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To control expenditures and use medications appropriately, the Medicare drug coverage program has established pharmacy utilization management (PUM) measures. This article assesses the effects of these strategies on the care of seniors. The literature suggests that although caps on drug benefits lower pharmaceutical costs, they may also increase the use of other health care services and hurt health outcomes. Our review raises concerns regarding the potential unintended effects of the Medicare drug program's PUM policies for beneficiaries. Therefore, the economic and clinical impact of PUM measures on seniors should be studied further to help policymakers design better drug benefit plans.
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Quarterly claims data on 43 insured groups were analyzed through multivariate techniques to explore whether the effects of hospital inpatient utilization review vary across selected broad diagnostic areas. Findings suggest that utilization review was associated with decreases in expenditures of approximately 15 percent for diagnoses within the surgical area, a lesser decrease within the mental health area, and still lesser decrease within the medical area. However, these measurements are imprecise both because of the small numbers and the aggregated diagnoses in each category.
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Balancing increased spending for specialty pharmaceuticals while providing affordable and equitable coverage for consumers is a key issue for public and private payers. Health plans rely on an array of strategies, including both medical management and those used for more traditional pharmaceuticals. To explore specific management strategies for outpatient specialty pharmaceuticals, a survey was administered to thirty-eight Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, focused on identifying core strategies. Prior authorization was the most commonly used strategy, implemented by 83.3 percent of respondents. Other frequently implemented management strategies included claims review (82.8 percent), formulary management (76.7 percent), and utilization review (70 percent).
Increasingly, utilization review activities arising out of the cost containment concerns of third-party payers and the business community are becoming a factor in the health care delivery process. The author focuses on the potential liability of the physician and the utilization review organization when a patient suffers injury following a disagreement about treatment and urges the physician to deliver necessary services according to his or her medical judgments, not the judgement of the utilization review organization.
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