I still see the need for the concept of pharmaceutical care to be applied in all areas of pharmacy delivery. Managed care just happens to be a little bit more convenient setting for the delivery of pharmaceutical care. In the managed care setting, pharmacists tend to work as colleagues with other health care professionals, and their skills and abilities are recognized by other members of the health care team. That team concept wasn't as structured in what came before managed care. I believe it's evolutionary.
Pharmacists bring value in the form of their knowledge base and a very fine-tuned skill set.
The concept of pharmaceutical care has come to the forefront primarily because of all of the work that has occurred in managed care. There are disease management programs, treatment guidelines, protocols, that all have pharmacy as a singular component of a well-integrated system. The effect that pharmacists are able to have on the use of medications benefits the end consumer, the public. As to whether pharmacists are overstepping their bounds, those bounds might be somewhat loosely drawn, in that the sheer potential of the pharmacists' role in health care only now is being realized. Pharmacists are extremely valuable resources.