocates who represent both sides of the political spectrum. BPC was founded by former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle (D-SD), George Mitchell (D-ME), Howard Baker (R-TN), and Bob Dole (R-KS).
BPC’s partnership with GTMRx provides unique opportunities to elevate the dissemination of evidence and innovation and encourage payment and policy reform to advance an evidence-based, systematic approach to medication use. Anand Parekh, M.D., chief medical advisor for BPC who moderated the February 6 morning event, commented that the GTMRx partnership was a perfect fit for BPC as it looks to expand on recent efforts to build policy consensus in key areas of health care, including the 21st Century Cures legislation and drug pricing controversy.
GTMRx Policy Summit Highlights
Part I of the February 6 event opened with a keynote address by two well-known health policy leaders – Elizabeth Fowler, JD, Ph.D., executive vice president, Programs, Commonwealth Fund; and Gregory Downing, D.O., Ph.D., founder, Innovation Horizons, LLC & co-chair of Health Datapalooza.
Fowler is familiar with ACCP’s longstanding effort to integrate coverage for CMM services into the Medicare benefit, dating back to her former work as chief health counsel to former Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT). Fowler noted that the GTMRx message represents a long policy journey with its roots in the establishment of the Medicare Part D drug benefit.
Next on the program, which included over 400 attendees in person and online, was a panel discussion titled “Optimizing Medication Use in Team-Based Care: Making It Real,” featuring:
- Susan Dentzer, MPH, senior policy fellow, Robert J. Margolis Center of Health Policy, Duke University (moderator).
- Carolyn Clancy, M.D., deputy under secretary for Discovery, Education and Affiliate Networks, Veterans Health Administration.
- Jerry Greskovic, RPh, CACP, CDE, director, Ambulatory Pharmacy Programs, Geisinger.
- Dan Rehrauer, Pharm.D., senior manager, Medication Therapy Management Program, HealthPartners.
Clancy, a former ACCP Annual Meeting keynote speaker, commented on the challenges that the Veterans Health Administration faces in confronting the opioid crisis and, at the same time, the improvements that clinical pharmacists are bringing to the quality of care through the innovative Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT), which brings together each veteran working with health care professionals to plan for whole-person care and lifelong health and wellness.
Part II of the all-day policy summit shifted to an invitation-only executive roundtable featuring workgroup reports:
- Overview of Practice and Care Delivery Transformation Opportunities. Led by: Anthony Morreale, Pharm.D., MBA, FASHP, BCPS, associate chief consultant for Clinical Pharmacy Services & Policy, Pharmacy Benefits Management VACO.
- Overview of Payment & Policy Solutions to Ensure Appropriate and Personalized Use of Medication and Gene Therapies. Led by: Kathy Pham, Pharm.D., BCPPS, director of Policy and Professional Affairs, American College of Clinical Pharmacy.
- Overview of HIT and AI Barriers and Opportunities to Support Optimized Medication Use. Led by: Bassel Abul-Hajj, MPH, lead data scientist, Medecision; and Molly J. Ekstrand, BPharm, BCACP, AE-C, medication optimization expert, North Star Medication Optimization, LLC; and GTMRx distinguished fellow.
- Overview of Precision Medicine Enablement via Advanced Diagnostics. Led by: Steve Goldberg, M.D., MBA, vice president, Medical Affairs, Population Health; chief health officer, Health & Wellness, Quest Diagnostics; and Jill Bates, Pharm.D., M.S., FASHP, BCOP, PHASeR pharmacy program manager, Durham VA Health Care System; and associate professor of clinical education, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
What Can We Expect Next from GTMRx?
It is no exaggeration to say that, in the history of the profession, GTMRx represents the single biggest investment in a comprehensive advocacy campaign to advance team-based medication optimization. The GTMRx workgroups have now formally established goals and charters to serve as a framework through which they will develop recommendations to be included in the GTMRx Blueprint for Change.
Want to learn more?
All ACCP members are invited to join GTMRx as individual members: