Additional Pharmacy Services Leads To Increased Profits

Additional Pharmacy Services Leads To Increased Profits:

Pharmacies today that are growing and showing increased profits are all doing one thing in common: they are providing additional pharmacy services to patients and customers. In today's Pharmacy environment it is a must to expand what your business is doing! Not only to keep your existing customer base coming back, but to attract additional business and increase your profitability.  With such realities as the ACA (Affordable Care Act), the Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage (Medicare Part D), and decreasing reimbursements across all areas, it is imperative that all Pharmacies evaluate what they currently provide to their customers and to make adjustments as needed.A decade old study from 2004 showed that less than 10% provided any type of MTM (Medication Therapy Management) to their customers. HCC has been consulting with Pharmacies for over 27 years now and although this percentage has definitely increased, we continually find that a majority of Pharmacists are resistant to changing their practices. We hear that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but that will not work in today's changing Pharmacy business practice. Areas of opportunity such as vaccinations by Pharmacists, on-site testing, patient education and even a reemergence of home prescription deliveries are becoming the norm rather than the exception.A new article to be published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association takes the need for change even further. A couple of points from the article are worth pointing out:- Back 10 years ago it was proven in a study that independent community Pharmacies accounted for providing the vast majority of specialized Pharmacy services. But this new article makes it clear that the large chains and grocery store pharmacies are catching up! This study revealed that the large chains and supermarkets are providing a larger share of "novel" services than the independents. In other words, the chains are taking customers and patients away from the independent community based Pharmacies by the delivery of community-based clinical services.- An interesting side note of the article was that Pharmacies with 3+ Pharmacists on staff were much more likely to expand services and provide their customer base value added reasons to come back. Their services provided included vaccinations, prescription/medication adjustments and reconciliation, disease state management, disease state coaching and education, patient consultation & screening, specialty compounding, and point-of-care testing performed at their location, just for some examples.In today’s environment of a constantly changing landscape in the pharmacy business, let an experienced, proven Pharmacy Consulting company provide you with the assistance you may need. We have a professional full-time staff of pharmacists with a proven track record in every area of pharmacy operations. Just a few of the services that we offer include:– Pharmacy Performance and Efficiency Enhancements– Pharmacy Business Management Consulting– Pharmacy Business Planning– Pharmacy Start-up Consulting and Implementation– Interim Pharmacy Management– Policy and Procedure Development and Review– Compliance Review– Pharmacy Exit StrategiesIf you have questions regarding virtually any area of your pharmacy business or practice, we urge you to contact us today to see how our Pharmacy Consulting services can help. With a full-time staff of in-house Pharmacy Consultant specialists, HCC can answer any questions that you may have in all areas of your business. Call us today at 800-642-1652 for a free consultation.