The evolution of PQA’s continued involvement in medication therapy management (MTM) spans over a decade. The first blog in a series to detail PQA’s MTM initiative outlines PQA’s six objectives to advance MTM quality. This blog will address the first objective to promote a standard of care for MTM through education on using the PQA Medication Therapy Problem (MTP) Categories Framework^TM in the Pharmacist’s Patient Care Process. 

The Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process (PPCP), created by the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners, is used by pharmacists to deliver medication management services (MMS) to patients. The steps of the PPCP require the pharmacist to collect, assess, plan, implement, and conduct follow-ups on the patient through monitoring and evaluation.

Shortly after the launch of the PPCP, PQA developed the PQA MTP Categories Framework through a consensus-based process. It was created to support consistent categorization of MTPs in practice. The PQA MTP Categories Framework is widely used and complements the PPCP, given its specific guidance on how to assess each medication for indication, effectiveness, safety, and adherence.

A recent PQA report, Advancing Medication Therapy Management Quality Measurement,  summarized critical actions necessary to improve the quality and measurement of the Medicare Part D MTM program. The report identified variation in the documentation of MTM services and stakeholders reiterated the need to promote a practice standard and standardized documentation and reporting of MTM services. Although Part D MTM program reporting requirements have remained fundamentally unchanged since 2016, some years later in 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) encourages Part D plan sponsors to adopt standardized documentation of MTM services.

Driven to promote a standard of care for MTM, PQA has identified an opportunity to educate MTM providers on the integration of the PQA MTP Categories Framework into the PPCP. As such, PQA will develop continuing education for learners to achieve the following objectives:

1. collect patient-specific data;
2. assess data to identify and document medication therapy problems;
3. develop a plan to establish goals of therapy and resolve medication therapy problems;
4. implement medication therapy interventions;  
5. and follow-up on medication therapy problem resolution with proper documentation.

This educational program will address the needs and interests of CMS and MTM stakeholders and promote a standard of care for MTM, including standardized documentation and reporting of MTM services.

The PQA MTP Categories Framework is available upon request at www.pqaalliance.org/medication-management-services. If you have questions email us at [email protected].