APhA pushes medication adherence
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) receives letter, co-signed by APhA, urging
the inclusion of medication adherence in health care reform
legislation.
APhA was one of the signatories to a July 17 letter urging Rep. Henry
Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to
include medication adherence initiatives when refining upcoming health
reform legislation efforts. Cosigned by a number of
stakeholders, the
letter linked improved patient health and controlled health
care costs with effective prevention and chronic care management.
“The health system is spending upwards of $300 billion on
unnecessary hospital (re-) admissions, visits to health care
practitioners, and costly advanced treatments,” it continued.
“Through simple initiatives that promote adherence such as
employer- or community- based counseling programs, incentives within the
health care system, reminder systems, and broad-based public education,
we can potentially save thousands of dollars per patient
annually.”
As Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Waxman heads what many
consider to be the key committee in deciding the fate of health care
reform in the next few weeks. Absent the votes he needs to pass a
bill out of his committee, House leadership is considering skipping his
committee and taking the bill straight to the floor of the
House. Waxman isn’t new to the political process. He
has been consistently active in health-related legislation during his 34
years in Congress, sponsoring numerous bills, including: the
Ryan White CARE Act, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, the
Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Prevention Act, the Safe Medical
Devices Act, the Patent Term Restoration and Drug Competition Act, and
the Orphan Drug Act. He has also authored laws to improve the quality of
nursing homes and home health services and has helped to set policy for
childhood immunization programs, vaccine compensation, tobacco education
programs, communicable disease research, community and migrant health
centers, maternal and child health care, family planning centers, health
maintenance organizations, and drug regulation and reform.
Related resources on www.pharmacist.com
Beth Farnstrom (bfarnstrom)
Posted July 27 2009, 10:30 am EDT
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