UnitedHealthcare plans to pay pharmacists in Ohio to deliver primary care to Medicaid patients, The Columbus Dispatch reports.
The health insurance giant told the Dispatch it plans to pay pharmacists to help patients better manage chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. The logic behind the plan is that keeping these populations healthy could free up hospital beds during the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce patients' overall medical expenses.
Ohio enacted a law in January 2019 that allows insurers to pay pharmacists as medical providers, but so far the Ohio Department of Medicaid hasn't created a provider code under which pharmacists can bill insurers, according to the Dispatch.
"We're watching [Gov. Mike DeWine's coronavirus] press conferences every day where they say they need all hands on deck. There's a green button waiting to be pushed, but it hasn't been pushed yet," Antonio Ciaccia, director of government and public affairs for the Ohio Pharmacists Association, told the Dispatch.
UnitedHealthcare told the Dispatch it also plans to develop a system under which pharmacists will be compensated for positive health outcomes.
Mike Roaldi, CEO of UnitedHealthcare's Community Plan of Ohio, told the Dispatch, "It's more likely people will engage with their overall health if they can sit down with somebody they know, somebody who knows their medications and their medical background."
UnitedHealthcare said it's planning to pay two Northeast Ohio pharmacies in underserved neighborhoods for time pharmacists spend consulting patients about their overall health, and that it will eventually expand the payment program across the state.
Read the full article here.