This theme issue focuses on pharmacists' patient-centered health care (PCHC) roles. In this issue, authors address the question: “How does the profession shape the future of PCHC and pharmacists' roles in the patient-centered medical home (PCMH)?” To answer the question, authors described experiences or research incorporating pharmacists and their skills into PCMH/PCHC models, development of reimbursement models, evolution and adaptation of patient health record and electronic medical records (EMRs) into PCMH (e.g., free-standing pharmacies, practices with physician offices), and new or modified college of pharmacy and continuing professional development training models. Finally, we asked practitioners to look into their crystal balls and speculate on the future role of pharmacogenomics, nanotechnology, and other technology advances in PCHC.

Erickson and Hambleton+¹ describe a 3-decade-long evolution of a nonacademic primary care clinic into a PCMH. Pharmacists were incorporated directly into patient care activities through collaborative practice agreements beginning in the early 1980s, emphasis on pharmacist services to improve clinic efficiencies (e.g., refill authorization), evolving reimbursement models (e.g., billing for services “incident to” physician visits, pay for performance), and physician–pharmacist coordination of patient visits using EMRs.

Scott et al.+² describe an academic area health education center PCMH. A unique feature of this PCMH is the absence of an on-site pharmacy. Patients obtain medications from local community pharmacists. PCMH pharmacists emphasize that they do not compete with local pharmacists but focus on care transitions and coordinate communication with local practitioners. Another feature is that the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy credentials clinical pharmacist practitioners (CPPs). The CPP credential allows PCMH pharmacists to “initiate and adjust drug therapy in collaboration with a physician.” Extending their role as members of a holistic team, PCMH pharmacists also direct patients to social and community resources to cover basic necessities, including food, shelter, and heating.

Similarly, Moczygemba et al.+³ describe a partnership between an academic pharmacy program and a Health Resources and Services Administration–funded Health Care for the Homeless clinic. As one might expect in a safety net program directed at the homeless, the most frequently occurring problems and recommendations were related to ineffective therapy and nonadherence.

Kozminski et al.+⁴ conducted a qualitative study to determine the acceptance and attitudes about pharmacist integration into a PCMH. Using individual interviews, surveys, written logs, and observations, five themes were identified: (1) positive overall feeling, (2) benefits, (3) challenges in understanding the pharmacists' new roles, (4) how the pharmacist improved the PCMH's workflow, and (5) concerns about “losing” the pharmacist when the project was over.

Lenz and Monaghan+⁵ report how a new pharmacist role was incorporated into a PCHC model. They describe medication therapy management (MTM) and lifestyle health behavioral change services to a self-insured employer. The pharmacist's primary task is coordinating care among the employee patients of a community pharmacy operated by the college located on the university campus. In addition to MTM services, the pharmacist assists patients in setting personalized health goals.

This theme issue provides insight into the profession's role in shaping the future of PCHC. However, serious gaps warrant attention, exploration, and solutions. First, a sustainable reimbursement model was absent from all PCHC/PCMH practices. Steps were taken to generate revenue (e.g., “incident to” billing). However, in each case, the pharmacists' services required internal (e.g., within the PCMH) or external (e.g., academic institution) funding to remain viable. Second—and I do not know which is the chicken and which is the egg—if the submissions for this theme issue are representative, a paucity of data exist comparing PCMHs with and without pharmacists. Given the emphasis on comparative effectiveness research in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, pharmacists have a unique opportunity to rigorously demonstrate their value to the PCHC team. Therefore, although the party has begun, it is not quite time to sing “home sweet medical home.”