College of pharmacy-based medication therapy management program for a university system

Objective: To document and evaluate the design and operation of a medication therapy management (MTM) benefit and associated MTM clinic developed by the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy as a covered health plan benefit for University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD) employees, early retirees, and their dependents. Setting: Office-based, nondispensing pharmacy at UMD. Practice description: College of Pharmacy, Duluth faculty developed and provided MTM services as a covered health benefit for UMD beneficiaries. Practice innovation: Partnership between a university campus and a college of pharmacy to design and implement an MTM benefit as part of the university health plan covering current employees, early retirees, and dependents. Main outcome measures: MTM benefit design, MTM clinic implementation, patient complexity comparisons, and drug therapy problems identified and addressed. Results: Of 1,000 eligible beneficiaries, 68 (∼7%) took advantage of the MTM benefit, consistent with national participation rates but lower than the 25% goal for participation. Beneficiaries receiving MTM services were three times more complex in terms of health resource use than the "typical" UMD beneficiary and were experiencing 7.22 drug therapy problems per patient. Conclusion: The UMD MTM clinic was successful in providing UMD beneficiaries access to MTM services. The MTM benefit was subsequently offered throughout the entire University of Minnesota system (Crookston, Duluth, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Morris).