Latest / Pharmacy Podcast Network / The 2026 McKesson ideaShare Rewind | Part Four

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The 2026 McKesson ideaShare Rewind | Part Four · Pharmacy Podcast Network

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the Pharmacy podcast Network.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the twenty twenty six McKesson Idea Share Rewind,
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  Speaker 2: a pharmacy podcast network exclusive series of on site interviews
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: captured inside the exhibit hall of one of the largest
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  Speaker 2: community pharmacy brainstorm events, empowering current and future independent pharmacists
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  Speaker 2: with deeper connections, new ways to innovate, and strengthen numbers
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  Speaker 2: for the voice of community pharmacy. This four part series
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: brings you back to the action in Denver, Colorado. We'd
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  Speaker 2: like to thank AAPA for sponsoring this episode of the
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six McKesson Idea show Rewind.
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  Speaker 3: This is Keate Health, VP of Pharmacy Innovation, and you're
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  Speaker 3: listening to the Pharmacy podcast.
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  Speaker 4: We are here with Kate at the IPC booth at
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  Speaker 4: the McKesson Idea Share twenty twenty six.
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  Speaker 5: Kate, Welcome to Denver.
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  Speaker 6: Thank you so much for having me Tom. I love Denver.
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  Speaker 3: I don't come here all that often, but you know,
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  Speaker 3: all right, we'll embrace it.
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  Speaker 5: I don't get to see anything.
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  Speaker 4: I go from airport to Uber Uber to hotel, hotel
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  Speaker 4: to the exhibits.
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  Speaker 5: And then I go home.
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  Speaker 6: Did you go on the train too? There's saine.
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  Speaker 4: I didn't get it to train, so I'm missing all
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  Speaker 4: the good stuff in Denver. And then as I'm in
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  Speaker 4: the uber, I'm looking out saying, look how beautiful Denver is.
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  Speaker 3: It is a lot of We didn't see a lot
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  Speaker 3: of mountains yet, but now we can see them.
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  Speaker 7: Now.
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  Speaker 4: All right, it's time to talk business. I would like
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  Speaker 4: when you come on the show because we always shift
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  Speaker 4: things to the world of technology. Embracing technology, IPC is
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  Speaker 4: encouraging its members to pick tools specific to.
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  Speaker 5: What they want to do. Talk to us about that.
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  Speaker 3: Well, every pharmacy is incredibly different. We're obviously in you know,
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  Speaker 3: various states, and there's a lot of different things that
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  Speaker 3: each store has a nichetion or that they're ultimately a
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  Speaker 3: part of.
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  Speaker 6: And so really what we're trying to bring.
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  Speaker 3: Is a digital suite of services to support our pharmacy
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  Speaker 3: and become a little bit more modern in their their
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  Speaker 3: way of thinking. So ultimately we are are looking at
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  Speaker 3: ways of you know, direct to consumer or different ways
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  Speaker 3: to diversify reimbursement and letting pharmacies pick from our digital
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  Speaker 3: suite of services to help them do that.
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  Speaker 4: So what of the services are standing out where you're
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  Speaker 4: seeing the independent community pharmacy embrace and then turn around
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  Speaker 4: and show that it's successful in use.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, like share with us some one of the tools
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  Speaker 5: that it is getting like the most played.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I think our partnership right now that we're really excited
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  Speaker 3: about is Doctronic. And Doctronic is a telehealth platform that
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  Speaker 3: pharmacies can utilize as really kind of their back end,
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  Speaker 3: so they support urgent care, but they also can be
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  Speaker 3: a primary care option for those really rural pharmacies. The
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  Speaker 3: reason we really love Doctronic is they have an Apple
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  Speaker 3: like mentality. They really have kind of moved away from
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  Speaker 3: the app base and really more supportive the web browser.
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  Speaker 3: So depending on the demographic of patient that you're servicing,
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  Speaker 3: they can go directly to the platform and start their visit.
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  Speaker 3: What's so cool about them is they have an AI doctor.
