Control Costs Clause Samples

Control Costs. As pharmacists, patients, and others on the team work together, patient health out- comes improve.13–17 Tracking progress and reporting outcomes ensures all members of the health care team involved in the patient’s care are aware of the impact of the collaborative efforts.18 Patients, providers, and payers receive appropriate incentives while collaborating to advance patients’ health. The Asheville Project, the Patient Self-Management Program for Diabetes (PSMP), and the Diabetes ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇ Challenge (DTCC) were efforts by self-insured employers to provide education and mentoring for employees with chronic health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Patients were enrolled in collaborative care programs that included a community pharmacist on their health care team.13–17 When the programs were assessed, researchers found the following benefits: Asheville: Average net savings of $1,622–$3,356 per person per year.13,14 PSMP: Average net savings of $918 per person per year.15 DTCC: Average net savings of $1,079 per person per year.16,17 Asheville: 50% average reduction in number of sick days.13,14 PSMP: 100% of study participants had their glycosylated hemoglobin (A1C) level tested; 94% of patients met the Health Plan Employer Data Information Set (HEDIS) goal of 7% or less for A1C level.15 DTCC: A1C and screening rates improved to 97%; 91% of patients achieved an A1C level that met the HEDIS goal.16,17 PSMP: 78% of patients received flu shots and 82% received foot exams.15 DTCC: 65% of patients received flu shots and 81% received foot exams.16,17 In the early 1980s, ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ Pharmacy, a locally owned community pharmacy in Minnesota, began entering into medication substitution agreements with local doc- tors. With the adoption and evolution of MTM services in the 1990s, ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ expanded to five sites around the Twin Cities by 2010. The pharmacy now provides extensive MTM and patient care services through CPAs for chronic disease care and patient education with the Anoka River Way Clinic. ▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, president of Goodrich Pharmacy, stated that “patient-focused collaborative care has improved as a result of closer relationships that we established with other health care providers.” Two to three patients are referred for MTM services each day. The majority of patients participate in the University of Minnesota’s employee health plan, UPlan, which provides MTM services at no cost to eligible patients. According to ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, univ...

Control Costs. As pharmacists, patients, and others on the team work together, patient health out- comes improve.13–17 Tracking progress and reporting outcomes ensures all members of the health care team involved in the patient’s care are aware of the impact of the collaborative efforts.18 Patients, providers, and payers receive appropriate incentives while collaborating to advance patients’ health. Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act (PL 111-5), incentive payments are specifically tied to achieving advancements in health care processes and out- comes, also called “meaningful use” criteria. Pharmacists and pharmacies are not listed as eligible providers for aid through these incentive programs, which may impact their use of EHRs and HIT. Providing incentives to pharmacists could increase their use of EHRs, making it easier to participate in CPAs. Successful CPAs include two core components: (1) appropriate incentives, which in turn are based on (2) meaningful process and outcome measures for all providers involved in patient care.6 A simple framework describes how this could be accom- plished (Figure 3): Align the incentives. Improve the outcomes. Control the costs. CPAs that bring together pharmacists and other providers depend on information being shared between all members of a health care team. Electronic health records (EHRs) and other health information technology (HIT) can support the expan- sion of this care model. Computer systems that can interact with each other and are integrated into current pharmacy and medical systems allow pharmacists to send and receive care notes, intervention records, lab and assessment values, and patient information. A 2011 survey of Nebraska pharmacists found that only 8% of respondents could access the EHRs used by their patients’ health care providers. In contrast, 80% thought they should be able to access these records.20 Integrated systems allow for better medication reconciliation, hospital discharge, transi- tions of care, coordinated billing for services, patient referrals, and understanding of patient health status.21

Control Costs. As pharmacists, patients, and others on the team work together, patient health out- comes improve.14–18 Tracking progress and reporting outcomes ensures all members of the health care team involved in the patient’s care are aware of the impact of the collaborative efforts.19 Patients, providers, and payers receive appropriate incentives while collaborating to advance patients’ health. The Asheville Project, the Patient Self-Management Program for Diabetes (PSMP), and the Diabetes ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇ Challenge (DTCC) were efforts by self-insured employers to provide education and mentoring for employees with chronic health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Patients were enrolled in collaborative care programs that included a community pharmacist on their health care team.14–18 When the programs were assessed, researchers found the following benefits: Asheville: Average net savings of $1,622–$3,356 per person per year.14,15 PSMP: Average net savings of $918 per person per year.16 DTCC: Average net savings of $1,079 per person per year.17,18 Asheville: 50% average reduction in number of sick days.14,15 PSMP: 100% of study participants had their glycosylated hemoglobin (A1C) level tested; 94% met the Health Plan Employer Data Information Set (HEDIS) goal of 7% or less for A1C.16

Control Costs. Controlling costs is the final step in our project cost management process, on that is primarily concerned with the measurement of variances of the actual costs from the proposed baseline. Various methods and procedures are implemented here to track the project performance and expenses against its progress rate. Meanwhile, all these variances are recorded and compared with the actual cost baseline. The control costs process is responsible for explaining the reason for a variance and further assists our Project Manager in taking corrective actions to incur minimal costs and control the entire project’s expenses to close it within the agreed budget.