Consultant Pharmacy/Collaborative Practice Agreements

[Swansocl]

I am finishing up my P3 year in SC and I'm interested in pursuing unique fields in pharmacy practice. One of our faculty does a lot with consulting and he's hooking me up with some people in the field. Many of my rotations are with preceptors who do a lot with MTM in Physician's offices and elsewhere. I've also talked with a pharmacist who owns his own consulting practice where him and his colleagues are contracted out to provide counseling services.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this, and what the best path to take is as far as getting involved with a consulting organization. Or how best to go about creating a collaborative practice agreement with a physician and how best to justify your position. Also, what are the options out there? I'm interested in diabetes management and am told that your CDE or BC-ADM are good things to pursue. Is it something I could do on the side in addition to a retail position?

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[deleted462159]

The roadblock with collaborative practice agreements for MTMs tend to be re: having a ready reimbursement avenue. Maybe if you work with a capitated medical group that appreciates how MTMs reduce risk of other healthcare costs. How are your preceptors/faculty getting paid for MTMs?

 

[Swansocl]

The roadblock with collaborative practice agreements for MTMs tend to be re: having a ready reimbursement avenue. Maybe if you work with a capitated medical group that appreciates how MTMs reduce risk of other healthcare costs. How are your preceptors/faculty getting paid for MTMs?

Generally, they work their way into physician's practices and are put on their payroll. The physician bills part B for the pharmacist's MTM and that's how they make the practice money. A lot of the time they'll also make recommendations on how to cut down on various costs. Though in the near future SC will probably pass a bill to recognize pharmacists as providers, allowing us to bill part B ourselves. There are some other unique avenues of pay, like working under grants. One of my professors is working under a grant for a Hypertension Adherence study and is getting reimbursed for his time $90/hr. He's just doing MTM/counseling, no data collection or that sort of thing. The rest is just the regular medicare reimbursement.