Pharmacy Students' Views of Managed Care Pharmacy and PBMs: Should There Be More Exposure to Managed Care in the Pharmacy Curriculum?

Abstract

In an exploratory survey conducted at 1 pharmacy school, students perceived themselves as generally uninformed about managed care issues, yet more than one-third believed that dealing with PBMs constituted a significant portion of their work day as community-based pharmacy interns. Managed care understanding is necessary for all pharmacy students because most graduates will practice in community settings. Patients are exposed to managed care and their pharmacy benefit primarily at the point of medication procurement and medication counseling. As a result, pharmacists provide many patients with managed care and pharmacy benefit education. Schools of pharmacy may wish to evaluate and consider increasing the amount of curriculum content specific to managed care and PBMs.