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  Speaker 3: They have an awesome platform Hipposartifide, and any patient can
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  Speaker 3: go on and just start to talk about any of
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  Speaker 3: the health concerns or things that they're having, and then
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  Speaker 3: the AI doctor will complete a soapne and depending on
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  Speaker 3: that pathway, they can either say great, they got the
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  Speaker 3: information they needed or they want to talk live to
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  Speaker 3: a provider and then they'll take that soap note and
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  Speaker 3: those providers will review it and then the patient had
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  Speaker 3: visit for thirty nine dollars to be able to get a.
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  Speaker 6: Comprehensive as it.
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  Speaker 3: So we are really excited about that because we're seeing
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  Speaker 3: a lot of pharmacies transition to supporting more of an
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  Speaker 3: urgent care need.
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  Speaker 6: But also we're seeing so many.
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  Speaker 3: Healthcare deserts pop off and you don't you can't see,
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  Speaker 3: you know, a primary provider for forty five miles that
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  Speaker 3: pharmacy can now be that primary care option, which is
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  Speaker 3: really exciting.
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  Speaker 5: That is exciting. What about testing? How does testing fit
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  Speaker 5: into this?
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  Speaker 3: Testing is going to be something more coming in I think,
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  Speaker 3: you know down the line here. That's not something that
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  Speaker 3: I think is ultimately the main focus of this, but
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  Speaker 3: we're always looking at different ways to bring comprehensive you know,
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  Speaker 3: testing options to pharmacies as well.
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  Speaker 4: All right, and then the information that's collected, what system
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  Speaker 4: is this information being being tracked in?
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  Speaker 5: How is it being tracked?
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  Speaker 3: It's all through doctronics platforms, so they have their own
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  Speaker 3: e HR of course again have a certified and that
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  Speaker 3: information is being ultimately shared with that provider, so they
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  Speaker 3: can actually have a really comprehensive visit.
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  Speaker 6: What's really, you.
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  Speaker 3: Know, a problem I see in healthcare right now is
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  Speaker 3: that so many patients have to tell their same exact
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  Speaker 3: health story all.
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  Speaker 5: The build this format.
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  Speaker 6: Exactly over every time, and they're sick of it.
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  Speaker 3: So this platform has really been intentional about that, and
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  Speaker 3: they are taking those soap notes. So the patient creates
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  Speaker 3: their own profile, they can go in and review those
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  Speaker 3: soap notes at any time. They could actually take those
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  Speaker 3: soap notes to their primary provider if they wanted to,
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  Speaker 3: and have them review it so they don't have to
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  Speaker 3: continue to say the same thing over and over. So
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  Speaker 3: the patient has access to all that information through their profile.
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  Speaker 4: What kind of connection is happening between Doctronic in the
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  Speaker 4: pharmacy management system, so.
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  Speaker 3: That piece now is being ultimately explored.
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  Speaker 6: They don't really feel right now.
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  Speaker 3: That that has to be a big primary focus because
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  Speaker 3: it's so easy to.
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  Speaker 6: Go directly onto the web browser at this time.
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  Speaker 5: That's good, I was saying.
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  Speaker 4: If the profile is already there, there's a way to
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  Speaker 4: share some of that basic information with Doctronic to kind
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  Speaker 4: of expedite, but then again, if they're already collecting it
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  Speaker 4: from the session, then that kind of takes care of
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  Speaker 4: it and it's sure it's corrected.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly exact, which is huge, and I think again the
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  Speaker 3: memory piece of that is so key in something that
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  Speaker 3: you really don't see that much in our healthcare world today.
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  Speaker 4: Kate, what are you most excited about for the future
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  Speaker 4: of independent community pharmacy.
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  Speaker 6: Oh, my goodness, one of my most excited about.
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  Speaker 3: I'm excited about so many things, but I am really
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  Speaker 3: excited about our stores really taking more of a modernized approach,
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  Speaker 3: and that's really what we're trying to do here with digital.
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  Speaker 6: I've talked about telehealth, but one area.
