GoodRx Boosts Billions in Savings for American Consumers; Epic Systems Gains Traction in Population Health Management Technology

June 24, 2021 - In perhaps a wake-up call to pharmaceutical companies, pharmacy benefit managers, and payers, data from GoodRx shows that its platform has generated $30 billion in savings for consumers to date. In other news, Epic Systems continues to gain ground in the population health management space.

GoodRx Saves Consumers Billions on Prescription Drugs

Consumers have saved nearly $30 billion on their prescription drug costs to date with prices found on the GoodRx platform, the company said in a report.

In 2020, GoodRx users saved an average of 79 percent off retail prescription drug prices for the 100 most purchased medications, based on the pharmacies’ usual and customary prices.

Consumers purchasing diabetes medications saved an average of 37 percent on the retail price of these drugs. Similar discounts saved patients nearly 84 percent off the price of high cholesterol medication and an average of 72 percent off the price of hypertension medication.  Patients also saved an average of 82 percent off medications to treat depression and 70 percent off medications to treat anxiety. READ MORE

Epic Systems Among Leaders in Population Health Management Tech

In a report by KLAS Research evaluating 15 different vendors, Arcadia, Epic, and Innovaccer are highlighted as the most well-rounded leaders in population health management to date.

The KLAS report provides insight into the major population health management technology that is currently offered. This includes the types of organizations that use population health management systems, highlighting what the customer experience is like, which solutions are seeing the most market energy, and the breadth of their population health management capabilities, all areas that Arcadia, Epic, and Innovaccer excelled in.

When looking specifically at the vendors that are seeing the most market energy, the KLAS report ranks the most-well rounded leaders as Arcadia, with Innovaccer following and Epic coming in at third.

Prevailing Lack of Lung Screenings Among Eligible Seniors

Seniors who do not have coverage for lung cancer screenings as a preventive service are less likely to receive the screening, a recent study from Epic Health Research Network (EHRN) found.

EHRN leveraged data through Cosmos, a HIPAA Defined Limited Data Set that retrieves data from Epic consumers. The data represented almost 333,000 Medicare beneficiaries who were eligible for lunch cancer screenings and over 28,500 Medicaid beneficiaries between 55 and 65 years of age.

Over 7,600 Medicaid beneficiaries (15.7%) received a screening, leaving approximately 84 percent that did not. Nearly 41,500 (12.5%) of the Medicare beneficiaries received the screening. Over 292,400 Medicare beneficiaries who were eligible for a lung cancer screening (87.1% of eligible patients) did not get screened. READ MORE

LifePoint Health to Acquire Kindred Health for Post-Acute Care

LifePoint Health is seeking to bolster its post-acute care network by acquiring Louisville, Kentucky-based Kindred Healthcare in a health system merger deal slated to close at the end of this year.

The two organizations entered a definitive agreement earlier this week that would bring Kindred Health’s range of facilities, including long-term acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, acute rehabilitation units, and its behavioral health unit, under the LifePoint Health umbrella.

The organizations did not disclose how much LifePoint will acquire Kindred Healthcare’s facilities for but LifePoint did say it will invest $1.5 billion over the next three years to improve care in the communities the combined organization will service. READ MORE

Pennsylvania Blue Issues Grants for RPM, Telehealth Expansion

Independence Blue Cross is issuing grants to support the expansion of three Penn Medicine Programs that aim to improve patient care through remote patient monitoring and telehealth channels.

One of the projects is an RPM program targeted at patients who’ve had acute events related to heart disease. A second program receiving an IBC grant is Penny, an automated text messaging system designed to help patients who are taking complicated oral chemotherapy treatments at home. The third project is LiveAware, a connected health platform designed to improve on-time imaging-based screening rates for cancer, help clinicians select patients eligible for screening and improve outcomes.

The support comes at a critical time for providers looking to expand their care footprint while awaiting guidance from Congress on long-term telehealth policy and more reimbursement opportunities from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. READ MORE

United Hospital Fund Creates Tool for Chronic Disease Management

United Hospital Fund has unveiled the prototype of an online dashboard targeting patient-provider communication and appointment agenda-setting, the organization announced in an emailed press release.

Particularly, How’s My Health Dashboard facilitates both patient access to clinical notes and provider access to patient-generated health data and information, something that current health IT solutions cannot do. This should improve patient-provider communication and shared decision-making in chronic disease management.

“Too often in health care, life-determining decisions are made without patients and their doctors sharing critical information,” said UHF president Anthony Shih, MD. “Chronic conditions need to be co-managed, and this digital tool could help clinicians realize that goal.” READ MORE