Building Tobacco Treatment Capacity and Sustainability: A Qualitative Study on Implementation of Community Pharmacy Technicians as Community Health Workers

Community pharmacies are increasingly providing health care services like tobacco treatment and disease-related management but need sustainable models for implementation. As several state Medicaid programs reimburse for community health worker (CHW) services, one promising model is to have pharmacy technicians engage with patients as designated CHWs. This qualitative study interviewed staff in seven California pharmacies about their experience with and perspectives on implementing community pharmacy technicians as CHWs. Guided by implementation science frameworks, data were hand-coded and analyzed iteratively using thematic analysis. Relative advantage and compatibility of CHWs was high across all pharmacies. Pharmacy culture aligned with CHW values, and CHW integration helped formalize the work that pharmacy staff were already doing. Challenges included the complexity of billing and obtaining payment for services provided. Despite these barriers, pharmacies successfully integrated and expanded their CHW services, ranging from social service connections to tobacco treatment or disease-related management education. Pharmacy peer networks, health plan champions and patient outcome improvements accelerated diffusion. Community pharmacies provide a trusted setting for delivering both CHW education and extending health care services, but broad implementation will need health plans to improve policy and procedure with guidance specifically for the pharmacy context that helps overcome administrative barriers.