Whether your patients need to lose weight, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, control Type II Diabetes or all of the above, Take Charge is the answer to helping them live a longer, healthier life...   This lifestyle management system is based on pharmacists assisting patients with lifestyle changes including exercise, nutrition and behavior modification.

The Need

• More than 2/3 of Americans are overweight with greater than 1/2 considered obese.
• Government and employers are pleading for someone to help address this issue.
• According to a recent study by the Institute of Medicine, "Anti-obesity efforts remain fragmented and small-scale despite continual warnings of the consequences."
• Cost to the U.S. Health care System for obesity is now estimated at over $100 billion per year.

Now is the time to Take charge!

• As recently as August 2006, the Trust for America's Health, an advocacy group recommending increased spending for public health programs, recommended that employers begin offering their workers benefits that help them stay healthy such as nutrition counseling and subsidized health club memberships.  They also recommended that the government should mandate routine screenings that measure the fitness of Medicaid beneficiaries plus subsidize or reimburse them for participating in nutrition and fitness programs.
  

  Take Charge
• The prevalence of obesity is growing three times as fast among Americans who make more than $60,000 a year as it is among their low-income neighbors, according to a study presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association.
• Major pharmacy chains are linking with weight loss companies to provide this service when their own pharmacists should be doing this!
• Major insurers are now paying for their insured's weight loss programs in which there is no coordination of care or health professional involved.
• Traditional income streams of community pharmacies are drying up as mail order and third party payers erode profit margins.  AMP is here! 

Why Pharmacists?

• Pharmacists are consistently viewed by consumers as trustworthy professionals.
• Payers are beginning to recognize pharmacists for their time as health providers.
• A new breed of pharmacist is trying to find their niche in the health care system together with physicians and advanced practice nurses.
• The pharmacy profession is seeking a professional identity apart from dispensing. With MTM becoming the new buzzword, NOW is the time to provide a service that has the potential to transform this long time dream into reality.
• In spite of the pleas of payers and the government, no other health care provider has stepped up to the table to address the obesity problem.
• Compared to the competition in the weight loss industry, pharmacists are highly trained, have better access to information on the patient's overall condition and greater knowledge of how the patient's current lifestyle choices are affecting their health.
• You do not need to be an expert in weight management or nutrition.
• You do not need to hire extra help.