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03/28/2024 06:05 AM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20170&cosponId=23351
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: March 21, 2017 06:13 PM
From: Senator Michele Brooks
To: All Senate members
Subject: Updates to the PACE Program and Pharmacy Modernization
 
In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation which would amend the State Lottery Law in order to make important changes to the PACE program.

This bill directs the PACE program to present a plan to the General Assembly to implement Medication Therapy Management (MTM), and provides authorization to provide Medication Synchronization for seniors. Additionally, this piece of legislation would exclude both veterans’ benefits as well as savings bonds when determining financial eligibility for PACE or PACENET.

The Department of Aging would have one year to present a plan to implement MTM in the PACE program using community pharmacies. Under MTM, a patient’s pharmacist would work face-to-face with the patient to complete comprehensive medication review as well as consult with their various prescribers, carefully checking for duplicative medications and possible drug interactions. The pharmacist would also consult the patient to determine their adherence to their drug regimen and provide patient education aimed at improving their compliance. MTM is already offered under Medicare Part D, so allowing it in PACE would make it consistent. There is clear evidence that MTM improves health and brings down program costs. The MTM program in Ohio Medicaid saw a $2.17 return on investment for every $1 spent in its second year.

Medication Synchronization would allow pharmacists to review multiple patient prescriptions and dispense partial refills with a goal of synchronizing all their monthly prescriptions so they can be picked up once a month. Not only will this improve seniors’ medication adherence, it would also save them multiple trips to the pharmacy.

Finally, the Department of Aging has a Pharmaceutical Assistance Review Board which is being changed to an advisory board. This legislation will reinvigorate the board, make additional changes to the membership and enhance their current advisory capacity.

This legislation has the support of both the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association and the Pennsylvania Association of Chain Drug Stores.

Please join me in cosponsoring this piece of legislation.



Introduced as SB789