Missouri | Utah | Oklahoma | Michigan | Arkansas | Colorado | New Jersey
“The partnership is a model for reducing hospitalizations, containing pharmacy costs, improving prescribing practices, and maintaining open access to psychiatric medications through collaboration and education.”
—Joseph Parks, MD, director of the Division of Comprehensive Psychiatric Services and chief clinical officer, Missouri Department of Mental Health
Missouri
The first BPM program, which took place in Missouri, not only decreased the number of hospital admissions for participants, but it also allowed Missouri to save $7.7 million in costs the Medicaid program would have incurred in state fiscal year 2004 had the inefficient prescribing patterns not been identified.
More than 1,900 Medicaid recipients whose physicians received notification of at least one of the program’s quality indicators during two consecutive mailings were used for an analysis of the program. Individuals similar to those patients were selected for the comparison group. Researchers compared a number of factors six months pre intervention and six months post intervention. The researchers found1:
- A 1,813 decrease in total hospital days for all cases in the intervention group compared to a 688 decrease in the comparison group
- Hospital admissions for those in the intervention group decreased by 43 percent, compared to a 1 percent decrease in the comparison group
- A $1,238 decrease in cost per person for the intervention group compared to a $312 decrease in the comparison group
Each BPM program is customized to meet the needs of the participating state; therefore, data varies accordingly.
¹[No Authors Listed]. National Pharmacy Initiative Helps States Improve Care for Medicaid Patients. Mental Health Weekly. 4 June 2007; 17: 1, 6-7.
