Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care—Different Payment Models

On 1 October 2020, Ilaria was invited as a speaker to the Special Interest Group (SIG) International of the Royal Dutch Pharmacists Association (Koninklijke Nederlandse Maatschappij ter bevordering der Pharmacie, KNMP).

In response to rising health care costs, ageing population with increased multimorbidity, and avoidable hospitalizations due to adverse drug reactions (ADRs) the role of community pharmacists is becoming increasingly important to counsel patients, ensure a safer use of medicines, improve clinical outcomes, integrate with other health providers, and increase health education among patients.

Many countries face the challenge to better reward community pharmacists for their daily work. In the Netherlands, community pharmacists are remunerated on a fee-for-service basis that funds the number of prescriptions dispensed but does not reward quality.

Alternative payment methods that fund quality-linked interventions by pharmacists—think of patient counseling, improved medicines adherence, the provision of medicines in dose administration aids, etc.—are not yet widespread with few exceptions in North Carolina (USA) and Australia.

Ilaria’s presentation sheds light on alternative payment methods in community pharmacy such as pay-for-performance (P4P) that may reward structure, process, and outcomes with the ultimate goal to improve quality. For more information, please contact info@tagliente.nl