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  Speaker 3: That so many of my peers know that I'm passionate
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  Speaker 3: about is general health and wellness. And we really have
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  Speaker 3: some really exciting partnerships here at the show. We partnered
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  Speaker 3: with full Script and they are a full scale, essentially
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  Speaker 3: storefront of high quality supplementation labs, et cetera. And I
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  Speaker 3: really see pharmacies and consumers starting to go down that path,
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  Speaker 3: and I get so passionate about it because I really
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  Speaker 3: I think there's a place for reactive care and there's
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  Speaker 3: a place for proactive care. And when you bring those
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  Speaker 3: two together, you have a community pharmacy at the center,
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  Speaker 3: and that's where I think they make the most impact
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  Speaker 3: on that community.
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  Speaker 5: Kate, this was wonderful catching up with you.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks so much for being on our pharmacy podcast Press Coverage.
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  Speaker 6: Thank you for having any time.
• 7:21
  Speaker 8: Independent pharmacy is more than a business. It's the heart
• 7:25
  Speaker 8: of the communities you serve. At AAPA, we're committed to
• 7:30
  Speaker 8: helping independent pharmacies thrive in an increasingly complex healthcare landscape.
• 7:35
  Speaker 8: As one of the nations leading pharmacy purchasing organizations, AAPA
• 7:39
  Speaker 8: empowers over six hundred and fifty independent pharmacies across twenty
• 7:43
  Speaker 8: six states with the tools, resources, and advocacy needed to
• 7:47
  Speaker 8: strengthen profitability and improve patient care. From competitive purchasing programs
• 7:53
  Speaker 8: and transparent rebate opportunities to advanced analytics through the Advantage
• 7:57
  Speaker 8: Portal and AI powered purchasing insights from Clara the Advantage Intelligence.
• 8:02
  Speaker 8: We help pharmacy owners make smarter, data driven decisions every day.
• 8:06
  Speaker 8: But we're more than a GPO. We're a dedicated partner.
• 8:10
  Speaker 8: Our team works alongside members to identify opportunities, navigate industry challenges,
• 8:15
  Speaker 8: and deliver personalized support that drives measurable results. When independent
• 8:20
  Speaker 8: pharmacy succeed, communities benefit. If you're ready to maximize your
• 8:24
  Speaker 8: purchasing power, gain actionable insights, and join a network committed
• 8:28
  Speaker 8: to your success. Discover the AAPA difference AAPA stronger together,
• 8:34
  Speaker 8: smarter purchasing, better results.
• 9:02
  Speaker 9: And vice president, Chief Pharmacy Officer at McKesson, and helpmer
• 9:06
  Speaker 9: be listening to the pharmacy.
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  Speaker 4: Podcast Welcome Back, Nancy Lyons McKesson Idea Share twenty twenty six.
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  Speaker 4: I blank and we're back. And it's like, how fast
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  Speaker 4: does this come? And time come when it's time for
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  Speaker 4: another Ideas here?
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  Speaker 9: Faster and faster every year, especially for the people planning
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  Speaker 9: the show. I think they're already planning twenty seven.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, I can imagine the work that goes into this.
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  Speaker 4: This is one of my favorite gatherings. The energy that's here,
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  Speaker 4: the excitement that's here, the hope that's here, that turns
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  Speaker 4: into execution, and it turns into what's happening next in
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  Speaker 4: independent community pharmacy. For pharmacy owners listening, what are some
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  Speaker 4: of the most important actions our independent pharmacies can take
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  Speaker 4: right now to strengthen their businesses.
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  Speaker 9: Well, what I advised them yesterday as we kicked off
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  Speaker 9: the Helpmare annual meeting here da Share was to really
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  Speaker 9: take a step back, enjoy the show, have the fun,
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  Speaker 9: to have all the conversations, but really look at the
• 10:08
  Speaker 9: way that you're operationalizing your business. What could you do today?
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  Speaker 9: On the stage, we had Jason Dorsey on the stage
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  Speaker 9: and he was talking about the implementation of AI and
• 10:20
  Speaker 9: he said that one of the leaders that he worked
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  Speaker 9: with bringing into the company told them to say, what
• 10:26
  Speaker 9: is the thing that is your worst five minutes of
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  Speaker 9: the week. So if owners can do that for all
• 10:31
  Speaker 9: of their staff and look for those things that they
• 10:34
  Speaker 9: can automate or they can use solutions that they're already
• 10:38
  Speaker 9: getting from memberships that they have either with McKesson or
• 10:41
  Speaker 9: health Mart or any of those other pieces, but really
• 10:44
  Speaker 9: to double down on that. We know staffing is one
• 10:47
  Speaker 9: of those operational pieces that is particularly challenging for them,
• 10:52
  Speaker 9: and health Mart is bringing in solutions for that. One
• 10:56
  Speaker 9: of our newest health Mart perks vendors is shift X.
