Nov. 6, 2014 | In the next 21 months, RxResults, a pharmacy risk management company owned in part by UAMS, plans to add 20-30 more jobs to its workforce of 10, thanks to a $4 million capital investment.

Ansley Equity Partners and Ansley Securities, private equity firms, led the effort to raise the capital to accelerate the company’s growth and to expand its service offerings. The investment was announced in early September.

“We have been saving employers between 12 percent and 17 percent of their total pharmacy spending. As we looked at all of the changes that are being contemplated in health care, we decided we needed to have a wider range of products and to take advantage of all these changes. This is a generational opportunity,” said Tery Baskin, RxResults CEO and president.

He said the company needs the capital to fund the development of these products and services.

“We’ve built our own technology that includes our databases. We need to continue developing this technology and want to expand our communication processes for patients, physicians and pharmacists. This will include our own app. This focus on communication helps patients become more engaged in their own health care choices.”

Little Rock-based RxResults was founded by Baskin in late 2008 with support from UAMS BioVentures, a business incubator. It was formed to commercialize the new innovative pharmacy benefit model developed by the Evidence-Based Medicine Center (EBRx) at the UAMS College of Pharmacy. This program was designed to reduce prescription drug costs for employers and their employees while ensuring the employees receive the most effective, high-quality medicines available.

The company works closely with EBRx at the UAMS College of Pharmacy. Senior pharmacy students also have rotations at the company and UAMS has an equity stake in RxResults.

“RxResults provides a great opportunity for UAMS College of Pharmacy faculty and students to participate in evidence-based decision-making, with the ultimate goal of improving population health and lowering overall costs to the health care system,” said UAMS College of Pharmacy Dean Stephanie Gardner.

Even with a working relationship with the university, Baskin said late 2008 was a daunting time to create a startup company. The effects of the economic downturn were being felt with full force with layoffs and cutbacks across the country. In spite of all this, RxResults survived and now thrives.

It is thriving by helping its customers survive all the changes and continued inflation in health care. RxResults helps employers fight that inflation and even reduce the cost of medications for the employees to whom they offer health benefits.

RxResults’ medication therapy management program identifies patients at risk due to poor adherence to taking their medication, gaps in care, duplicate therapies and a number of other medication-related problems. Through the program, patients and their pharmacists discuss these issues and develop an action plan to help the patients achieve goals that will help them be healthier. The benefit of healthier patients range from better quality of life to savings for employers and their employees. Employees also often become more productive.

RxResults’ software and rules engines can provide a direct line of sight to information about potential savings, medication adherence risk and a host of other quality measures for physicians. Baskin said, “This additional information can help physicians provide better care and also reduce the cost associated with that care”

In 2008, the average cost of drugs for each person per month for a company of 14,000 people was $56. After becoming an RxResults customer, the average cost per person per month at the end of 2013 was reduced to $37 per person – more than $3 million in savings per year.

The individuals’ average co-payment for drugs also was reduced by more than 37 percent. Even with all the inflation in drug costs during those years, the drug costs for both the company and their employees were reduced. Had the company continued doing business as usual, their average drug cost per person per month would have been about $82 at the end of 2013, Baskin said. This type of success has drawn more interest from prospective clients as well as investors.

“The company is called RxResults because we want people to focus on the outcomes or the results that are produced.” Baskin said. “If you think of a math equation, the left side of the equal sign represents all of the complex things that occur in the delivery of health care. The right side of the equal sign contains the results that are produced and are easier to measure and understand. The results — whether they are cost, quality or patient experience — are the things on which employers should focus.”