Oklahoma Health Care Authority Expands Virtual Pharmacist, Arine, Across the State
SAN FRANCISCO and OKLAHOMA CITY, Oct. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The Oklahoma Health Care Authority is expanding its medication optimization program in collaboration with Arine, a health care technology company that combines data science with clinical expertise to ensure patients are on the safest and most effective medications for their conditions. The expansion is driven by the results of a successful two-county demonstration project undertaken in early 2019.
The program involves clinical pharmacists using Arine’s proprietary technology platform to deliver personalized, user-friendly medication management and quality improvement services to high-risk, high-cost SoonerCare (Oklahoma Medicaid) members.
Arine’s platform, dubbed the Virtual Pharmacist, analyzes social, clinical and behavioral data on an ongoing basis to pinpoint patient health needs, highlight existing access issues and identify dangerous gaps in care. It then uses artificial intelligence to generate tailored, evidence-based treatment plans that are delivered to patients and their care teams to improve health outcomes and reduce costs. The platform continuously monitors changes in patient health status in order to perform proactive adjustments to care plans, allowing for a highly scalable just-in-time approach. Health care organizations such as OHCA are also able to directly measure the impact of the medication optimization program using the Virtual Pharmacist’s sophisticated analytics and reporting feature set.
“Arine has demonstrated a commitment to the citizens of Oklahoma by providing valuable drug-related services to the individuals we serve. This program is an excellent example of leveraging technology to improve services to our SoonerCare members while controlling costs,” said OHCA CEO Kevin Corbett.
The initial demonstration project enrolled SoonerCare members in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties with chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory conditions and serious mental illness. Enrollees received personalized medication counseling, access improvement and treatment optimization services from clinical pharmacists using Arine’s Virtual Pharmacist platform. The company worked closely with the members’ care teams to ensure care plan changes were implemented, leading to improved quality of care and reduced costs.
Interim results from the demonstration project point to significant positive outcomes. These include:
- 92% of suggested care plan changes generated by the Virtual Pharmacist were implemented by primary care providers and specialists
- 94% of SoonerCare participants would recommend the program to a friend
- 40% reduction in hospitalizations
“Arine is a program many providers will see great value in. Some of our patients have personal issues that prohibit them from good medication management. They find themselves mixing up medications with similar names, having their medications duplicated by their providers, and sometimes even stopping their medications just because they are unsure if they are supposed to be taking them,” said Jamie Billingsley from My Family Clinic, an Oklahoma City clinic that provides care to SoonerCare members. “Arine plays the important role of ‘medication overseer,’ tracking our patients’ prescriptions and alerting us when the patient may not be adhering to their prescribed medications or advising us on other medications available which may improve their overall health.”
For the expanded program, clinicians from the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy will use the Arine Virtual Pharmacist platform to provide services to members across all counties in Oklahoma. The expanded program began in October 2019.
“We are excited to partner with OHCA to extend access to this program for SoonerCare members across the entire state,” said Dr. Yoona Kim, CEO of Arine. “Within just six months, we were able to demonstrate that our scalable, technology-enabled approach can deliver significant results for our partners, resulting in OHCA’s expeditious decision to expand the program. We look forward to continuing to work in collaboration with existing services and providers in Oklahoma to improve the health of members, fulfilling our mission to reinvent medication management.”
About the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA)
The Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) administers two health programs for the state. The first is SoonerCare, Oklahoma’s Medicaid program. SoonerCare works to improve the health of qualified Oklahomans by ensuring that medically necessary benefits and services are available. Qualifying Oklahomans include certain low-income children, seniors, the disabled, those being treated for breast or cervical cancer and those seeking family planning services. The second program OHCA operates is Insure Oklahoma, which assists qualifying adults and small business employees in obtaining health care coverage for themselves and their families. Currently, there are 814,606 Oklahomans enrolled in OHCA’s programs. The agency contracts with a network of approximately 60,000 providers. For more information, visit www.okhca.org or www.insureoklahoma.org.
About Arine
Arine is a healthcare technology company that combines data science with clinical expertise to ensure that patients are on the safest and most effective medications for their conditions. The company’s proprietary platform, the Virtual Pharmacist, aggregates and analyzes clinical and behavioral data to identify gaps in patient care and uses artificial intelligence to address and resolve them on behalf of Arine’s partners. The company’s platform is being used to optimize treatment plans, monitor medication performance, and improve outcomes for patients on multiple medications by leading healthcare organizations. For more information, visit https://www.arine.io/.
