Pharmacy benefits management and ambulatory pharmacy services

The business of pharmacy is changing dramatically as new components are added to our health care system and new terms developed to describe existing functions. For example, payment for pharmacy products and services are increasingly coming under control of Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) companies who are also racing to develop Disease State Management Programs. Additionally, health care purchasers have welcomed the development of HEDIS (Health Employer Data Information Set) as another tool to evaluate both the cost and quality of health care provided to their enrollees. All this means pharmacy will have to change its paradigm from dispensing to managing the medication consumption/compliance process in addition to traditional dispensing activities.