Pharmacists Begin Using Community MTM Web-based Communications Service
New online service allows pharmacists to help patients safely use their medications, maximize benefits of their drug regimens, and realize medication cost-savings
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Aug. 10, 2006) - Community MTM Services, Inc. (CMTM) has announced the rollout of the nation’s fastest growing network of pharmacies using its pharmacy-based communication and intervention management service via the Internet. Initial network participants include independent, chain, supermarket, and mass merchandiser pharmacies across the country. The contracted network already represents approximately 16,000 stores of the nation’s approximately 55,000 community pharmacies. Network contracting is in process with other organizations representing tens of thousands of additional pharmacy locations, offering program sponsors access to millions of patients through community pharmacists.
The Web-based CMTM platform is both pharmacy- and sponsor-neutral. The service securely delivers patient clinical and financial data along with workflow tools that enable pharmacists to deliver high-value patient care services on behalf of program sponsors. With CMTM, pharmacists can work more effectively and proactively with patients, helping them understand their medications, reducing the risk of adverse drug events, and providing advice on cost-saving opportunities within the patient’s drug benefit plan.
Community Care Rx (Community Pharmacists’ Care Rx in Oklahoma, administered by MemberHealth, Inc.), the nation’s fourth largest Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, is the first program sponsor to use CMTM to facilitate the delivery of patient care services through community pharmacists.
CMTM creates a personal medication record (PMR) listing all medications and instructions for taking those medications to improve safety and compliance for each plan member. In the event of a hospitalization, the PMR also can be a valuable, potentially life-saving tool for physicians when trying to determine the patient’s medication history.
“As community pharmacists increasingly provide patient care services, the importance of an industry-wide, neutral platform to enable pharmacists to provide these services is paramount,” said Bruce Roberts, R.Ph., executive vice president and CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA). “With CMTM, pharmacists have a means to efficiently and effectively provide MTM, compliance, and patient education services. Pharmacists need only learn and access a single Web-based application to provide an array of services on behalf of a variety of sponsors.”
Medicine Shoppe International, Inc., views the opportunities presented by Community MTM as a critical turning point for retail pharmacy. “This new model creates efficiencies and provides a user-friendly tool for implementing MTM in a retail pharmacy setting,” said Terry Burnside, president of Medicine Shoppe International, Inc. “Now, pharmacy must step up to the plate and demonstrate its true value. Retail pharmacy’s successful performance will solidify pharmacy’s role within Medicare Part D and beyond.”
Limor Younesi is a pharmacist at Uptown Drug and Gift Shop in Los Angeles, California, who is currently using the CMTM communications system. “CMTM allows us to ensure that patients are following correct directions and educate them about their medications,” Younesi said. “Using CMTM, we can target any errors, side effects, or interactions and make the necessary changes to correct the problems. During MTM sessions, we have helped patients who were experiencing side effects they didn’t even realize were from their medications. The CMTM service gives us the opportunity to increase patient compliance and optimize their drug therapies.” Additionally, Younesi finds CMTM intuitive, easy-to-use, and comprehensive. “It doesn’t take much training to learn the system,” she said.
MemberHealth, Inc., sponsor for the CCRx-branded Part D plans, believes the best way to provide MTM services is via face-to-face encounters between community pharmacists and their patients. The CMTM service enables pharmacists to view which medications have been flagged for potential harmful interactions and/or cost-savings for their CCRx patients and facilitate any necessary changes to the patient’s medication regimen. More than 120,000 CCRx patients will receive MTM services facilitated by the CMTM system in 2006.
“In order to maximize the benefit to our beneficiaries, it is of vital importance for us to have a system that our providers understand and find easy to use,” said Charles Hallberg, MemberHealth CEO. “CMTM allows our provider network to focus on fostering healthier, more compliant patients without being bogged down by excessive paperwork.”
Among the initial CMTM network participants already signed up are Access Health, AmerisourceBergen Performance Plus Network, A&P, A&P SuperFoodmart, Arrow Pharmacy and Nutrition Center, Bartell Drugs, Buehler Food Markets, Inc., Costco Pharmacy, Drug Basics, Ethical Pharmacy, Familymeds Pharmacy, Farmer Jack, Food Emporium, Georgia Pharmacy Association Academy of Independent Pharmacy (AIP), Health Mart, Hy-Vee Pharmacies, Kerr Drug, LeaderNET,
Lewis Drug Stores, Medicine Shoppe International, Inc., Osco Pharmacy, PBA Health/TrueCare Pharmacy, Safeway, Sav-A-Center, Sav-Mor Drug Stores, Sav-on Pharmacy, Schnucks Pharmacy, SuperValu Pharmacies, Super Fresh, Third Party Station, Thrifty White Drug, Ukrop’s Pharmacy, United Drugs, United Pharmacists Network, Inc., Waldbaum’s, and White Drug, as well as many unaffiliated independent pharmacies.
“We are very pleased with the response from all of community pharmacy to the new CMTM service,” noted CMTM Chief Operating Officer Kurt Proctor. “Our network of community pharmacies is growing every day. The interest from program sponsors in reaching this network will result in tremendous new revenue opportunities for these pharmacies and better health outcomes for the patients involved.”
CMTM is fully secure and HIPAA-compliant. CMTM continues to build its national provider network of pharmacies, and there is no charge to pharmacist providers to use the service.
About Community MTM Services, Inc.
Community MTM Services, Inc. is a subsidiary of the National Community Pharmacists Association focused on providing technological and business solutions to enhance the profession of community pharmacy, whether practiced in an independent or chain setting. The company’s Web-based, HIPAA-compliant, secure communication and intervention management service enables community pharmacists to educate and consult patients by accessing sponsor provided, critical, patient-specific information coincidental with a variety of face-to-face pharmacist-patient encounters, including medication therapy management (MTM), a requirement of the new Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2006.
