Pharmacists who expected prescription drug plan sponsors to be banging on their doors with offers to provide medication therapy management (MTM) services under the new Medicare prescription drug program are encountering more disappointment than acceptance.

After surveying 21 different MTM programs offered by Medicare Part D drug plan providers across the country, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that only 4 of these programs had contracted with local pharmacists to provide these services.

The findings of the study, published recently in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, do suggest that larger drug plans are more willing to use pharmacists for MTM services than are smaller plans. The 4 plans that contracted with pharmacists provided drug benefits for 7.5 million seniors.