FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What is the Patient Center Medical Home?

• An approach to providing comprehensive care for all people of all ages and medical conditions
• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) introduced the medical home concept in1967
• In February 2007, the AAP, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and the American College of Physicians (ACP) used this  40 year old concept to develop a new set of joint principles that describes a new level of primary care
• Care is coordinated across all elements of the patient’s community included in the healthcare system – hospitals, nursing homes, consultants etc.
• Quality and safety are hallmarks of the PCMH
• *Information technology is utilized appropriately to support optimal patient care, performance measurement, patient education, and enhanced communication

2. Why are the core tenets of the Obama Healthcare Reform Plan?

• Lower costs to make out healthcare system work for people and business – not just insurance companies
  • Invest in electronic health information technology systems
  • Improve access to prevention and proven disease management programs
  • Coordinate and integrate care
  • Require full transparency regarding quality and costs
  • Guaranteed eligibility
  • New, affordable, accessible health insurance options
  • Tax credits for families and small businesses
  • Employer contribution
  • Require coverage of children
  • Expansion of Medicaid and SCHIP
• Ensure providers deliver quality care

  Promote patient safety

  Align incentives for excellence

  Comparative effectiveness reviews and research

  Tackle disparities in healthcare

• Reform medical malpractice while preserving patient rights
• Lower costs by taking anticompetitive actions in the drug and insurance companies
• Increasing competition in the insurance industry
• Prevent private insurance waste and abuse in Medicare
• Allow consumers to import safe drugs from other countries
• Prevent drug companies from blocking generic drugs from consumers
• Allow Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices
• Reduce costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and their employees
• Promoting Prevention and Strengthening Public Health
• Employers, school systems, workforce, individuals and families, and federal, state, and local governments

3.  How does the Mission/Vision of ABHP align with Healthcare Reform?

• Since 1978, the Association of Black Health-System Pharmacists (ABHP) has demonstrated a commitment to attacking healthcare disparities and advancing healthcare reform by educating pharmacists and other healthcare providers about our expanding roles and responsibilities in the healthcare environment.  Our mission, vision, and goals all center around promoting Collaboration, Leadership, Education, Advocacy, and Research (CLEAR) that improves the health status and quality of life of black, minority, and underserved patients.  As a leader in the fight against healthcare disparities, ABHP should be included in future conversations related to addressing this long-standing problem in healthcare.

• In 2009, there still exist socially constructed institutionalized barriers that lead to increased health concerns among populations of color and poor communities. Access to transportation, quality education, medications, and other macro-level social and economic forces influence the health disparities that exist throughout the United States. These disparities suggest that community members, public health practitioners, pharmacists, physicians, researchers, educators, and industry officials must all come together in order to better understand and address socially constructed threats to public health. We wish to assist you in effecting change in Washington, and ensuring that pharmacists are used as vehicles for true healthcare reform, particularly in the management of chronic conditions.

4. Is there a published article addressing Healthcare Disparities related to Pharmaceutical Care?

• ABHP has shed light on the issue for a number of years and worked with the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists in spurring the development of the ASHP Statement on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Heath Care published in Am J Health-Syst Pharm Vol 65 April 15, 2008.  This document outlines the leadership role that pharmacists play in building culturally competent systems of care to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare.

5. What is the role of the Pharmacist in the Patient Centered Medical Home?

• Pharmacists are a highly trained and valuable resource. Many are certified and have training in specialty areas such as cardiovascular care, diabetes, and asthma, yet they are currently underutilized.  Health care reform discussions should focus, in part, on strategies to maximize efficiency and safety of drug distribution and collaborative disease management with physicians, while providing patients with access to the full benefit of pharmacist-provided patient care services to achieve better health care.
• The integration of pharmacist services, through advance disease management applications, into the care coordination role of the Medical Home will optimize therapeutic outcomes and reduce the risk of adverse events from medication therapy.  Health care reform provides an opportunity to advance these goals.

6.  What positions have national pharmacy organizations taken related to Healthcare Reform?

• A group of national pharmacy organizations along with retail drug chains developed the Pharmacy Principles for Healthcare Reform statement in December 2008.  In this statement, they support the following reform principles:
• Pharmacists can improve quality and safety of medication use
• Patient access to needed medications and pharmacy services should be assured
• Pharmacy and health information technology interoperability should be promoted
• ABHP agrees with these principles.

7. What position has ABHP taken related to the Obama Healthcare Reform tenets and other national pharmacy organization positions on Healthcare Reform?

• We have reviewed the Obama Administration’s plans for Healthcare Reform as well as those created by other medical, nursing, and pharmacy organizations.  There are numerous issues that have been addressed quite successfully within the plans.  Our association has developed an addendum to these plans, PHARMACISTS KEY PRINCIPLES FOR HEALTHCARE REFORM, which outlines the role of the pharmacist in mounting a successful attack on healthcare disparities in a cost-effective and patient-centered way. This statement has also been endorsed by the National Pharmaceutical Association. 
• In order for your constituency, the American public, and the healthcare system to realize these benefits, we need your invitation to bring our ideas, insight, and passion for tackling healthcare disparities to your aid.  We are certain that this collaboration will result in real reforms.  In the future, we would ask that ABHP be included in discussions, summits, and forums addressing healthcare disparities as a part of healthcare reform, and that ABHP be sought to provide input and counsel as needed.