Rx Trends 2015
NEW YORK — Advanced genomic-based health screenings at pharmacies. The explosion of front-line care at pharmacies and retail clinics as patients shift away from traditional primary-care sites. The rise of telehealth to boost patient access, and high-tech wearable devices to monitor and transmit a variety of health conditions real-time. Rising prices for specialty meds and even generics. All these forces are driving a sweeping transformation in health care and fundamentally altering the way the nation’s pharmacies go to market and care for patients.
Behind the new health paradigm: the full implementation of health reform, an aging population and a revolution in genomics, nanotechnology, data management and other technologies. Put simply, says PricewaterhouseCoopers in a recent report on the new health economy, “As implementation of the Affordable Care Act reaches its peak in 2015, innovative companies are empowering healthcare customers with new solutions and forcing the entire industry to rethink the way it does business.”
In this series of special reports, Drug Store News looks at some of the top trends impacting pharmacy in this pivotal year for the nation’s health system.
Rx trends 2015: Rising generic drug prices
Rx trends 2015: Partnering and risk sharing
Rx trends 2015: Specialty drug costs
Rx trends 2015: Treating the highest-cost patients
Rx trends 2015: Pharmacy-based diagnostic screenings
Rx trends 2015: Shifting health care’s front line
Rx trends 2015: Managing the newly insured