The Prescription Drug Affordability Program for Elderly Individuals (PDAPEI)

The Prescription Drug Affordability Program for Elderly Individuals (PDAPEI)

The senior population faces major challenges due to the rising expense of prescription drugs, which jeopardizes their ability to acquire necessary prescriptions and negatively affects the outcomes of their general health (Bhatt, 2022). We suggest implementing The Prescription Drug Affordability Program for Elderly Individuals (PDAPEI) to solve this pressing problem. This program will address the rising prices of prescription medications through a multifaceted strategy that includes evidence-based tactics, interprofessional cooperation, and effective budget allocation.

Policy and Guidelines

1. Establish a government-led negotiation process with pharmaceutical corporations to negotiate lower prices for prescription medications frequently used by the elderly. Establish a board to examine drug pricing to keep an eye on and control the price of prescription drugs while assuring fair and reasonable pricing.
2. Safe Importation of Prescription Pharmaceuticals: – Permit the importation of prescription pharmaceuticals from nations with equivalent safety and efficacy criteria. Create procedures to make the importation of affordable medicines easier, especially for those with significant price differences.
3. Generic Drug Promotion: Encourage using generic medications through patient and healthcare professional-focused training initiatives. Promote the quick release of generic versions of frequently prescribed drugs to increase affordability.
4. Medication help Programs: – Extend and streamline already-existing medication help programs, including those expressly geared at the elderly, such as patient assistance programs (PAPs) and pharmaceutical manufacturer assistance programs. Raise awareness of these programs among the general public and make the application procedure easier so that more qualified people can obtain free or substantially discounted pharmaceuticals.
5. Drug Management and Interprofessional Collaboration: – Encourage interprofessional collaboration among healthcare professionals, such as doctors, pharmacists, and nurses, to improve older patients’ drug regimens. Create medication management programs that emphasize affordable substitutes, medication compliance, and routine medication reviews.
6. Pricing Transparency: – Enforce pricing transparency for prescription medications so that patients and healthcare professionals can make educated choices. Increase the availability of information to the general population about prescription costs, discounts, and assistance programs.
7. Establish a task group with members from the government, the medical community, patient advocates, and business leaders to devise implementation plans. Regularly examine the affordability of prescription drugs, medication adherence rates, health outcomes, and patient satisfaction to monitor and assess the effectiveness of PDAPEI. To ensure the continued success of the policy, make the appropriate adjustments based on data and feedback.

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Advocacy for the Need for the Proposed Policy

The suggested policy is crucial for addressing the urgent problem of rising prescription drug costs and their negative effects on the senior population’s outcomes and quality of care. Currently, the prohibitive costs of pharmaceuticals pose serious obstacles to receiving necessary treatments, which negatively impacts this vulnerable population’s health outcomes and level of care. By providing cheap access to pharmaceuticals, encouraging interprofessional collaboration among healthcare professionals, and improving medication management practices, this strategy will enable us to successfully address these difficulties (Bhatt, 2022). The policy’s emphasis on negotiating prescription prices, making it easier to import affordable medications, encouraging generic substitutes, and bolstering medication support programs will lessen the financial burden on the elderly and increase their access to important therapies. The focus on interprofessional collaboration will also optimize medication schedules, encourage medication adherence, and minimize unfavorable drug interactions, all of which will result in better health outcomes. Overall, the proposed strategy offers a comprehensive approach to improve outcomes and quality of care for the senior population affected by rising prescription drug expenditures and tackles a key public health risk.

Potential for an Interprofessional Approach to Implementing a Proposed Policy

The suggested strategy has the potential to significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the care environment, which would eventually result in high-quality outcomes. A collaborative and well-coordinated effort can be established by bringing together healthcare experts from diverse specialties, including doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and social workers. First, an interprofessional team can assess prescription regimens for older patients while considering clinical and financial considerations. This strategy makes sure that the most suitable and affordable treatments are supplied, cutting down on unnecessary costs and potential side effects (Huber, 2022). Particularly pharmacists may be quite helpful by offering their knowledge of cost-effective alternatives, drug interactions, and medication management.

Second, interprofessional cooperation encourages patients and healthcare professionals to make decisions together. Patients who are actively involved in the decision-making process are better able to appreciate the financial costs associated with various treatment alternatives and are more likely to take their medications as prescribed, both of which enhance health outcomes. An interprofessional strategy also enables thorough medication reviews, finding duplications or drug-related issues. Taking proactive measures to address these problems can prevent medication errors and unfavorable drug reactions, enhancing patient safety and lowering healthcare expenses related to avoidable complications. Interprofessional cooperation also makes it easier for healthcare professionals to communicate and share information. This encourages seamless care coordination, lessens service duplication, and improves the overall effectiveness of healthcare delivery (Huber, 2022).

Conclusion

Putting in place the Prescription Drug Affordability Program for Elderly Individuals (PDAPEI), we can reduce financial burdens on the elderly and improve their access to essential medications, all of which will ultimately result in better health outcomes and higher-quality care. Incorporating an interprofessional approach into the suggested policy will improve the care setting’s efficacy and efficiency. This collaborative paradigm encourages evidence-based decision-making, patient-centered care, medication safety, and efficient resource allocation by utilizing various healthcare professionals’ distinctive talents and knowledge. The result is a care setting that produces high-quality results, enhances patient satisfaction, and better manages the rising expense of prescription medications for the senior population.

 

References

Bhatt, P. (2022). The Impact of Rising Prescription Drug Costs on the Elderly in the United States. Master of Public Health Capstone Presentations. https://jdc.jefferson.edu/mphcapstone_presentation/418/

Huber, C. (2022). Interprofessional Collaboration in Health Care. Praxis, 110(1), 3-4. https://europepmc.org/article/med/34983202

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Scenario

The analysis of position papers that your interprofessional team presented to the committee has convinced them that it would be worth the time and effort to develop a new policy to address your specific issue in the target population. To that end, your interprofessional team has been asked to submit a policy proposal that outlines a specific approach to improving the outcomes for your target population. This proposal should be supported by evidence and best practices that illustrate why the specific approaches are likely to be successful. Additionally, you have been asked to address the ways in which applying your policy to interprofessional teams could lead to efficiency or effectiveness gains.

This assessment will build upon your previous Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations assessment. If, for some reason, you wish to change your specific issue or target population, contact your faculty for approval.

Instructions

For this assessment, you will develop a policy proposal that seeks to improve the outcomes for your chosen health care issue and target population. The bullet points below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure that your assessment submission addresses all of them. You may also want to read the Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal Scoring Guide and Guiding Questions: Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal [DOC] to better understand how each grading criterion will be assessed.

Propose a policy and guidelines that will lead to improved outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population.

Advocate the need for a proposed policy in the context of current outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population.

Analyze the potential for an interprofessional approach to implementing a proposed policy to increase the efficiency or effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high-quality outcomes.

Communicate proposal in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.

Example assessment: You may use the Assessment 2 Example [PDF] to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.

Submission Requirements

Length of proposal: 2–4 double-spaced, typed pages, not including title page or reference list. Your proposal should be succinct yet substantive. No abstract is required.

Number of references: Cite a minimum of 3–5 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support the relevance of or need for your policy, as well as interprofessional considerations. Resources should be no more than five years old.

APA formatting: Use the APA Style Paper Template [DOCX]. An APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] is also provided to help you in writing and formatting your proposal.