Staff at MMS will provide a series of seminars over the next few months that help practitioners to stay up-to-date on a variety of topics. The first seminar is part of our quarterly Practitioner Meetings held every three months to provide clients an opportunity to discuss contemporary topics, timely issues, as well as to participate in a patient case presentation by a practicing pharmacist. This meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 30 at 2pm CST. The agenda for the meeting includes the following topics:

• Updates to the Assurance System™
• Announcements – next practitioner meeting topic, Part D webinar series introduction
• Case Presentation – Steven Bladow, PharmD, PharmAssist Services
• Featured Presentation – Djenane Oliveira - Fairview Pharmacy Services, “Practice-based Research”
• Questions/Discussion
• Announcements/Upcoming events at MMS

In addition to Practitioners Meetings held quarterly, MMS is excited to announce the new Medicare Part D Webinar series! We are committed to helping you develop your successful Part D practice, and in order to do so we will host virtual webinars every three to four weeks. The goal of these webinars is to provide a forum for you to learn and discuss the many different aspects of the Part D process. Mark your calendars for June 13, July 11, and August 1 from 3:00-4:00pm CST. The agendas for each webinar are noted below.

WEBINAR 1: June 13^th, 2012 3-4pm CST  

• Defining Service Types
• Defining Evaluation Contact Types
• Workflow Issues
  • how to assess and improve (best practices)
  • focusing the interview/how to ask the right questions
  • what other people are doing now (open discussion with participants)
  • patient complexity reports

WEBINAR 2: July 11, 2012 3-4pm CST      

• 2012 Data Validation Preparation
• New MMS policy to have CMS reports for current year available in July
• Running your own CMS reports
• Knowing your data – how to test/QA
• Workflow diagrams
• Telephone scripts/patient letters
• Feedback from auditors – questions, insight

WEBINAR 3: August 1, 2012 3-4pm CST   

• 2013 preparation
• LTC approaches – how does this change what you are doing now?
• Personal Medication Action Plan
• Adherence – updates on reports
• Outreach – using at least two types of contact (one cannot be passive), contacting patient within 60 days of identification, change in LTC population

Please join us for this exciting and informative webinar series! The topics and information presented will assist you in your practice by making the process easier and more consistent. We look forward to your participation and feedback.

Interested in attending?

Please contact lkoester@medsmanagement.com if you are interested in registering for any of the above webinars.

Look no further for answers about how to build, deliver and market quality medication management services. Twenty-five years of experience and expertise are contained in the new edition titled, Pharmaceutical care practice:  The patient-centered approach to medication management, by Cipolle, Strand and Morley, 3^rd edition, McGraw-Hill, 2012. 

This edition speaks specifically to the successful delivery of medication management services.  Market pressures and opportunities, the latest research, the most current policy positions, data analyzed from successful practices, all described in the context of how to establish successful practices and provide quality services.

Are you wondering what is happening with medication management services in the rest of world? Fourteen different authors describe the progress that is occurring in Spain, India, China, Australia, The Netherlands, South Korea and many more countries.

Use this text to educate your colleagues, structure and  justify your services, understand the “bigger context” of the health delivery system, meet contacts from other countries – whatever your objective, if it relates to medication management services, you will find useful information here. 

Click here to order it directly from Amazon at an introductory price (limited time offer). 

MMS just sponsored a very unique invitational meeting for our clients, students,national and international speakers, and staff. This meeting was held in northern Minnesota at an educational retreat (Deep Portage Learning Center), where attendees were able focus on medication management services without interruption for two days. This year the theme was Bringing Pharmaceutical Care to Market: Expanding the Service.

Continue reading for a summary of the meeting (or download a .pdf of Dr. Strand's reflection) – but also be sure to talk with someone who attended to appreciate the significance of this experience. We hope to see you there next year!

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If we want to be universally recognized and paid by the system that pays for patient care, then it is a good idea to understand the rules of that system. If the rules are understood, then everyone can decide if they want to play by those rules or not – it should be emphasized here that these rules are non-negotiable.

