Cardinal Health launches best practices care program for rheumatoid arthritis

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) has teamed up with an East Coast insurer to launch a best clinical practices care program for patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.

Cardinal’s partnership with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield involves adding rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to its P4 clinical pathways program, an initiative that helps insurers and physicians to work together to develop evidence-based clinical protocols, or pathways, to improve the way care is delivered to patients with complex diseases, according to a statement from Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal.

Previously, Cardinal’s P4 pathways had mostly focused on cancer care. The idea behind P4 is to align incentives between doctors, drug companies, patients and insurance companies to deliver higher-quality, lower-cost care.

By strengthening Cardinal’s relationships with physicians and drug companies, P4 could help Cardinal acquire new customers for its specialty drugs distribution business, which could be a significant growth area for Cardinal in the coming years.

In the RA program, Cardinal and CareFirst have engaged 70 rheumatology practices and more than 100 rheumatologists to participate. CareFirst has nearly 3.4 million members in Maryland, the District of Columbia and portions of Northern Virginia.

Broadly, the clinical pathways program aims to improve cost and quality in three ways, Bruce Feinberg, chief medical officer for P4, told MedCity News in August.

First, the program aims to convert the use of branded drugs to generics when appropriate. Second, the clinical pathways program emphasizes dropping treatment regimens that aren’t supported by today’s best-available medical evidence. And third, the program is aimed at reducing the variance that occurs in treatment regimens for the same condition, Feinberg said.

Cardinal acquired the P4 business as part of its $517 million acquisition of Healthcare Solutions Holding last year.

Photo from flickr user gfoster67