• 10:59
  Speaker 9: They're over they're giving discounts to owners for finding shifts
• 11:04
  Speaker 9: so that they can come to idea share, they can
• 11:07
  Speaker 9: stay home when their child is sick, and they can
• 11:09
  Speaker 9: look for that longer term solution.
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  Speaker 10: So we're really excited about that.
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  Speaker 9: And then the other two components are all about revenue
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  Speaker 9: keeping what you have, so being operationally surveillant looking for solutions.
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  Speaker 9: The Healthwart outlest team has a bunch of solutions over
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  Speaker 9: there to help with revenue cycle management. We've also got
• 11:30
  Speaker 9: some solutions around protecting and preventing audits and those pieces
• 11:35
  Speaker 9: that are part of Healthwart membership. And then finally growing revenue.
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  Speaker 9: I'm really excited about one of the learning labs it's
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  Speaker 9: going to be tomorrow with our American Pharmacists Association Foundation
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  Speaker 9: partner that lets any of the pharmacists get paid for
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  Speaker 9: patient care services through the network that has offering. So
• 11:55
  Speaker 9: operationalize you get efficient, make sure that you're protecting the
• 11:59
  Speaker 9: revenue that you are have, and look for those new
• 12:01
  Speaker 9: ways to earn revenue.
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  Speaker 5: I love that.
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  Speaker 4: I love the innovation thoughts of where shift x has
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  Speaker 4: started and now where it is today. Proud of that team.
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  Speaker 4: I've been following them for about five years. It makes
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  Speaker 4: me think of the next question, So, where are you
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  Speaker 4: seeing pharmacists make the biggest impact on patient care today?
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  Speaker 4: What needs to change so pharmacists can continue providing that care.
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  Speaker 9: Yeah, the biggest impact is anywhere you want a pharmacists
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  Speaker 9: make an impact is where they'll deliver. You know, I
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  Speaker 9: don't want to go back to COVID, but we saw
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  Speaker 9: it during COVID with all of the things they did
• 12:36
  Speaker 9: with both testing and treating and immunizations. But to bring
• 12:39
  Speaker 9: it to today, you know, there's chronic condition management, preventing diabetes,
• 12:44
  Speaker 9: working on diabetes prevention programs through that APHA partner opportunity
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  Speaker 9: that we talked about, So chronic conditions. We're also tracking
• 12:52
  Speaker 9: closely those respiratory conditions. Flu season is coming up and
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  Speaker 9: pharmacists are going to be armed in the states that
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  Speaker 9: allow them to do those immunizations, do that test and
• 13:02
  Speaker 9: treating service, and then hopefully when advocacy comes around, we'll
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  Speaker 9: also be able to get that main Street bill passed
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  Speaker 9: so that Medicare patients can receive payment for that. But
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  Speaker 9: those are the two biggest hurdles for pharmacy. It's always
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  Speaker 9: can the pharmacists do the services for which they went
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  Speaker 9: to school and making sure that their their states or
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  Speaker 9: their boards are modernizing the practice acts and things to
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  Speaker 9: keep up with what pharmacists already have been doing for years.
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  Speaker 9: And then making sure that the payment is tied. That
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  Speaker 9: it's not two separate parts of the conversation. It's if
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  Speaker 9: there's a service delivered by a willing provider who happens
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  Speaker 9: to be a pharmacist, there's a clean, easy way to
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  Speaker 9: get them paid for that.
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  Speaker 10: It's awesome to hear.
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  Speaker 5: All right.
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  Speaker 4: Can you share a little bit about how McKesson is
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  Speaker 4: advocating on behalf of community pharmacies, including programs like mccusson Amplify.
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  Speaker 9: Yeah, those are like music to my ears words.
