Dr Robert Gluckman Discusses Relationship Between Pharmacists and Medicine

In an interview regarding the Newport Beach Institute for Value Based Medicine® conference, Robert Gluckman, MD, MACP, chief medical officer, Providence Health Plan, talked about what he wanted the key takeaways to be as well as how Providence Health Plan reduces cost in medicine and pharmacist interactions.

Transcript

What do you think the role of Providence Health Plan is in making medicine and pharmacist interactions cost-effective?

So one of the things we've done at Providence Health Plan has actually helped support providers, especially primary care practices, with embedded pharmacists. So that can help facilitate ensuring that providers are prescribing effective care, but also informing those providers around payer policy, so that we can reduce the abrasion around denials and make sure that patients can get the care they need as quickly as possible.

What do you want attendees to take away from the IVBM?

I think the biggest thing I wanted people to take away is there is so much opportunity and benefit for the new advances that pharmacy is bringing to the market. And at the same time, we also have this incredible responsibility on how to make things affordable for people. It's going to take a lot of creativity to think about how we're able to bring some of these really important advances but do it in a way that's responsible for society.