Financial implications of pharmacist-led Medicare annual wellness visits

Assessing pharmacist-led annual wellness visits: Interventions made and patient and physician satisfaction

“…The implementation of pharmacist-led AWVs at MA-HEC was described previously. 7 Briefly, one pharmacist piloted the AWV clinic in April 2012 for three faculty physicians. The success of this pilot led to the expansion of services to include all patients in November 2012.…”

“…3 Research has begun to explore the feasibility of alternative care models in which the AWV is led by nonphysician health professionals, including pharmacists. [4][5][6][7] Preliminary work has described the pharmacistled AWV and demonstrated the financial implications of the AWV for pharmacists in primary care settings. [5][6][7] Park et al showed that AWVs provide a way for pharmacists to support their salary in a physician's office.…”

The Integral Role of the Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner in Primary Care

“…It is feasible for practices to cover the cost of the pharmacist by utilizing them for AWV visits. Pharmacists should complete 1,070 AWVs annually to cover the cost of their salary, which is approximately 40% of the pharmacist's time in clinic if seeing patients full-time [12]. The remaining time could be used for population health initiatives that are important focus areas of the practice but which yield lower reimbursement rates [12].…”

“…Because pharmacists are not yet recognized as providers by Medicare, billing is frequently limited to level 1 (ie, nurse) visits [20]. Utilizing pharmacists in AWVs can offset the cost of the pharmacist while also improving quality metrics [11,12], and incorporating pharmacists into tranNye sidebar continued sitions of care visits can decrease hospital readmissions [13,14]. Although reimbursement of pharmacists for services is beyond the scope of this article, the reader is referred to the textbook, Building a Successful Ambulatory Care Practice: a Complete Guide for Pharmacists [21].…”

A model to inform community pharmacy's collaboration in outpatient care

“…[2][3][4] The benefits of including pharmacists on the patient care team are abundant. A systematic review of more than 200 studies shows pharmacist-provided direct patient care is favorable for therapeutic, safety, and humanistic outcomes.…”