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  Speaker 7: You know.
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  Speaker 9: It started a couple of years ago. When we start
• 14:03
  Speaker 9: first put out applications, we didn't quite know what we
• 14:06
  Speaker 9: were going to get with it, but we knew that
• 14:08
  Speaker 9: we wanted to invest. McKesson wanted to invest in those
• 14:13
  Speaker 9: people who could influence policy the fastest, and we knew
• 14:16
  Speaker 9: that the states were where that was, and particularly the
• 14:18
  Speaker 9: state pharmacy associations. So we set up the program. We
• 14:22
  Speaker 9: put out applications in that first year across the country.
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  Speaker 9: We had pharmacy associations in all fifty states. We're currently
• 14:30
  Speaker 9: in year two. Everybody who applied for year two funding
• 14:35
  Speaker 9: last year received funding, and year three applications are open
• 14:41
  Speaker 9: right now for funding that book start being awarded in
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  Speaker 9: January of twenty twenty seven. Seems odd to say that,
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  Speaker 9: And when I trace that history, it's about the sustainability
• 14:52
  Speaker 9: of the commitment that McKesson is putting in front of
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  Speaker 9: those people who are doing some incredible things. There's you know,
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  Speaker 9: there's membership that is peaking in state pharmacy associations, some
• 15:03
  Speaker 9: of which are run by volunteers. So we're seeing them
• 15:06
  Speaker 9: get the infrastructure to get engaged with their members and
• 15:09
  Speaker 9: get their members to activate and speak up. They're working
• 15:13
  Speaker 9: on legislation that is making meaningful impact for the patients
• 15:17
  Speaker 9: that the pharmacies are serving. Right mckesson's mission is patient
• 15:20
  Speaker 9: comes first. Everything we do is about that, and we're
• 15:24
  Speaker 9: enabling that with this advocacy funding with those state associations
• 15:28
  Speaker 9: who know what their patients and their communities need locally.
• 15:31
  Speaker 9: So we're super, super excited about that, and I can't
• 15:35
  Speaker 9: wait to see the applications that the window closes June thirtieth,
• 15:38
  Speaker 9: and then the committee will review them blindedly and then
• 15:42
  Speaker 9: those dollars and the award letters will go out later
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  Speaker 9: this fall about twenty twenty seven, three years of McKesson
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  Speaker 9: Amplify funding. But you know, Todd, that's not all McKesson does.
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  Speaker 9: We show up at those state pharmacy association events, meeting
• 15:57
  Speaker 9: with the members, encouraging them that if they're not getting
• 16:01
  Speaker 9: engaged with their state associations yet, how easy it is.
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  Speaker 9: We've got some AI on the floor here today to
• 16:08
  Speaker 9: help them see that. It's about translating your stories into
• 16:11
  Speaker 9: that action. And then one of the programs that McKesson
• 16:15
  Speaker 9: I think kind of keeps under wraps, but every year
• 16:20
  Speaker 9: seventy of us just went to the Hill for our
• 16:22
  Speaker 9: own fly in. And when I say our own fly in,
• 16:25
  Speaker 9: it's we go as constituents, but it's pharmacy facing issues.
• 16:29
  Speaker 9: It's the things that are impacting practice acts, and we
• 16:33
  Speaker 9: go and talk to not only as a constituent, so
• 16:36
  Speaker 9: not as a member of a McKesson. It is a
• 16:38
  Speaker 9: mccuesson fly in, but we're talking constituent to constituent in
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  Speaker 9: those meetings, and you know, making that impact on behalf too.
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  Speaker 9: In addition to all that we do, raising those voices
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  Speaker 9: through mccusson Amplify.
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  Speaker 4: That's incredible and it makes me think why advocacy it
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: is so important. So it's critical to build up the
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  Speaker 4: profession of pharmacy, and how can pharmacists get more involved,
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: especially if they've never done it before.
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  Speaker 10: Yeah, I said this yesterday.
