Hi I am Vincent Fusaro, President of the The Alliance Pharmacy. The Alliance Pharmacy is an associate member of the Hemophilia Alliance which represents 104 comprehensive hemophilia treatment centers (HTCs) across the country. I bring a very unique perspective to the treatment of hemophilia. I have been a licensed pharmacist since 1984. I have been a hemophiliac even longer. Growing up I relied on the Hemophilia Treatment Center at Long Island Jewish Hospital and thanks to a caring staff headed by Richard Lipton MD. I know first- hand how critical the comprehensive care services are for the patients with hemophilia. Years ago before the HTCs and comprehensive care model was created by Congress, my average life expectancy of 21 years would have largely been spent bedridden or in the hospital. Today because of the comprehensive care services I have received I am the President of a nationwide pharmacy and part of your solution for producing the best clinical and fiscal results for your hemophilia patients.
The HTCs take care of children and adults with severe bleeding and clotting disorders. This impacts the quality of their life, can cause disability, and major healthcare issues throughout their lifespan. For over 30 years we’ve known that it is a comprehensive care clinical team that results in the best outcomes for patients with hemophilia. The team includes the physician, the nurse practitioner, genetic counselor, physical therapist and importantly our health psychologist. This program is the most successful managed health care idea and the model by which todays’ medical home is built upon. Through this program HTCs have been able to maintain that very high quality of care, manage complications, keep patients out of the hospital, and do this all in a very cost effective manner. The HTCs providing clotting factor to their patients through their participation in the 340B program are able to sustain their comprehensive care model through the revenue derived from factor sales to this very small patient population.
The 104 HTCs who are Alliance members participate in the 340B Drug Purchasing Program. They coordinate the provision of pharmacy services as part of their comprehensive care program, providing constant monitoring of bleeds and clotting factor utilization to allow for quick response to needed changes in treatment. They are also cost effective providers of pharmacy services, tracking dosing, compliance with medication orders, providing assay inventory management and maintain a stat inventory for urgent situations requiring immediate delivery of product to prevent unnecessary and costly emergency room visits. Probably the most expensive part of care for a hemophilia patient is the cost of factor itself. The average hemophilia patient costs about $300,000 – $400,000 per year in just providing factor to prevent bleeding. In fact the average adult patient that has a severe or high titer inhibitor costs somewhere in the order of a half a million to a million dollars per year. The HTCs are clinical centers of excellence in hemophilia care and have a long history of producing markedly superior clinical outcomes, reducing healthcare costs while improving health outcomes. Superior clinical services save money by reducing complications, the number of Emergency Room visits and hospital inpatient stays, and have the added benefit of producing healthier, happier, more productive patients. We are your partner in better outcomes both clinically and fiscally.
The income from these pharmacy programs is reinvested in the HTC to help support these comprehensive health care teams. At a recent summit meeting held in Washington D.C. the key finding of the meeting was that the comprehensive care model for hemophilia is completely dependent on the revenue stream available to the HTCs through their factor programs. The Alliance Pharmacy offers you a national contracting platform to connect with these centers of excellence across the country. If you are interested in a cost competitive solution that offers the benefit of central contracting with outstanding local clinical and pharmacy care.
Email us at info@thealliancepharmacy.org or call 516-876-0100