Though it’s unlikely to draw much of the limelight away from the high-profile anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. now being tried in Des Moines, a trade secrets and trademark case involving a Des Moines-based health-care management company could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of Medicare patients and their pharmacists across the country.

Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care LLC claims that Community Care Rx, through a partnership with the National Community Pharmacists Association, breached its contract with Outcomes and used trade secrets it obtained to establish a competing medication therapy management program through an NCPA subsidiary, Community MTM Services Inc. Outcomes also alleges that Community Care misappropriated a trade name it had established more than seven years ago.

Outcomes’ effort to get immediate relief in the form of a preliminary injunction was denied on Dec. 22 by U.S. District Judge James Gritzner in Des Moines. Gritzner will hear the case when a trial date is set, which is expected to occur within the next six weeks.

The court considered four factors in weighing the motion for an injunction: the likelihood of success by Outcomes on the merits of the case; the balance of harms between the plaintiff and defendant; the threat of irreparable harm that might be suffered by Outcomes; and the public interest.

In a 45-page order, Gritzner concluded that Outcomes would not face irreparable harm if an injunction was not granted, and that greater harm would actually come about by excluding Community Care from the market

That “would leave Outcomes as the only broad-scale administrator of a comprehensive face-to-face MTM system in the United States,” Gritzner wrote. “Outcomes would essentially have a monopoly in the market on this method of providing MTM services, in a market where services are of the utmost importance, prescription drug care.”

In a press release it issued on Jan. 3, the NCPA said the court had “quickly and completely denied” the motion and that Outcomes “had failed to establish the fundamental and required elements of its claims …” The association represents more than 24,000 pharmacy members throughout the United States.

The denial of the motion was a mixed bag for Outcomes, said Camille Urban, an attorney with the BrownWinick law firm, which is representing the company.

“Outcomes was encouraged because of the commentary [by the court] on the likelihood of the success on the merits of the breach of contract and trade secrets claim, even though our motion for preliminary injunction was denied flatly,” she said.

Outcomes, founded in 1999 by a local pharmacist, Tom Halterman, specializes in providing a secure online system that enables pharmacists to record consultation services provided to patients so they can be reimbursed by Medicare or private insurers.

The privately owned company, which as of October 2005 worked with more than 4,000 pharmacists nationwide, was a pioneer in developing this type of system. Under the Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage that became effective in January 2006, pharmacists are now required to use some form of a medication therapy management system in order to receive Medicare reimbursement.

In October 2004, Outcomes entered into a one-year agreement with Community Care to provide its services in conjunction with Community Care’s prescription drug discount card program.

In August 2005, Outcomes learned that Community Care had decided to not offer Outcomes’ program in 2006. Two months later, Community Care entered into an agreement with MemberHealth Inc., an Ohio-based pharmacy benefit management company that serves approximately 1.1 million Medicare Part D patients nationwide, to provide medication therapy management services. Those services were launched in July 2006.

Outcomes claims that it recently learned that Community Care had as early as May 2006 been using Outcomes’ “Encounter” trademark in its training sessions. That trademark had been established and used by Outcomes since 1999, according to the suit.

In December 2005, Outcomes filed a petition and demand for jury trial in the Iowa District Court for Polk County and later that month, the defendants removed the action to the U.S. District Court.

Urban said the estimated compensatory and punitive damages that Outcomes will request from the court have not been made part of the record and that she could not release those figures.

On Jan. 4 the company issued a press release to announce it had increased the amount it will pay participating pharmacists to $50 per consultation provided, up from a previous rate of $30. Claims data going back to 2003 indicate the program has saved an estimated $600 per patient in avoidable prescription drug, medical and hospital costs, according to Outcomes.