Preparing pharmacists for medication therapy management services: designing lementing pharmacist-run diabetes management program in a community setting.

The role of pharmacists in disease management has been well-documented in the face of numerous disease states, including diabetes. Recently, Medicare recognized the pharmacy profession in disease management programs under the Medicare Modernization Act of 2006 with the introduction of medication therapy management (MTM) and Medicare Health Support. Therefore, pharmacists must understand how to design and implement MTM services. This paper describes a disease management program at an independent pharmacy, and discusses potential areas of consideration in relation to the implementation of a disease management program in a community pharmacy setting.