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  Speaker 9: Advocacy seem as elusive and scary and something that happens
• 17:15
  Speaker 9: in those big buildings at state capitals or in the
• 17:18
  Speaker 9: federal capitals. But once you've done it, it's really just
• 17:23
  Speaker 9: talking about your patients. It's talking about the care that
• 17:27
  Speaker 9: you're providing and educating. And there's nobody better than pharmacists
• 17:30
  Speaker 9: to educate. They've spent their entire careers educating patients about
• 17:35
  Speaker 9: their health. Now they're educating legislators about the health and
• 17:38
  Speaker 9: their communities and the impact that's being made. Tomorrow, I'm
• 17:43
  Speaker 9: bringing one of our pharmacy owners up on stage who
• 17:46
  Speaker 9: I met several years ago as a healthmart member. She
• 17:49
  Speaker 9: was teaching about the patient education that she delivered and
• 17:52
  Speaker 9: the services that are pharmacy and she and her husband
• 17:55
  Speaker 9: in their small little town in Kansas delivered. She became
• 17:59
  Speaker 9: the Kansas Firma Association president in testified and she was
• 18:04
  Speaker 9: terrified to the first time she had to testify, until
• 18:08
  Speaker 9: she realized that all she had to do was do
• 18:11
  Speaker 9: what she does best and educate people and make sure
• 18:13
  Speaker 9: that that meaning is accomplished. And they got both of
• 18:16
  Speaker 9: their bills passed. So that's a preempt for the story.
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  Speaker 9: But everybody needs to come and hear what's happening. And
• 18:25
  Speaker 9: when pharmacists just tell the stories that are part of them, right,
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  Speaker 9: it's just a conversation. Those legislators and their staff are
• 18:33
  Speaker 9: people too, and when you tell a story that's compelling,
• 18:36
  Speaker 9: it sticks and then action happens after that.
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  Speaker 4: I've seen Nancy where independent community pharmacies will invite their
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: state repon in their own district and take them through
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: the pharmacy and show them because it's very the average
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: person doesn't know what's happening behind the scenes, and when
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: they show them the packaging, when they show them the process,
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: the lights start going off and they're like, Wow, how
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: important that these services are.
• 19:03
  Speaker 10: Yeah, Todd, you're very knowledgeable.
• 19:05
  Speaker 9: Doing a visit is one of the most mind opening
• 19:09
  Speaker 9: situations that independent community pharmacies can do to not only
• 19:13
  Speaker 9: show them the wheel behind right, that hamster wheel, that
• 19:19
  Speaker 9: the patients don't see with all of the processes, all
• 19:23
  Speaker 9: of the regulation, all of the things that get checked
• 19:25
  Speaker 9: off when a prescription gets filled. You know, I used
• 19:29
  Speaker 9: to work in a community pharmacy and get the question
• 19:32
  Speaker 9: from the patient about how can it take so long
• 19:35
  Speaker 9: to put the big the pills from the big bottle
• 19:37
  Speaker 9: into a little bottle, and you know, and it's really
• 19:40
  Speaker 9: just having that conversation with them and seeing the patients
• 19:45
  Speaker 9: react and rely on, hang on every word that pharmacist
• 19:49
  Speaker 9: is saying to them.
• 19:51
  Speaker 10: Those are some of the best.
• 19:52
  Speaker 9: Things hippa compliantly of course right standard standard distance, but
• 19:57
  Speaker 9: really help really helping them see because seeing is believing
• 20:01
  Speaker 9: and those visits are so important.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: Nancy Lyon, You've always been good to the Pharmacy podcast Network,
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: giving us some time here at McKesson Idea Share, and
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: we thank you for being on the show.
• 20:12
  Speaker 10: Hi, always a pleasure. Thanks Tom.
• 20:17
  Speaker 11: Hi.
• 20:17
  Speaker 12: This is Mackenzie Hernandez, Senior director of Sales at Nimble RX,
• 20:21
  Speaker 12: and you're listening to the pharmacy podcast.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: Nimble RX here at Idea Share McKesson Ideas. Heare twenty
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: twenty six. Mackenzie, thanks for stopping by.
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah, thanks for having me talk.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: All right, we have a special multi part series that's
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: coming out through the Pharmacy Podcast Network. We're so excited
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: to dig deeper into the technology and the solutions that
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: Nimble provides. In case someone's listening doesn't understand what Nimble does,
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: give our listeners an overview.
