Patients filling oral chemotherapy prescriptions at health system specialty pharmacies (HSSPs) experienced significantly shorter time to treatment and higher rates of adherence than patients filling prescriptions at outside specialty pharmacies, according to study findings presented at the 2021 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.

Researchers conducted a retrospective chart review using electronic records from 100 patients. Fifty patients filled their oral chemotherapy prescriptions at Cedars Sinai Medical Center (CSMC) specialty pharmacies, and the other 50 patients filled medications at outside specialty pharmacies.

“With the current vertical integration of health plans and pharmacy benefit managers [PBMs] increasing their dominance over specialty dispensing channels, HSSPs are often excluded from specialty networks,” researchers noted. “Pharmacist-led medication therapy management services are crucial to provide patient education, monitoring of medication adherence and adverse effect management.”

Compared to those in the outside specialty pharmacies group, patients in the CSMC group had “significantly shorter” time to treatment (4 days vs 9.5 days, respectively [P<.0026]) and a higher proportion of days covered (99.5% vs 91%, respectively [P<.0005]).

Secondary endpoints were drug-related problems and treatment-related emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. Pharmacists resolved 31 drug-related problems (19 serious and 1 life-threatening) in the CSMC group and 23 drug-related problems (12 serious and 1 life-threatening) in the outside specialty pharmacy group. No patients in either group required ED visits or hospitalizations.

Authors wrote, “Potential pharmacist-interventions could have led to optimized and safer medication therapy if filled at a HSSP,” instead of an outside specialty pharmacy.

“Continued research comparing treatment outcomes and interventions made between HSSPs and [outside specialty pharmacies] can create a strong argument for health plans and PBMs to consider inclusion of HSSPs into their specialty networks,” researchers concluded.

Reference:
Sheikh T, Wu C, Kalfayan N, et al. Health-system specialty pharmacy impact on oral chemotherapy outcomes. J Clin Oncol. 2021;39(suppl 28; abstr 240). doi:10.1200/JCO.2020.39.28_suppl.240