Flip the Pharmacy’s impact on comprehensive medication management performance

Abstract

BackgroundClinically integrated networks of community pharmacies are expanding partnerships with health care payers for sustainable provision of patient care services. The Pennsylvania Pharmacists Care Network (PPCN), a part of CPESN USA, launched its first payer program in 2017 with a Medicaid managed care organization for comprehensive medication management (CMM). Some PPCN pharmacy teams have participated in Flip the Pharmacy, a national practice transformation initiative. ObjectivesThis study aimed to determine whether pharmacy participation in Flip the Pharmacy was associated with a greater rate of CMM encounters than in nonparticipating pharmacies within a statewide clinically integrated network. MethodsThis project was a retrospective quantitative study. CMM encounter data including total number of encounters and total number of eligible members were extracted from monthly reports. Generalized estimating equations were used to assess the association between Flip the Pharmacy participation and CMM encounter rates. ResultsOf 103 pharmacies that participated in the CMM program in 2019 and 2020, 77.7% of pharmacies (n = 80) were included in analyses. Of these, 31.3% (n = 25) participated in Flip the Pharmacy. Overall, 80 pharmacies documented 8460 patient encounters through the CMM program. On average, pharmacies participating in Flip the Pharmacy recorded 1.67 times the rate of encounters compared with non-Flip the Pharmacy pharmacies (95% CI 1.10–2.54), controlling for single versus multiple pharmacy sites and weekend hours. On average, pharmacies participating in Flip the Pharmacy recorded 1.18 times the rate of initial encounters (95% CI 0.84–1.59) and 2.06 times the rate of follow-up encounters (95% CI 1.22–3.48) compared with non-Flip the Pharmacy pharmacies. ConclusionParticipation in Flip the Pharmacy in Pennsylvania was associated with greater engagement and completion of encounters within a payer program for CMM. Continued practice transformation efforts are needed to ensure the sustainability of community pharmacy practice as it continues to expand into payment for patient care services.