Medication Transition Team Helps Patients Stay Adherent
Medication transitions are changes in patient’s medication regimen, whether adding to, discontinuing, or modifying a current regimen. At AllianceRx Walgreens Pharmacy, these transitions may take place via proactive outreaches from our medication transition team to the patient and/or the prescriber.
Understanding medication transition
Several factors can influence a medication transition. For example, if a patient discontinues a medication for any reason – such as cost or side effects – we would reach out to the prescriber and the patient to find an alternative medication that better suits the patient.
Route of administration may also warrant a change. For example, patients may be hesitant to take a medication if uncomfortable with how it is administered, such as injections that are subcutaneous (under the skin) or intramuscular (in the muscle). We would discuss with the patient and physician to find the best solution to help ensure therapy.
Other reasons might include:
• Payer formulary changes
• New-to-market generics
• Financial factors
• Therapeutic effectiveness
• Market availability
Benefits of Medication Transition Team
The medication transition team provides education to providers and patients with regards to generic alternatives that could have a beneficial impact to the patient. We also address any gaps in therapy the patient may be experiencing due to a variety of factors, such as market shortages issues, processing issues, and payer issues.
We partner with pharma to help ensure AllianceRx Walgreens Pharmacy is ready to address any changes, such as new-to-market medications, discontinuation of medication, and shortages. Proactively addressing these changes can help avoid delays in patient therapy.
We partner with payers to help facilitate formulary modifications by proactively addressing each patient to prevent gaps in therapy. We also partner with payers based on their financial needs, which can include brand-to-brand transitions and brand-to-generic transitions.
The Role of the Medication Transition Team
At AllianceRx Walgreens Pharmacy, our medication transition team focuses on several types of transitions that impact a patient. Here is an overview:
• Brand-to-Generic Transitions – When a generic version of a brand drug becomes available, the team helps ensure all prescriptions are correctly processed by validating dispense-as-written (DAW) codes, payer formulary and clinical notes.
• Brand-to-Brand Formulary Support for Payer – Our team outreaches to both the prescriber and patient for possible conversion opportunities for a brand-to-brand transition, which a payer may request based upon a formulary change or payer preference.
• DAW 1 & 2 Optimization (Medication Transition Product) – In certain instances, we outreach to the prescriber (DAW 1) or patient (DAW 2) for possible conversion opportunities from brand medication to generic. It’s important to note that our team only pursues opportunities with potential benefit to the patient.
• Generic Pipeline Monitoring – We regularly coordinate with our clinical, operations, trade, finance, pharma, and professional practice teams to help ensure our team, and our company, are prepared for upcoming generic releases.
If you’re interested in learning more about the medication transition team, contact us.
Back to Blog > Blog Stories