Pharmacy Intervention Protocol

In December of 2005, “An Employer’s Guide To Behavioral Health Services” was released by the National Business Group on Health and reported, “A significant proportion of individuals with behavioral health problems are treated exclusively in the general medical setting, which has become the de-facto mental healthcare system …significant quality problems have been found with general medical providers’ screening, treatment, and monitoring practices.”
 
Since the Guide’s release, numerous studies have only confirmed the findings presented (see media reporting).  One such study presented in the Interim Final Rules for the mental health parity act, which was published in the Federal Register on February 2, 2010, states, “…only 12.7% of individuals treated in the general medical sector received at least minimally adequate mental health care compared to 48.3% of patients treated in the specialty mental health sector.”

The following are recognized standards of care gaps occurring for the majority of individuals receiving mental health treatment (prescriptions for drugs) in the general medical setting:

• Lack of quality assessments of mental health problems
• Lack of ongoing screenings to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments
• Lack of medication management to determine most effective drug and/or dosage
• Lack of patient education about the condition(s) being treated
• Lack of medication monitoring to insure drug compliance
• Lack of psychotherapy for those dealing with mental health stressors
• Lack of feedback to patients regarding improvement in their condition

The above standards of care gaps are the result of little to no formalized mental health training for the majority of general medical providers, combined with a lack of time to effectively treat mental issues across almost all providers.  To improve standards of care for mental health treatment, there must be interventions with both the patient and the general medical provider (who is prescribing the medication) without increasing the time needed for said medical provider to improve the identified quality of care issues.  The filtering of target drug data is the most effective process to identify those patients most likely receiving sub-optimal mental health treatment in the general medical setting.  Once identified, patients must be financially motivated to participate in screenings and behavioral change relating to improved standards of care.

Our patented Pharmacy Intervention Protocol (PIP), utilizes a proprietary system to filter data from the PBM and identify target patients receiving prescriptions for certain psychotropic drugs from general medical providers.  Once identified, candidates for PIP are further financially motivated to participate in an evidenced-based program that applies recognized clinically appropriate standards of care to eliminate the above quality of care gaps. 

As documented in an article published in the Journal of Employee Assistance, PIP is proven to reduce costs and improve outcomes for individuals receiving prescriptions for mental health issues from general medical providers. 

For more information or a customized quote please contact us at:

10370 Richmond Ave. | Suite 1100 | Houston, Texas 77042
Phone: (713) 781-3364 | Fax: (713) 784-0425
Toll Free 800-324-4327
Email:info@ieap.com