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: What is nimbo urx Absolutely so.
• 20:54
  Speaker 12: Nimble RX is a mobile checkout solution integrates with the
• 20:58
  Speaker 12: pharmacy management system, help streamline checkout within our app or
• 21:04
  Speaker 12: you don't have to use an app, which is great
• 21:05
  Speaker 12: for older patients. Patients can schedule pick ups at the
• 21:09
  Speaker 12: pharmacy delivery. It's completely free, which is not something that
• 21:14
  Speaker 12: you hear from a lot of vendors, especially in independent pharmacy.
• 21:18
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 21:18
  Speaker 12: So we also offer to a messaging We just released
• 21:21
  Speaker 12: Happy Birthday text messages. So there really is something for
• 21:23
  Speaker 12: every pharmacy here at Nimble.
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: So from my perspective, when I learned about Nimble, it's
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: a way to modernize the checkout experience that young people
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: people that have always I wasn't born with a mobile phone.
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: Mobile phone was new to me, so.
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: Check out for me was still about the brick and mortar.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: But when we're in the Amazon culture, and we're in
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: the mobile phone culture now. It's been like that for
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: what fifteen twenty years now, geez, I'm getting old Nimble
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: RX as a way to not disrupt the ecosystem of
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: independent pharmacy, not have to put a bunch of new
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: devices in place or equipment, but just being able to say, hey,
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: you can do this from your phone. That's where everybody's living.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: So it's like modernizing the pos experience, the point of
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: sell experience one hundred percent.
• 22:17
  Speaker 12: And I really do think that COVID was the turning
• 22:20
  Speaker 12: point for something like Nimble, right. I don't know if
• 22:22
  Speaker 12: it would have worked before that, especially in independent pharmacy.
• 22:26
  Speaker 12: And I think a lot of pharmacies are surprised at
• 22:28
  Speaker 12: how many patients do adopt the mobile checkout solution, even
• 22:32
  Speaker 12: just for pickup. I had a customer today actually who
• 22:36
  Speaker 12: use the term nimblize, right, and so I love it.
• 22:39
  Speaker 12: He says, oh, yeah, let's get your prescriptions nimbolized.
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: So patients come in.
• 22:44
  Speaker 12: There's a big long line, and they see these patients
• 22:46
  Speaker 12: come up and just grab and go, grab and go,
• 22:49
  Speaker 12: just like they would their Starbucks coffee or whatnot. And yeah,
• 22:52
  Speaker 12: it's really bringing that convenience, I think, to the patients
• 22:54
  Speaker 12: and to independent pharmacy.
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: So there's another aspect that we have to pay attention to,
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: the expansion of home delivery, the expansion of long term
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: care pharmacy at home. There's all these opportunities that independent
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: pharmacy has talk to us about the logistics and the
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: delivery side of this, meaning on the delivery person, I
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: go to the home and they may not be able
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: to come to the store.
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: Then you're able to.
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: Tell that you know that person, that patient, download the app,
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: you can pay us through this application or something so
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: you don't have to come to the store or something.
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: So has that been an opportunity for independent community pharmacies too.
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: Absolutely.
• 23:35
  Speaker 12: You know, Nimble really started with specialty pharmacy and the
• 23:39
  Speaker 12: big value proposition was around streamlining deliveries because it's less
• 23:43
  Speaker 12: phone calls. They can collect payment, can collect signature, think
• 23:47
  Speaker 12: about compounding, right, Hey, I can collect payment before I
• 23:51
  Speaker 12: even make the medication, right, So there's a lot of
• 23:54
  Speaker 12: value there. But then even for our independent pharmacies who
• 23:57
  Speaker 12: just do you know, five deliveries, ten delivery locally in
• 24:02
  Speaker 12: their community, it's been very very helpful because the signature
• 24:05
  Speaker 12: that Nimble collec's the payment that Nimble collects that will
• 24:07
  Speaker 12: go into the pharmacy management system and act.
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: As that sold signature.
