AJMC® in the Press, July 19, 2019

A report from the US Government Accountability Office cited 3 studies published in The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®) about medication synchronization. The study “Cost-Benefit of Appointment-Based Medication Synchronization in Community Pharmacies” conducted a cost-benefit analysis of appointment-based medication synchronization for improving adherence in patients on chronic medications for hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. The study “Synchronized Prescription Refills and Medication Adherence: A Retrospective Claims Analysis” showed that refill schedules were associated with better medication adherence among Medicare Advantage patients taking multiple maintenance medications, and the study “Prevalence, Effectiveness, and Characteristics of Pharmacy-Based Medication Synchronization Programs” evaluated the prevalence, structure, and key features of pharmacy-based programs to synchronize prescription fill dates.

Skilled Nursing News’ article on bundled payments referred to the AJMC^®-published study “Medicare’s Bundled Payment Model Did Not Change Skilled Nursing Facility Discharge Patterns,” which found that participation in the model was not associated with changes in the number of skilled nursing facility partners or in discharge concentration relative to hospitals not participating in the model.

The AJMC^®-published study “Real-Time Video Detection of Falls in Dementia Care Facility and Reduced Emergency Care” was cited by Aithority’s article on artificial intelligence—enabled fall detection. The study found that SafelyYou’s artificial intelligence–enabled video fall detection system using visual science reduced emergency department visits by 80% in 6 communities over 3 months. The article was also highlighted by McKnight’s Senior Living.

Buffalo Business First referenced an AJMC^® interview with Sanjeev Arora, MD, FACG, MACP, director and founder of Project ECHO and a professor of medicine at University of New Mexico, in a piece on telehealth. During the interview, Arora discussed the origins of Project ECHO, which he said was based on the idea that patients should not be dying from curable diseases because they don’t have access to the right providers.

The National Pharmaceutical Council’s Monday CER Daily Newsfeed included AJMC^®’s interview with Devin Incerti, PhD, lead economist, Innovation and Value Initiative, in which he discussed the use of value assessments to maximize the well-being of a population. Thursday’s newsfeed included the AJMC^® study “Insurers’ Perspective on MA Value-Based Insurance Design Model,” which describes perspectives of Medicare Advantage insurers about participating in the CMS value-based insurance design model test that launched in 2017.