Online Provision of Part D Medication Therapy Management Program Information

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Low rates of beneficiary participation in medication therapy management (MTM) programs may be partly due to lack of awareness and understanding of the MTM program. To address this, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires Medicare Part D sponsors to provide online information about their MTM programs. An early study conducted in 2014 found low compliance rates, with only 59.5% of a small convenience sample of Part D plan contract websites compliant with CMS requirements. The current study provides a more recent evaluation of compliance with website requirements using a random sample of Part D plan contracts. OBJECTIVES: To (a) evaluate Part D sponsors' compliance with MTM program website elements that are required and suggested by CMS and (b) investigate the use of elements recommended by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for websites for older adults. METHODS: A random sample of 184 Part D plan contract MTM program websites was selected from a list of 624 approved Part D plan contracts for 2016. Duplicate and inaccessible websites were excluded. The remaining websites were reviewed to determine compliance with CMS-required, CMS-suggested, and NIA-recommended elements. Descriptive statistics were reported at the Part D contract level for compliance with individual elements, category elements (CMS-required, CMS-suggested, and NIArecommended), and overall compliance. Overall compliance by category was also reported by Part D plan type.RESULTS: Of the 184 MTM websites that were reviewed, 106 remained after excluding duplicate (n = 67) and inaccessible (n = 11) websites: 81 from Medicare Advantage prescription drug (MAPD) plans, 16 from prescription drug plans (PDPs), and 9 from Medicare-Medicaid plans (MMPs). Overall, 51% of Part D plan contract MTM websites were compliant with all of the 14 CMS-required elements. The only element in the CMS-suggested elements category, "accessibility by clicking through a maximum of two links," had a compliance rate of 79%. For the NIA-recommended elements category, 46% of the Part D plan contract MTM websites were compliant with the 4 elements. CONCLUSIONS: Medicare Part D plan sponsors are providing information about their MTM programs on plan websites. However, only 51% of Part D plan websites are fully compliant with CMS guidance, providing all required elements.

<p>Medication Therapy Management: Current Challenges</p>

“…46,[88][89][90] Improving patient satisfaction and information about MTM services provided by pharmacies needs to become common so the services are sold through word-of-mouth. [91][92][93] There is a tremendous, untapped opportunity to improve patient expectations of community pharmacist-provided MTM services.…”