CVS Caremark Study of Newly Diagnosed Diabetes Patients Finds Physicians Do Not Consistently Follow ADA Recommended Guidelines for Prescribing Medications

WOONSOCKET, R.I., Feb. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A new CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) study has found that physicians in 35 percent of cases involving more than 250,000 newly diagnosed diabetes patients did not follow the American Diabetes Association/European Association for the Study of Diabetes consensus guidelines for recommended treatment. In addition to the quality of care implications, because those guidelines recommend use of generic medications rather than more expensive branded medications, patients, payors and the health care system could be paying an additional $420 million annually for the newly initiated treatment, the researchers said.

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The study was conducted by researchers from CVS Caremark, Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital and was published this week in the American Journal of Medicine. The review looked at pharmacy claims of 254,000 patients who were newly started on a diabetes medication between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2008. The research found more than a third of initial treatment regimens for diabetes did not include the ADA's recommended first-line drug, which is a generic. "While 65 percent of the patients we studied received care consistent with the ADA consensus statements, our results highlight remaining gaps between practice recommendations and contemporary pharmacotherapy for diabetes mellitus (Type-2)," researchers wrote in the study.  

"We felt it was important to look at how the guidelines were being followed to review the quality of care for patients with diabetes who were newly initiating drug therapy. However, because the guidelines recommend generics as a way to provide cost-effective quality care, the economics of this review were impossible to ignore. That makes this study the first, to our knowledge, to define the fiscal implications of therapeutic choices in a large population of patients with diabetes," said Niteesh K. Choudhry MD, PhD, Associate Physician in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study.

Choudhry added, "With approximately two million new cases of diabetes each year, if the medication patterns and insurance coverage for our cohort is representative of the U.S. population, an excess expenditure of $1,120 per patient per year would translate to more than $420 million in additional direct medication costs for diabetes therapy outside the established consensus guideline recommendations. Because the prevalence of diabetes is increasing quite dramatically, the potential savings from improved adherence to these recommendations could far exceed these estimates."

"We found significant variability in clinical practice for treating patients with diabetes," said Troyen A. Brenan, CVS Caremark executive vice president and chief medical officer and head of the research initiative with Harvard and Brigham and Women's. "As we look for ways to rein in the cost of health care, we need to look at how physicians apply practices such as the ADA-recommended consensus guidelines because they align clinical effectiveness with cost-effective prescribing."

Diabetes Type-2 has emerged as one of the most significant health issues worldwide. In the U.S. more than 20 million people have diabetes and the number of Americans with the disease is expected to increase by 165 percent by 2050. In the U.S., treatment of the disease is estimated to cost $200 billion annually.

The researchers reviewed how doctors are treating newly diagnosed patients through an intensive review of CVS Caremark's claims data to learn more about the clinical practices for those patients who are prescribed oral medications as part of their treatment. Because there is substantial price difference between generic and branded medications, the researchers said a look at the economics of treatment was in order. The pharmacy claims they reviewed showed those being treated with generics spent an average of $116.10 over six months, compared to $677.20 for the more expensive therapies. That is a difference of $560 per patient for six months, or $1,120 per patient per year.

CVS Caremark has been working with Harvard and Brigham and Women's to assist in the research of ways to improve pharmacy care. The collaboration, which has been in place for the past three years, has resulted in more than 20 published peer-reviewed articles about patient medication-taking behavior and issues of adherence since joining forces.

About CVS Caremark
CVS Caremark is the largest pharmacy health care provider in the United States with integrated offerings across the entire spectrum of pharmacy care. We are a pharmacy innovation company, uniquely positioned to engage plan members in behaviors that improve their health and to lower overall health care costs for health plans, plan sponsors and their members. CVS Caremark is a market leader in mail order pharmacy, retail pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, and retail clinics, and is a leading provider of Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans. As one of the country's largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), we provide access to a network of more than 65,000 pharmacies, including more than 7,300 CVS/pharmacy® stores that provide unparalleled service and capabilities. Our clinical offerings include our signature Pharmacy Advisor™ program as well as innovative generic step therapy and genetic benefit management programs that promote more cost effective and healthier behaviors and improve health care outcomes. General information about CVS Caremark is available through the Company's website at http://info.cvscaremark.com.

Media Contact:
Jon Sandberg
CVS Caremark
(401)770 4914
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SOURCE CVS Caremark