Will My IHS Pharmacy Have to offer mail-order services?
Last month you read about how using the VA Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP) for mail-order prescription services in IHS may affect pharmacy staff size. From what we learned during our interview with CAPT Pam Schweitzer, IHS-VA National CMOP Coordinator, the plan is for most sites to stay at the same staff size or to even increase. We asked you what you thought in our poll, and 70% thought that it wouldn’t increase.
Phoenix Indian Medical Center staff visiting the VA CMOP Leavenworth
Another frequently asked question about the program is “Will my pharmacy HAVE to offer mail-order services & use CMOP?” We discussed this with CAPT Schweitzer, and she took the time to address some of thse important and valid concerns:
Q: Will IHS require every site to get on board with CMOP?
A: No. It is optional. One aim of this project is to improve the efficiency of the prescription filling process. This may involve combining automation and mailing prescriptions locally. Many times, adding more staff is not an option. Some of the sites have long wait times or health through adherence. CMOP provides an additional/alternative method, which makes sense for improving the quality of health care.
As you can see from the CMOP flow chart below, the programs allows for flexibility for the patient to choose the plan that works best for them, as well as for the IHS site to customize the program to their own specifications:
Q: Will the tribes have an opportunity to get on board with CMOP?A. Quite a few tribes are interested. It is expected that they will have the opportunity to get on board. In fact, three large tribes in Oklahoma have been mailing prescriptions from their facility for quite some time. Their experiences and challenges were incorporated into the planning of the CMOP project.
Ken Siehr, National CMOP Director snapped this photo of the staff when he stopped by Phoenix Indian Medical Center
Q: Which IHS sites are already implementing CMOP services?
Rapid City Indian Hospital (South Dakota), Phoenix Indian Medical Center (Arizona), Claremore IHS Hospital (Oklahoma), and the Yakama Indian Health Center (Washington), to name a few. Eleven sites are actively using CMOP with at least eight more scheduled for activation by the end of the year.
From our discussions with IHS and Tribal Pharmacy Directors, it is clear that this have been a hot topic of discussion in the IHS pharmacy world. Our goal of part 1 and part 2 of this special IHS and mail-order services series was to help you get answers to some of the FAQs that you were wondering about. Special thanks again to CAPT Pam Schweitzer for answering questions about this new program.
If you are going to go through the transition to using CMOP in your pharmacy and have pharmacy staffing needs during the transition, click here for your options.