The rules of compensation for patient care services in health care have been defined and are clear for all patient care providers who wear white coats and who care for patients.  Patient care providers are paid for one primary function, to find, fix and prevent a unique set of patient care problems.  For the physician, he or she diagnoses and resolves medical problems, the nurse works with nursing care problems and for the pharmacist providing medication management services it is drug therapy problems.  Documentation is required so both the patient and the payer have evidence of the problems addressed in order to justify the claim made for payment, and the payment structure is based on the number of problems identified and resolved.

Identifying and resolving drug therapy problems are the unique contribution to the care of a patient and are the cornerstone of reimbursement for medication management services – it is the “currency” for the pharmacist providing these services.   We are able to identify them, count them, document them, fix them and monetize them.   This is straight forward; the more problems we identify and resolve the more compensation we can earn.  

I have yet to meet a payer who has been interested in how long it takes to conduct a “CMR”.  And why should they be?  It takes inefficient practitioners longer than it does expert ones.  Many payers I have spoken with are interested in knowing which problems are identified; for which medical conditions; for which medications and what is being done to fix the problems after they are identified? CMS is moving in this direction, as have other payers. 

Fortunately, the heavy lifting has been done and there are rules (standards) that are used to define the service and practice I am describing here.  There is also a state Medicaid payer who has put these rules in place and can serve as a model of how to do this for other payers.   The standards are simple and already exist so the pharmacist providing medication management services can be recognized and paid for the unique contribution made to the care of a patient.   With these rules, patients, prescribers and payers know exactly what it is that we will do, how we will do it and what they can expect to receive from the service.   The rules and structure provide a framework for the provision of the service, so the same service can be duplicated by others and then recognized by patients, prescribers and payers, whether the service is delivered in Minneapolis, Indianapolis or Kannapolis (that is in North Carolina).  

Some have argued that the terminology and processes of this practice are too esoteric or too academic.  There is no need to expose patients, prescribers or a payer to the terminology that we may argue about, this is not the point.  For me the path to success starts with exposing patients, prescribers and payers, to a service that is delivered by professionals using recognized standards.  Pharmaceutical care defines the professional practice, the rules and standards, that we can own, and that allow us to demonstrate our contribution to the patients served when medication management services are provided.  

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed regulation change which would mandate the separation of consultant pharmacy services from the companies that provide pharmaceutical products to long-term care residents is a game changer for pharmacists.  If the rule, as proposed today, is adopted by CMS, the services provided by pharmacists could no longer be bundled and bartered with the distribution and dispensing of medications.  The services offered and provided by long-term care (LTC) pharmacists would stand alone, independent of the distribution of drug products.  

This proposed rule change has far reaching implications for all pharmacists, not just those practicing in the long-term care arena.   The conflict of interest that was exposed in the long-term care space clearly is the impetus for the proposed rules change but, as was pointed out by many in the overflow crowd attending the Town Hall Forum held on this topic during the ASCP Annual Meeting in Phoenix earlier this month, why stop at LTC?  If this conflict exists in LTC, doesn’t it exist in community pharmacy, specialty pharmacy and other settings?  It clearly does but that is material for a future discussion.

The point to be made now with this proposed ruling is that if CMS is going to make this change, then pharmacists need to be recognized as care providers and compensated at a rate that will support the delivery of comprehensive medication management services  to patients.   This should be done for all pharmacists providing the service, regardless of where the service is delivered, and should not be limited to those practicing in LTC or any other setting.  Imagine how the practice of pharmacy could change when the practice of pharmaceutical care is recognized as a reimbursable service and compensated on the merits of the value it adds to the care of patients, without conflict or without having drug product sales financially supporting the service providers.   These changes are necessary to care for all those patients who could benefit from medication management services.  #      

“For pharmacists, I believe that you have come to one of the rare crossroads that will define the future of your profession. You will either take your place as providers of care, or your numbers will dwindle as most dispensing activities are replaced by robotics and pharmacy technicians. I am a physician, and I say our profession and the patients that we serve need you “on the team” as clinical pharmacist practitioners. But, will you truly join us?”

This quote comes from an article written by Dr. Terry McInnis. The article provides a very interesting assessment of the state of pharmacy and offers a challenge for our profession.  

Read the complete article >