The Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA), Pharmacy Management Consultants (PMC) and Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) announced a new collaborative agreement to help improve clinical outcomes, experience and satisfaction for Oklahoma's 796,000 SoonerCare (Oklahoma Medicaid) members. Results from the projects also could lay the groundwork for innovative ways to look at patient outcomes and measures for medication reimbursement.
"I look forward to this collaboration providing valuable insights that will help improve patient outcomes and save money. It fully aligns with our goal to foster collaboration among public and private individuals and entities to build a responsive health care system for Oklahoma," said Nancy Nesser, J.D., Pharm.D., OHCA Pharmacy director.
The parties intend for initial research projects to use de-identified claims data to gain insights about medication adherence, missed diagnoses, heightened disease risk and other clinical indicators in Oklahoma's SoonerCare population. Disease states of special interest to each participant include autoimmune diseases, bone health/osteoporosis, migraine and oncology care. The expectation is that findings from the research will help support the development of preventive measures - for instance, identifying post fracture patients and working to educate them on the importance of disease management. In many cases, the cost of preventive therapy is a fraction of the cost of hospitalization, and valuable to the patient's health and well-being. Collectively, this information can help optimize overall patient outcomes and minimize unnecessary healthcare spending across the country.
"This is an exciting collaboration for PMC because it closely fits with the data analysis we already undertake for OHCA on pharmaceutical utilization and outcomes," said Terry Cothran, R.Ph., PMC director. Projects will be jointly managed by PMC and Amgen, with PMC performing research services funded by Amgen.
"Leveraging our collaborative research experience and population health unit, Amgen is excited to engage in our first partnership with a state Medicaid agency to evaluate and gain insights on Medicaid health plan data. Through this unique partnership, we look forward to working with OHCA and PMC to apply that information in identifying opportunities, including value-based programs, to improve costs, quality of care and the patient experience in Oklahoma," said Peter Juhn M.D., M.P.H., vice president of Global Value-Based Partnerships at Amgen.
Globally, Amgen is engaged in over 75 distinct, value-based projects, spanning disease state collaborations, risk sharing, cost-cap programs, and outcomes-based agreements. The company has more than 25 ongoing partnerships in the United States and has several other collaborations under development.
About the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA)
OHCA administers two health programs for the state. The first is SoonerCare, Oklahoma's Medicaid program. SoonerCare works to improve the health of qualified Oklahomans by ensuring that medically necessary benefits and services are available. Qualifying Oklahomans include certain low-income children, seniors, the disabled, those being treated for breast or cervical cancer and those seeking family planning services. The second program OHCA operates is Insure Oklahoma, which assists qualifying adults and small business employees in obtaining health care coverage for themselves and their families. Currently, there are 814,806 Oklahomans enrolled in OHCA's programs. The agency contracts with a state-wide network of 46,449 providers.
About Pharmacy Management Consultants
Pharmacy Management Consultants, managed by the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy, provides operational, consultant and educational services to OHCA through a professional services contract with the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy. These services primarily support OHCA in its administration of pharmacy benefits to Oklahoma SoonerCare members and in its efforts to meet Federal OBRA requirements related to Drug Utilization Review.
About Amgen
Amgen is committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing, and delivering innovative human therapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and understand the fundamentals of human biology.Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world's leading independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakaway potential.