A chance to reform health care is also a chance for some folks to make a case for a bigger share of the money sloshing around in the system.
The Chicago Tribune’s Bruce Japsen reports on Walgreen CEO Greg Wasson’s idea to turn his drugstore chain’s 25,000-plus pharmacists into coaches for patients — for a price.
Half of patients stop talking their medicine after four or five months. Those lapses cost the health system big bucks on care that could have been avoided. Wasson’s pitch: Pay my pharmacists to consult with patients and keep them on the right path.
Pharmacies get about $2 to $4 to dispense a prescription, but the cost, according to Walgreen, is more like $10 each. No estimate on the price tag for mobilizing pharmacists as patient coaches across the country, but a pilot test of the approach in diabetics saved money, the Tribune writes.
