TRHC Commends Progress to Expand Eligibility for MTM Services under Medicare Part D to Combat Opioid Crisis

MOORESTOWN, N.J., July 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tabula Rasa HealthCare, Inc. (TRHC) (NASDAQ:TRHC), a healthcare technology company advancing the field of medication safety by deploying innovative Medication Therapy Management (MTM) tools, today commended the House Ways and Means Committee for approving a bill designed to protect seniors from opioid abuse. The bill would expand eligibility for MTM programs under the Medicare Prescription Drug Program (Part D) to now include individuals determined as “at risk” for prescription drug abuse.

In addition to now including beneficiaries defined as “at risk” for opioid overuse as eligible for MTM services, the Protecting Seniors From Opioid Abuse Act (H.R. 5684) bill includes recommendations to encourage the use of innovative technologies that ensure pharmacists and healthcare professionals engage with the at-risk beneficiary population through MTM as an effective way to curtail the inappropriate prescribing and use of opioids.

“We are pleased that Congress is moving forward with these amendments to the Part D program as part of the nation’s response to the opioid epidemic,” said TRHC Chairman and CEO, Calvin H. Knowlton, Ph.D. “We view this as a significant opportunity to bring our innovations in MTM to a larger footprint of Part D health plans to help them identify seniors at risk for adverse drug events and unintentional misuse and abuse of prescription opioids. We look forward to the Senate moving the proposed legislation forward.”

Today, Medicare accounts for a large share of total opioid prescriptions. In 2016, one out of every three beneficiaries was prescribed an opioid through Medicare Part D, equating to almost 80 million prescriptions. However, many seniors are coping with complications relating to unintentional misuse and abuse of prescription opioids and complex medication regimens. When opioids are taken at the same time with other prescription and non-prescription medications, they may be less effective for relieving pain and patients may take more frequent and higher doses, which can cause falls, hospitalizations and even death. The challenges in elderly patients taking opioids are exponentially amplified as these patients oftentimes take several medications along with a prescribed opioid, increasing the risk for multi-drug interactions that can cause serious adverse drug events. 

TRHC’s - such as MedWise™ - are designed to analyze multi-drug risk and to improve the prescribing process, increase medication safety, and reduce adverse drug events and hospitalizations. This proprietary tool plots an individual’s entire multi-drug medication regimen against various extrinsic and intrinsic medication safety factors. MedWise provides a Medication Risk Mitigation Matrix™ and risk score for each patient that the MTM pharmacists will use when making recommendations to beneficiaries and prescribers.

TRHC recently announced its Optimized Opioid Solution™ to identify and prevent unintentional opioid misuse and avoid unintentional overdose. Through proprietary, state-of-the-art technology, TRHC’s Optimized Opioid Solution can help curb opioid misuse (that can lead to abuse) before it starts – analyzing multi-drug risk to warn doctors about dangerous interactions and encourage safer prescribing choices.

The company provides MTM programs to 150 Medicare Advantage contracts representing three million beneficiaries and is spearheading a large CMS model program, called Enhanced MTM, across seven states.

About Tabula Rasa HealthCare

TRHC (NASDAQ:TRHC) is a leader in providing patient-specific, data-driven technology and solutions that enable healthcare organizations to optimize medication regimens to improve patient outcomes, reduce hospitalizations, lower healthcare costs and manage risk. TRHC provides solutions for a range of payers, providers and other healthcare organizations.  For more information, visit .

Forward-Looking Statements

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