During the next 14 months, the Maryland P3 (Patients, Pharmacists, Partnerships) Program will offer eligible employees at the State Center Office the opportunity to join a pilot project providing medication therapy management (MTM) services by specialty-trained pharmacists.
Pharmacists will work collaboratively with employees and their health care providers to set short-term and long-term self-management goals. Notes from pharmacists’ sessions with employees will be documented in ThinkEHRx, a pharmacist-focused case management system provided by eHealthObjects, Inc. ThinkEHRx will house the program’s clinical, behavioral, and medication adherence data, including recommendations related to the standard of care and health care provider referrals. Written notes will also be sent to the employee’s health care provider following each session to ensure collaboration and continuity of care.
“We are extremely pleased to enter into this partnership to provide employees from the state of Maryland with services through this evidence-based program that has been proven to improve health and reduce costs,” says Magaly Rodriguez de Bittner, PharmD, BCPS, CDE, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the School of Pharmacy and director of the Maryland P3 Program. “We look forward to demonstrating the program’s positive results and determining the potential valued-based benefit to the state.”
Established in August 2006, the Maryland P3 Program is a partnership of the School of Pharmacy, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DHMH) Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, and the Maryland Pharmacists Association. The program utilizes pharmacists as medication experts working in collaboration with employees’ primary care providers to assist with proper use of medications, diagnostic testing, counseling, and overall disease state management. Since its inception, the program has enrolled more than 700 patients at seven different companies.
MTM services have been shown to improve health outcomes and reduce direct health care costs by reducing the number of hospital and emergency room visits for participants working for self-insured employers, with savings ranging from $495 to $3,281.