House Rx, the platform for medically integrated dispensing of specialty medications for cancer care, rheumatoid arthritis and other complex medical conditions, announced, today, it has partnered with two leading oncology clinics — Cancer Care Associates of York and Pacific Cancer Care — to enhance both clinics’ operations to more efficiently integrate specialty medicine dispensing into their practices, enabling better patient care.
Medically integrated care is a seamless process where the physicians, clinical staff, pharmacists and technicians collaborate as one team to provide patient care. In most states, physicians can dispense medication as part of their medical license. This affords their patients the benefit of filling their prescribed therapies through their local clinic instead of through an external specialty pharmacy, thus keeping their care all under one roof. Research shows medically integrated care and dispensing improves medication access and affordability for patients, including more timely access to cancer treatments (source). Timely access to treatment is known to lead to better health outcomes, including improved quality of life and increased survivability (source).
Since launching in March 2021, House Rx has now partnered with 8 specialty clinics across the U.S. to begin or enhance their in-house dispensing capabilities, and has partnered with the National Cancer Treatment Alliance (NCTA) to develop software that provides analytics around the network’s physician dispensing quality measures.
“Medically integrated dispensing is a major component of patient-centric oncology care,” said Tesh Khullar, Co-Founder & President of House Rx. “When patients obtain their oral or self-injectable medications faster and more efficiently through their physician’s office than through PBM-run pharmacies, health outcomes improve. We are confident House Rx can help many more specialty clinics successfully implement medically integrated dispensing, as well as assist clinics that already offer in-house dispensing to optimize and improve care delivery with House Rx’s dispensing expertise and technology platform.”
Cancer Care Associates of York (CCAY), which has eight physicians and five advanced practice providers, has cared for patients in the York, Pennsylvania community for over 40 years. CCAY began in-house medication dispensing in 2013. CCAY is a member of the Quality Cancer Care Alliance, which is comprised of 15 independent oncology practices and promotes clinical integration among their members to improve quality of care.
“Our partnership with House Rx is going to hugely impact the breadth and quality of services we have to offer to our patients,” said Dr. Daniel Efiom-Ekaha, physician and President at CCAY. “This new relationship couldn’t have come at a better time; House Rx’s technology and support will be crucial in helping us scale our in-office dispensing services to meet the expanding needs and complexity of our unique oncologic patient population.”
Pacific Cancer Care (PCC), which has six physicians and six nurse practitioners caring for patients in Monterey, California, is the largest oncology & hematology group located on the Central California Coast. The practice began dispensing medicines in 2010. PCC has provided comprehensive cancer care services, including innovative clinical trials, to patients for nearly 50 years. PCC is a member of the all-physician National Cancer Care Alliance (NCCA), another network of 16 U.S. independent oncology practices across the United States. The NCCA is a catalyst for collaboration among its members to identify and share best practices to enhance operations and clinical integration.
“We’re excited to partner with House Rx to augment our in-office dispensing services. Since opening, we’ve seen how difficult it is for our patients to obtain life-saving specialty drugs. By utilizing House Rx’s offerings, we will be able to help our patients get on therapy much faster,” said Dr. Zach Koontz, managing physician at PCC.
In addition to superior drug initiation turnaround time, other benefits of the medically integrated dispensing model include reducing financial burden (source), improving medication adherence rates (source), and reducing accumulation of expensive therapies (source).
