Prescription Drugs Clinical Improvement Team Phase 1 and Phase 2 Final Reports

The use of prescription drugs is an important part of health care for many patients. For employers and consumers alike, the percentage of the health care dollar spent on prescription drugs is sizeable and growing.

Patients save about $8 to $10 billion a year by buying generic instead of brand-name drugs. Generic prescription drugs have the same chemical composition and, for most people, work as well as brand-name drugs.  They usually cost less than their brand-name counterparts. When their drugs are more affordable, patients are more likely to complete not only a short-term course of drug treatment but also a long-term course, such as for a chronic disease, resulting in better outcomes and avoidance of costly complications.

Report Summary

The Prescription Drugs Clinical Improvement Team, made up of local medical, pharmacy and other health care professionals, has completed its Phase I & II recommendations, which explore ways to improve the quality and affordability of care by:

1. Identifying drugs or prescribing patterns where there is strong evidence of widespread overuse, under-use, or misuse, and recommending opportunities for change that achieve significant improvements in quality or reductions in costs;

2. Providing advice on ways to align prescription-drug-related quality improvement and financial incentives for physicians and other providers, patients, employers, and health plans; and

3. Identifying barriers to change and developing recommendations for how each can be overcome in a timely manner.

The Phase 1 report on clinical improvement for pharmaceuticals includes recommendations for increasing the percentage of prescriptions filled with generics rather than brand-name drugs, particularly in categories where a larger number of patients have been prescribed drugs for which equally effective and less costly generics are available. The Alliance promotes to physicians and consumers alike the value of choosing generics in the following drug categories:

• Cholesterol lowering agents (statins)
• Antidepressants (SSRIs or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors)
• Gastric acid secretion reducers (PPIs or proton pump inhibitors)
• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)

The report also includes other recommendations, such as for encouraging medical clinics and hospitals to adopt policies to reduce the influence of pharmaceutical companies on physicians. Such policies would restrict or eliminate drug company sales visits in facilities where patient care is provided, and reduce or eliminate the distribution of free, brand-name drug samples in their practices.  In addition, the Alliance encourages physicians and patients to eliminate the inappropriate prescribing and use of antibiotics.

The Phase 2 report on clinical improvement for pharmaceuticals includes recommendations for high-value prescribing within the four drug classes listed above, with specific recommendations for patients, providers, and other stakeholders. It also lays out data on generic fill rates for the Puget Sound region, along with targets for each of the drug classes based on the characteristics of the drugs available in each class, describes barriers to patient adherence, and outlines potential strategies to overcome these barriers.

To Order These Reports    

Alliance Participants: download these reports from the secure Participant-only section of this website.

All Others: contact the Alliance and enter "Prescription Drugs Clinical Improvement Team Phase 1 and Phase 2 Final Reports" in the Comments section of the contact us form.  A .pdf file of this report will be sent via return email.

Other Clinical Improvement Team Reports

• Asthma
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Heart Disease
• Low Back Pain
• Prevention

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