PART D MTM PROGRAMS SNUB PHARMACISTS, STUDY FINDS

Pharmacists who expected prescriptiondrug plan sponsors to be banging ontheir doors with offers to provide medicationtherapy management (MTM) servicesunder the new Medicare prescriptiondrug program are encountering more disappointmentthan acceptance.

After surveying 21 different MTM programsoffered by Medicare Part D drug plan providers acrossthe country, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicagofound that only 4 of these programs had contracted with localpharmacists to provide these services.

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