Medication therapy management survey of the prescription drug plans.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the preliminary development and implementation plans for medication therapy management (MTM) services across plan sponsors for the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs) and provide pharmacists with insights for MTM development.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey.

SETTING: United States.

PARTICIPANTS: 307 individual contacts from Medicare Advantage or stand-alone PDPs.

INTERVENTION: A survey comprising questions about the PDP demographics, plans and implementation, beneficiary eligibility criteria, scope of services, providers of services, and payment structure for MTM services was e-mailed and mailed in November 2005.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Descriptive and bivariate analysis of survey items.

RESULTS: A total of 97 usable surveys were completed, a 31.5% response rate. Almost all respondents had a plan in place for MTM services. The majority of PDPs perceived that MTM would have a moderate benefit to their organization. Most PDPs planned to focus efforts on diabetes, heart failure, and other forms of cardiovascular disease. Overwhelmingly, PDPs planned to follow the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) mandate for criteria regarding beneficiary eligibility. Only 8.2% of respondents planned to use a "traditional" pharmacist, such as a community, long-term care, hospital, or clinic pharmacist. The majority of PDPs (53.6%) planned to employ managed care pharmacists to administer MTM services.

CONCLUSION: Pharmacists are eager to implement MTM services and are looking for PDPs to provide a path of implementation and reimbursement. Many PDPs were planning to deliver MTM services internally using health professional staff, thereby limiting the extent of participation of community, long-term care, hospital and health-system, and clinic-based pharmacists. Further research and advocacy are required to ensure that MTM services accomplish the true intent of the congressional and CMS mandates.