MOORESTOWN, N.J., July 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Tabula Rasa HealthCare, Inc. (TRHC) (NASDAQ:TRHC), a healthcare technology company advancing the field of medication safety by deploying innovative Medication Therapy Management (MTM) tools, today commended the House Ways and Means Committee for approving a bill designed to protect seniors from opioid abuse. The bill would expand eligibility for MTM programs under the Medicare Prescription Drug Program (Part D) to now include individuals determined as “at risk” for prescription drug abuse.
In addition to now including beneficiaries defined as “at risk” for opioid overuse as eligible for MTM services, the Protecting Seniors From Opioid Abuse Act (H.R. 5684) bill includes recommendations to encourage the use of innovative technologies that ensure pharmacists and healthcare professionals engage with the at-risk beneficiary population through MTM as an effective way to curtail the inappropriate prescribing and use of opioids.
“We are pleased that Congress is moving forward with these amendments to the Part D program as part of the nation’s response to the opioid epidemic,” said TRHC Chairman and CEO, Calvin H. Knowlton, Ph.D. “We view this as a significant opportunity to bring our innovations in MTM to a larger footprint of Part D health plans to help them identify seniors at risk for adverse drug events and unintentional misuse and abuse of prescription opioids. We look forward to the Senate moving the proposed legislation forward.”
Today, Medicare accounts for a large share of total opioid prescriptions. In 2016, one out of every three beneficiaries was prescribed an opioid through Medicare Part D, equating to almost 80 million prescriptions. However, many seniors are coping with complications relating to unintentional misuse and abuse of prescription opioids and complex medication regimens. When opioids are taken at the same time with other prescription and non-prescription medications, they may be less effective for relieving pain and patients may take more frequent and higher doses, which can cause falls, hospitalizations and even death. The challenges in elderly patients taking opioids are exponentially amplified as these patients oftentimes take several medications along with a prescribed opioid, increasing the risk for multi-drug interactions that can cause serious adverse drug events.
TRHC’s MTM solutions – such as MedWise™ – are designed to analyze multi-drug risk and to improve the prescribing process, increase medication safety, and reduce adverse drug events and hospitalizations. This proprietary tool plots an individual’s entire multi-drug medication regimen against various extrinsic and intrinsic medication safety factors. MedWise provides a Medication Risk Mitigation Matrix™ and risk score for each patient that the MTM pharmacists will use when making recommendations to beneficiaries and prescribers.
TRHC recently announced its Optimized Opioid Solution™ to identify and prevent unintentional opioid misuse and avoid unintentional overdose. Through proprietary, state-of-the-art technology, TRHC’s Optimized Opioid Solution can help curb opioid misuse (that can lead to abuse) before it starts – analyzing multi-drug risk to warn doctors about dangerous interactions and encourage safer prescribing choices.
The company provides MTM programs to 150 Medicare Advantage contracts representing three million beneficiaries and is spearheading a large CMS model program, called Enhanced MTM, across seven states.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements that we believe to be reasonable as of today’s date. Such statements are identified by use of the words “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “predicts,” “projects,” “should,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release. Actual results might differ materially from those explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: the need to innovate and provide useful products and services; risks related to changing healthcare and other applicable regulations; increasing consolidation in the healthcare industry; managing our growth effectively; our ability to adequately protect our intellectual property; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in our filings with the SEC, including those factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 14, 2018, and in subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC, copies of which are available free of charge within the Investor Relations section of the TRHC website http://ir.trhc.com or upon request from our Investor Relations Department. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made. TRHC assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law, to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today’s date.