RT Book, Section A1 Moriates, Christopher A1 Arora, Vineet A1 Shah, Neel SR Print(0) ID 1106933613 T1 The Current State of Healthcare Costs and Waste in the United States T2 Understanding Value-Based Healthcare YR 2015 FD 2015 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 978-0-07-181698-4 LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1106933613 RD 2024/03/19 AB Ms Avery Jones shuffles through the magazines in the waiting room, looking for one she has not yet read. She recently lamented to her grandson that these days she seems to spend more time sitting in medical offices than doing anything else. She is an 82-year-old woman who has lived most of her life as a committed elementary school teacher. She is now retired, widowed, and carries a long list of medical diagnoses, including congestive heart failure (CHF), atrial fibrillation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), osteoporosis, arthritis, and chronic kidney disease. She regularly sees her primary care provider (PCP), her cardiologist, her pulmonologist, and a nephrologist. She is prescribed a total of 12 medications, some of which are taken twice per day. She has to pay a few hundred dollars out-of-pocket each month for her medications, which places a significant strain on her fixed retirement budget. Unbeknownst to her, some of her brand-name prescriptions have effective, cheaper generic alternatives readily available, which would save her more than a hundred dollars each month.