Survey of medication therapy management programs under Medicare part D.

Objective: To describe and summarize the enrollment criteria and benefit designs for medication therapy management (MTM) programs offered throughout the United States during the first year of the Medicare Part D benefit.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: United States between November 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006.

Participants: MTM benefit plan managers of major health insurance companies nationwide selected nonrandomly by the investigators from lists provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Intervention: Telephone interview and/or e-mail 12-item survey with mostly open-ended questions.

Main Outcome Measures: Characteristics required for a patient to be enrolled in MTM programs and types of services provided along with modes of delivery.

Results: Interviews were completed or surveys returned from 21 distinct MTM programs representing 70 health insurance plans covering 12.1 million Medicare enrollees. Of the MTM programs offered, 90.5% restricted their enrollment based on number of diseases, with a median of 3 (range, 2-5) diseases required; 57.1% restricted enrollment based on the type of chronic condition; and 95.2% had requirements for the number of medications (median, 6; range, 2-24) necessary for enrollment in the program. The most frequently provided MTM services were patient education (75.0% of programs),patient adherence (70.0%), and medication review (60.0%). The median number of different service types provided by MTM programs was 3 (range, 2-7). MTM program services included the use of mailed interventions (76.1%) and inhouse call centers (90.4%). While only 4 of the 21 MTM programscontracted with pharmacies to provide some or all of their MTM services, these plans covered a large number of beneficiaries (7.5 million lives).

Conclusion: MTM programs offered by prescription drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans were highly variable during the first year of the Medicare Part D benefit. Definitive evidence supporting the effectiveness of many of the most common interventions is lacking.