Pharmacists treating hypertension could save health system $1.1 trillion
This could also improve outcomes for racial and ethnic minority groups, who generally have higher rates of hypertension.
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The U.S. healthcare system could stand to save more than $1.1 trillion over the next 30 years, while preventing roughly 15 million heart attacks, if pharmacists were more involved in treating hypertension, according to research from Virginia Commonwealth University.
The savings would translate to about $10,162 per patient, the results show. And patients could regain 30 million "quality-adjusted life years," years in which their quality of life is markedly higher than it would have been had they experienced a health emergency.
Primarily, the savings would come from preventative measures, including helping patients better manage their blood pressure, educating them on high blood pressure and prescribing antihypertensive medication.
In addition to signaling a likely reduction in cardiac emergencies, this could also improve outcomes for racial and ethnic minority groups. Citing a 2020 study in Hypertension, authors said that for people 35-64, Black patients had the highest rates of death due to hypertension of any racial group in the country. They said pharmacist-led interventions have been shown to greatly improve blood pressure control among Black and other minority patients.
On top of preventing more than 15 million heart attacks, such an approach could also prevent close to eight million strokes and more than four million cases of angina and heart failure over the course of 30 years.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT?
More than 95% of Americans live within five miles of a community pharmacy, a 2022 study in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association found. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, patients visit their community pharmacist 12 times more frequently than their primary care provider.
While most states currently give pharmacists prescribing privileges, current federal law makes it challenging for pharmacists to receive reimbursement for clinical services, authors said. Although they have at least some form of prescribing privileges in 49 states and Washington, D.C., they're not recognized as providers under the Social Security Act.
THE LARGER TREND
This year, as part of a broader effort to improve access to maternal health services, the CVS Health Foundation awarded the American Heart Association $1 million over two years to help address hypertension, which it called "a key risk factor in the most common killer of new mothers."
The program will link women and healthcare providers to hypertension education, monitoring and treatment during pregnancy and postpartum. It will use strategies, including doula-mediated referrals, to increase the percentage of Black birthing people with controlled hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and postpartum in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and Orlando, Florida.
Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: Jeff.Lagasse@himssmedia.com
