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Our Business
Treating Mental Health
with Medication Therapy
Management
As Medicaid membership continues to swell,
programs are expected to manage an ever-
widening array of health issues. Program
budgets haven’t grown in kind, so there is a
constant search for more effective methods
of care management – especially when it
comes to costly chronic conditions.
Medication therapy management,
or MTM, is being used more and
more to improve health outcomes
by leveraging a previously
underused resource: pharmacists.
Using clinical data and pharmacy data,
MTM programs open a communications
channel between pharmacists and healthcare
providers to update a member’s plan of care.
Pharmacists can report member feedback on
their treatment plans to providers, as well as
provide educational material and counseling
to members at the point of service when the
system flags a possible issue. That translates
to fewer adverse drug events, more informed
patients and improved coordination of care.
Why does it work? For many, pharmacists
are the main point of interaction with the
healthcare system. While a member might
see their primary care physician – if they
have one – briefly once per year, pharmacists
are seen monthly (or even weekly) for picking
up and/or refilling prescriptions. As the most
accessible part of the healthcare system,
they can spot a developing condition more
quickly, typically within months instead
of years.
Xerox has been
successfully in several states. We cover
health issues including asthma, diabetes,
hypertension, hyperlipidemia, heart failure,
gastrointestinal diseases, multiple sclerosis,
COPD and more. As the needs of the
Medicaid population have expanded, so
have our MTM programs. That’s why we are
now tackling two growing health issues in
Medicaid programs: depression and
suicidal tendencies.
