 |
 |
|
Resources
MHealthy: Focus on Medicines
- The University is launching a pilot program for employees, retirees, dependents and survivors who take nine or more medications through the U-M prescription drug plan. The project has two main goals:
- to improve health, and
- to contain costs for both members of the U-M community and the University itself
- The project, called MHealthy: Focus on Medicines, has two main parts: a review of each person’s entire list of current prescription medicines that will identify opportunities for cost savings such as a generic equivalent or a pill that can be split; and a comprehensive medication review with an experienced U-M pharmacist to look for opportunities to optimize a person’s entire medicine regimen (including nonprescription medicines and supplements) while reducing potential risks of adverse drug interactions.
- As many as 3,000 people taking nine or more medications will be eligible for this program. All of them will receive a letter this year, beginning in April, listing their current medications and opportunities for cost savings. Some will be randomly selected to have the opportunity to discuss cost-saving options, and possible additional ways to reduce the cost of their drug therapy, with U-M pharmacists. In future months, some will also be offered a Comprehensive Medication Review to optimize drug therapy, ensure safety and discover opportunities for improving their health outcomes. The randomized approach will allow evaluation of the program’s effects during the pilot phase, which will guide possible future expansion of the program. Empirical evaluation of program outcomes / results will also help other employers and insurers adopt strategies that aim to foster good health while containing the growth of health care costs.
- This new project is separate from the MHealthy: Focus on Diabetes project that was launched in 2006 and is now providing free or low-cost medications to more than 2,000 U-M employees and their dependents who have diabetes. To avoid interference with the evaluation of that program’s success at encouraging the use of preventive medications, the new program will not include employees and dependents who have diabetes. However, the MHealthy: Focus on Medicines project will include retirees with diabetes.
- Like the Focus on Diabetes project, the Focus on Medicines pilot project is part of a much broader health-improvement effort, the Michigan Healthy Community program, which encourages or promotes regular exercise and safe working environments and habits.
- This program is made possible by the fact that U-M provides a single prescription drug plan for its entire community of 80,000 faculty, staff, graduate students, retirees and dependents and survivors. Since January 2003, U-M has saved millions of dollars by offering a U-M-designed and funded prescription drug plan based on current medical evidence and administered by a commercial prescription drug benefit manager.
|
|
 |
|
