Community pharmacists’ perceptions of acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of a value-based care model

¹Department of Pharmaceutical Care & Health Systems, College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

²Center for Medication Optimization, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Executive Summary

HealthPartners is an integrated health plan offering comprehensive medication management (CMM) under a value-based care model called Partners in Excellence (PIE). In PIE, participating organizations are incentivized to conduct CMM visits and are eligible for bonus payments if they achieve quality and engagement metrics. Semi-structured, one-on-one qualitative interviews were conducted with a group of 14 pharmacists and pharmacy managers to evaluate the acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of the PIE program from their perspective. 12 codes emerged from the interviews included in Figure 1:

While the acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of the PIE program was generally positive, participants cited a number of implementation challenges related to documentation and billing and producing a sustainable CMM model. The results shed light on how a value-based care model for CMM is perceived within community pharmacies and could inform the development and implementation of similar quality-based CMM programs.

What is already known about this subject

• Comprehensive medication management (CMM) is necessary to address the burden of suboptimal medication use, yet the uptake of CMM has been sporadic.
• Implementation science and the study of implementation outcomes is essential to accelerating adoption of CMM.

What this study adds

• Generally, community pharmacists and pharmacy managers have positive perceptions around the acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of a regional health plan’s value-based care model, yet there are some implementation barriers that still exist.
• The results shed light on how a value-based care model is perceived within community pharmacies and could inform the development and implementation of similar CMM programs

Use the following link to access the full-text article: https://www.jmcp.org/doi/10.18553/jmcp.2021.27.7.865

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[1] Pestka DL, Stoa MK, Sorensen TD, Blanchard CM. Community pharmacists’ perceptions of acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of a regional health plan’s payment strategy for comprehensive medication management. Journal of Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy. 2021 Jul;27(7):865-872. https://www.jmcp.org/doi/10.18553/jmcp.2021.27.7.865