Coming Attraction: You Get What You Pay For: Will ACOs Underuse Drugs?

Exactly one month from today, the National Pharmaceutical Council will host a pre-conference educational symposium on one of the most buzzed-about topics in health care—accountable care organizations (ACOs)—at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research’s (ISPOR) 19th Annual International Meeting in Montreal.

ACOs—which are “groups of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care to the patients they serve”—are expected to improve the quality of patient care and reduce overall costs. However, research shows that ACOs have not yet developed the capabilities they need to leverage optimal medication use to achieve those goals.   

In particular, accountable care quality measures focus on a limited number of conditions and do not include those where medications are costly. Where are there gaps that could leave patients vulnerable to mismanagement and suboptimal care? Are current measurement methodologies reliable? Have providers reached the saturation point of how much they can measure? What are possible solutions? What is the call to action for the research community?

Experts will address the answers to those questions during the educational symposium, “You Get What You Pay For: Will ACOs Underuse Drugs?” on Sunday, June 1, at 5:15 pm in Room 518abc.

Featured speakers include:

• Tom Valuck, MD, JD, partner, Discern Health
• Robert Epstein, MD, MS, president & CEO, Epstein Health, LLC
• Andrew Baskin, MD, national medical director, Quality and Provider Performance Measurement, Aetna
• Kimberly Westrich, MA, director, health services research, NPC (moderator)

NPC also will participate in a number of panel presentations and poster sessions at the ISPOR meeting, as well as host an exhibition booth (#57). Check out our schedule of events and plan to join us at the ISPOR meeting.