by brant bullard | May 9, 2016 | News
As a healthcare professional, wouldn’t you want to know if the medications you are giving your patients are giving them therapy?
As our healthcare industry continues to evolve, so does the practice of prescribing medications. Gone are the days of “trial and error” or guessing if a medication will work. With elderly patients, sometimes they don’t have the luxury to wait.
Clinical depression in the elderly is common. Late-life depression affects about 6 million Americans age 65 and older. Physical conditions like stroke, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, cancer, dementia, and chronic pain further increase the risk of depression.
According to psych central.com, a common treatment for clinical depression is a type of medication called an antidepressant. Antidepressants come in a variety of forms, but all of them work by impacting certain neurochemicals in your brain, such as serotonin and norepinephrine. Antidepressants are most commonly prescribed by a psychiatrist, but may also be prescribed by a family physician or general practitioner to treat depression.
The most commonly prescribed modern antidepressants include SSRIs — such as Prozac, Lexapro, Celexa and Paxil — and SNRIs — such as Pristiq, Cumbalta and Effexor. Although the claim is made that some people may be able to start to feel less depressed within 2 weeks of taking one of these kinds of antidepressants, most people won’t start experiencing the full positive effects of the medication until 6 to 8 weeks after beginning it.
As a physician, what if you knew scientifically which medications your patients have the ability to metabolize – if they are a poor or ultra-rapid metabolizer of those medications – or if they are on multiple medications that interact giving them no therapy. That tool is available and now it is affordable for elderly patients with Medicare B, it’s called pharmacogenetic testing.
Pharamcogenetic Testing:
The PGx Medical test results provide clinicians with valuable patient-specific information to make better therapeutic treatment decisions. Medications may be assessed in the following areas of clinical care: depression, anxiety, psychosis, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, arrhythmia, anti-coagulation, thrombophilia, ADHD, pain (including musculoskeletal, arthritis, migraine and neuropathic), bipolar and seizure.
With the PGx program you will receive a customized patient report which includes personalized result interpretations and actionable treatment recommendations.
The PGx Medical team works alongside healthcare professionals each step of the way. For more information on this medication management program, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
by brant bullard | May 2, 2016 | News
For our elderly, medications can mean life or death. So making sure they are on the proper medications is important.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 200,000 older adults are hospitalized annually due to adverse drug reactions (ADRs). And 55 percent of the elderly don’t take their medications according to the doctor’s orders.
For some, it is a vision problem – not being able to read the small print on prescription labels which can lead to potentially dangerous misuse. For others, it may be due to memory loss, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease and they simply forget to take their medications which can lead to life threatening situations. For a patient in Memory Care, it is difficult for them to tell you if their medications are working properly.
But, what if they are taking their medications as prescribed but they don’t have the ability to metabolize those medications? Not only are they throwing money away on medications that aren’t working, their health may be diminishing while they are on a “trial and error” medication. Have you ever heard a physician say, “take this for three weeks and if it doesn’t work, come back and we’ll try something else?” In an elderly person, sometimes you can’t afford to wait.
A lot of senior communities around the country have implemented the Metabolic Validation Program, via pharmacogenetic testing. By doing a simple buccal swab of the cheek, the healthcare team can now know scientifically if a medication has the ability to metabolize in that individual, as well as if they are having drug-on-drug interactions, or may need a dosage adjustment according to their rate of metabolism.
So what does it cost the individual or the facility? Medicare B covers the cost of the test and in some states, medicaid covers it as well. You might be asking yourself, “Will this bankrupt medicare?” The answer to that is no. Due to overspending on unnecessary medications, this test is actually a cost savings. A 30-day supply of Ability can cost upwards of $1,400. So think about individuals on multiple medications that are not giving them therapy. This once-in-a-lifetime test is a cost savings and helps with efficiencies in the nursing home setting.
If you would like more information on the Metabolic Validation Program, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
sources: agingcare.com, department human health and services
by brant bullard | Apr 10, 2016 | Metabolic Validation Program
Clay Bullard travels around the country educating healthcare professional on Medication Management, via pharmacogenomic testing.
Clay Bullard, President
PGx Medical
PGx Medical President, Clay Bullard has made it his goal to reach as many healthcare providers as possible to educate them on a tool that is available to manage medications. Clay’s passion for the test shows when he asks providers, “if this was your loved one, would you want to know if their medication is working properly? You don’t know, what you don’t know. And our simple buccal swab of the cheek will tell you if your loved one is even capable of metabolizing their medications.
“Pharmacogenomics isn’t new, it has been around for a long time,” said Bullard. What is bringing it to the forefront of the healthcare industry is how affordable it has become. PGx Medical works with hundreds of senior communities, clinics and pharmacies across the country and there is no cost for patients with Medicare B. And in select states, Medicaid reimburses for the test as well.
Adverse reactions attributable to prescription drug use cause an estimated 100,000 deaths and more than two million serious reactions in the United States each year, costing the healthcare industry more than $136 billion annually. By 2030, about 72 million people will be 65 or older. Today’s seniors live longer than before, which makes it important to make your extra years as fun-filled and pain-free as possible.
