A study presented at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting showed that interventions in the Pharmacist-Managed Oral Chemotherapy Clinic at Kaiser Permanente San Diego led to significant overall cost savings to the health care system. This retrospective, observational study analyzed interventions made by oncology pharmacists to determine the direct drug cost savings and cost avoidance effects over one year. 

Cost savings and cost avoidance were calculated by comparing the costs of drug utilization if no interventions were implemented vs costs of drug saved from accepted interventions for dose reduction, dose delay, temporary dose hold, therapy discontinuation, therapy conversion, formulary alternative conversion, and brand to generic conversion. Secondary outcomes included the highest and average cost avoidance per intervention, intervention type, medication, medication class, and cancer type. Additionally, interventions that did not lead to direct drug cost savings such as adverse drug reaction management, drug interaction identification, and supportive care recommendation were also recorded. The secondary endpoint was oncologist satisfaction via a six-question satisfaction survey. 

All documented oncology pharmacist interventions that were made in the Oral Chemotherapy Clinic from January 1 to December 31, 2021 were reviewed for study inclusion. From a report generated monthly from the electronic health record (EHR), retrospective chart review was conducted to verify whether each cost-savings intervention was truly recommended by an oncology pharmacist and if the intervention was accepted by the treating oncologist. The Average Wholesale Price (AWP) of drugs listed on Lexicomp as of November 1, 2021 was used to calculate the drug cost savings and cost avoidance. During this period, there were no changes to practice and no increased efforts to identify interventions.

As of September 2021, 156 interventions were identified, with a total cost savings and cost avoidance of $2,245,856. Once all data have been collected for the remainder of 2021, descriptive statistics will be used to analyze and stratify the data as appropriate.

“Pharmacist interventions in the Oral Chemotherapy Clinic led to significant overall cost savings to the health care system. It is reasonable to expect that higher cost savings will be achieved as more oral chemotherapy agents are managed by pharmacists,” wrote author Analia Nguyen, Kaiser Permanente, San Diego, CA.

Source:

Nguyen A, et al. Impact of the oral chemotherapy pharmacist on direct cost avoidance and cost savings of oral oncolytics at an integrated health system. Abstract presented at: ASCO Annual Meeting; June 3-7, 2022; Chicago, IL, and virtual. Abstract e18839.