Who We Are

The Rational Drug Therapy Program (RDTP) is dedicated to safe, rational, cost effective, drug therapy that is focused on patient outcomes. We are part of West Virginia University School of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmaceutical Systems and Policy and supported through various contracts with our listed partners. Implemented in 1995, the program provides prior authorization and consultative services to the West Virginia Medicaid Program, the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

As part of the prior authorization service, this program reviews not only the medications listed on the WV Medicaid and PEIA preferred drug list but also performs clinical prior authorization reviews for certain classes of drugs including home health products and injectable medications. The program also performs the duties of the Pharmacy Provider Help Desk for West Virginia Medicare and Gainwell Technologies, serving as the technical call center for pharmacy providers to help with problems encountered during the electronic claim processing of the WV Medicaid program.

In more recent years, grant funding has allowed us to expand our clinical services to include a prior authorization-based opioid stewardship program for Medicaid and PEIA members, and a statewide clinical education program to improve outcomes for patients with ADHD. Our most recent efforts have also spanned into topics such as stigma and substance use disorder, screening for substance use disorder, and more.

RDTP’s latest project includes a clinical pharmacist-staffed guideline information line for clinician support in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of ADHD by providing clinical resources from the West Virginia ACC Guidelines which were developed by a panel of West Virginia experts. This program is funded to support pediatric mental healthcare access, and future similar initiatives are likely to follow.