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Blister Packaging Yields Patient, Healthcare Benefits: Part II

Holyoke Health Center has transitioned to more advanced blister packaging that provides printed details in both English and Spanish, with pictorials for those who cannot read.

The back cover of a Holyoke blister card.
The back cover of a Holyoke blister card.

Lori Lewicki, RPh, and Holyoke Health Center Pharmacy Director, explains, “Family members or medical practitioners refer patients to the Med Box program. Often times if a son or daughter can't handle their mom or dad's meds, they can be referred to an HHC medical assistant or nurse because it’s difficult for the patient to be compliant when they may be on 15 or 20 daily medications and can’t handle them. In order to get on Med Box packaging we make sure that they go through an MTM visit first. We then follow up on a regular basis to make sure they’re remaining compliant with their medications through the program.”

More than 800 patients are now on the Med Box program. “We’re planning to ramp that up because we're doing a study with a senior care option plan called CCA that has 200 of their patients on Med Box. They would like all of their patients on Med Box.”

The study aims to determine if participating in the plan will affect medical claims. In other words, does compliance packaging lead to decreased emergency room visits, fewer hospital admissions, etc.

“About two years ago we conducted a pilot study with primary care payment reform initiative (PCPRI) patients with the state of Massachusetts,” Lewicki explains. “And while it only involved a very small group of patients, we were able to see that after 240 days on the Med Box plan, we saved over $100,000 to medical claims systems, and that was with only six people. That's why we’re doing this larger study with 114 of CCA’s who were included in this cohort.”

HHC is also combining with other health centers to form an ACO, or accountable care organization for the state. “We are their pilot program. They'll be able to really take a look at how we can save in the medical claims field,” she says.

Especially promising, notes Lewicki, “is that my CEO, Jay Berines, wants every patient on a Med Box compliance package. We’re also considering its use with local schools and with nearby senior housing projects to help make sure all the seniors have their meds in compliance packaging to start. Jay is really a visionary and sees the value in Med Box. We just increased the size of our pharmacy by 40%, which includes two MTM rooms for clinical services as well as two separate pick-up areas for the compliance packaging because it takes a little longer to counsel those patients on how to use the packaging.

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