“Our PGx Medical team works with physicians and care providers who are desiring to increase medical efficiencies, reduce cost, increase better outcomes and ultimately do the best they can for each individual patient,” said Bullard.
For more information on pharmacogenomic testing, or to schedule PGx Medical to educate your group or organization, contact:
PGx Medical
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
by brant bullard | Mar 30, 2016 | Journal articles
An estimated 1.5 million beneficiaries are receiving treatment at more than 15,000 long-term care facilities around the country.
The CMS proposed a rule aimed at dramatically improving the quality of care Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries are receiving in nursing homes.
According to modernhealthcare.com, an estimated 1.5 million beneficiaries are receiving treatment at more than 15,000 long-term care facilities or nursing homes around the country that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The 403-page proposed rule released in 2015 contains numerous proposals to reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions and infections, increase quality of care and introduce new safety measures.
President Barack Obama announced the new rules in July 2015 at the White House Conference on Aging.
Some of the changes include making sure that nursing home staff members are properly trained on caring for residents with dementia and in preventing elder abuse. Other changes include improving care planning, including discharge planning for all residents with involvement of the facility’s interdisciplinary team and consideration of the caregiver’s capacity, giving residents information they need for follow-up, and ensuring that instructions are transmitted to any receiving facilities or services. Lastly, the CMS is looking to strengthen the rights of nursing home residents, including placing limits on when and how binding arbitration agreements may be used.
The CMS is the leading payer in the nation for long-term care services. Approximately 64% of nursing home residents have their care paid for by Medicaid, another 14% are covered by Medicare and 22% have another payer, according to the American Health Care Association, a nursing home trade group.
If finalized, the proposals would cost the nursing home industry $729 million in the first year the rule is in effect and $638 million in year two, according to the CMS.
Richard Mollot, executive director at National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, said he also wanted more controls to ensure that senior citizens are not unnecessarily prescribed anti-psychotics, which has been a problem at nursing homes.
“When anti-psychotics are used long term, there is an increased risk of death,” Mollot said. Read entire article at modern healthcare.com
Clay Bullard, president of PGx Medical believes by managing a residents medications you can improve quality of care not only for the resident, but also for the staff. “All of a sudden, residents with behavioral issues aren’t a problem any longer when you have them on medications they are able to receive therapy from, and you can reduce cost by eliminating unnecessary medications. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
For information on Metabolic Validation, via pharmacogenomic testing, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
by brant bullard | Mar 28, 2016 | Metabolic Validation Program
Often a move to a nursing home represents the loss of independence to elderly people.
Today’s nursing homes have improved from years past. Now with beautiful gardens, allowing pets to visit or sometimes stay, and larger rooms. Still, for many elderly people, the move to a nursing home represents the end of the road and a loss of independence. It’s a place you go to die.
For many seniors, these thoughts can lead to depression, ranging from mild to chronic, which affects approximately 40% of nursing home residents, according to the American Geriatrics Society. Despite its prevalence, few elders in nursing homes will openly admit that they are depressed. That means in many cases, the family must look for the warning signs, which can be subtle: Dad isn’t quite as chatty and social as he once was. Mom just picks at her meals.
Often, depression goes undiagnosed and untreated, or treated as a “normal” part of aging. Because the signs of depression can mirror the signs of dementia, especially problems with focusing and concentrating, diagnosing depression in an older adult can be difficult. While medication or therapy or both could be prescribed for any patient with depression, knowing the cause can lead to more effective treatment.
Kenneth M. Sakauye, a geriatric psychiatrist at UT Medical Group in Memphis, Tenn., says getting to the root cause of depression is key. “Depression can have a biological cause or a psychological cause.”
According to agingcare.com, 50% of people develop depression. Dr. Sakauye explained that brain changes caused by Alzheimer’s, such as decreased blood flow, can result in a sort of vascular depression. If the cause is a biological factor like this, medication may be more effective than therapy because it treats the chemical imbalance.
On the other hand, if depression is mild and caused by psychological factors, such as lack of socialization and stimulation, therapy could be more helpful. “Elderly patients often say the best times of their lives are over,” Dr. Sakauye explains. “They were forced to move from home. They feel as if they don’t have anything left to live for.”
These people can benefit from talking to a professional therapist as well as lifestyle changes such as socialization, stimulation, exercise and bright lights.
There are many ways to treat depression the key is recognizing the symptoms and knowing how to treat it. Medication can play a key role in managing depression. But how do you know what medications will work best?
“There is a simple test available that cost the facility nothing and the resident nothing when they are covered by Medicare B. This simple buccal swab of the cheek will let the healthcare providers know if the depression medications they are taking has the ability to work, or if it isn’t being metabolized by that individual. Or, it might be that the other medications they are on aren’t working therefore adding to the depression,” said Clay Bullard, President of PGx Medical.
Making sure your elderly parent, friend or patient is on the right medication is key to helping them live longer…better!
For more information on medication management via Metabolic Validation, contact:
PGx Medical
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
www.pgxmed.com
source: agingcare.com