• 24:12
  Speaker 12: So it really does streamline that delivery process, whether you're
• 24:14
  Speaker 12: doing five or five hundred deliveries.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: Well, it's conference season. This has been a busy time, obviously.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: I don't really get to see anything. I think there's
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: a game tonight. I think that the local Denver Rockies,
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: I think are playing the Pittsburgh Pirates, So at least
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: I get a little taste of Pittsburgh.
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: You get your team.
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: That's exciting. It is exciting. But Kenzie, thanks so much
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: for being part of the show. We really appreciate it.
• 24:38
  Speaker 10: Yeah, thanks for having me talk.
• 24:39
  Speaker 13: He don't miss new interviews with Nimble Rx, one of
• 24:46
  Speaker 13: the newest members of the Pharmacy podcast Network. Check out
• 24:49
  Speaker 13: their first episode of the new Nimble RX podcast, The
• 24:53
  Speaker 13: Pharmacists Playbook for Modernizing Patient Care with Scott von Dalen
• 24:57
  Speaker 13: and Kathy Collier, streaming now on your Faith podcast platform.
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: Mohn, this is so good to meet you live at
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: McKesson Idea Share twenty twenty six in Denver.
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: Thanks so much for being on the show. Thank you
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: for having us.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: All right, we need to learn more about thinker dot ai.
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: Talk to us about that platform and how it helps
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: our independent community pharmacies.
• 25:22
  Speaker 11: Yeah, so we're solving the problem of pharmacies with large
• 25:26
  Speaker 11: volumes of phone calls.
• 25:28
  Speaker 10: They're coming in.
• 25:28
  Speaker 11: We're talking pharmacies with five to six hundred calls coming
• 25:31
  Speaker 11: in a day, and we're answering those for them, integrated
• 25:35
  Speaker 11: deeply into the pharmacy management system, doing things like patient refills,
• 25:41
  Speaker 11: delivery status, general Q and A after our calls, a
• 25:45
  Speaker 11: multilingual and also provider in take forms as well. So
• 25:51
  Speaker 11: we're covering the whole gamut of what type of calls
• 25:53
  Speaker 11: you get in there, and we're seeing sixty to seventy
• 25:56
  Speaker 11: percent of those calls being answered by our voice hail,
• 26:00
  Speaker 11: which means that the phone line will finally silent.
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: That's incredible. Yeah, that's incredible.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: Talk to us about some examples that pharmacy owners are
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: using for their call system to personalize it to the
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: pharmacy that's being called.
• 26:14
  Speaker 11: So our solution is extremely personalizable. You can from the
• 26:17
  Speaker 11: introduction to how you want the call flow to go,
• 26:21
  Speaker 11: to what you want to escalate into automatically to a pharmacist,
• 26:26
  Speaker 11: so you still have calls that route through, and then
• 26:29
  Speaker 11: you can also you know, dat delivery options that.
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: You provide to your patients. All of that can be.
• 26:36
  Speaker 11: Configured very easily and very smoothly from our system. And
• 26:40
  Speaker 11: then the part that I like the most is the
• 26:42
  Speaker 11: ability to really have personalized analytics, so the things that
• 26:47
  Speaker 11: are important to you, you get to see that right
• 26:49
  Speaker 11: front and center and your dashboard.
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: All right, So how do we connect to such a system?
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: Does this interface with other software?
• 26:57
  Speaker 14: Is?
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: Do I have to maintain in some kind of appliance?
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: Is it all cloud based?
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: Like, give us the technical structure's.
• 27:06
  Speaker 11: Step back a second. Yeah, So let's talk about what
• 27:10
  Speaker 11: the magic of AI is. It's when you don't even
• 27:12
  Speaker 11: know it exists, true, right, when it's just a thin
• 27:15
  Speaker 11: layer that just kind of sits there. And I think
• 27:17
  Speaker 11: that that's really what we're doing for our audience is
• 27:22
  Speaker 11: yes there's a software, Yes there's technical solutions, but you
• 27:25
  Speaker 11: shouldn't have to think about doing so. We work with
• 27:28
  Speaker 11: two pharmacy management systems right now. One is Pioneer X
• 27:33
  Speaker 11: and Liberty. Liberty is all cloud based solutions, like a
• 27:37
  Speaker 11: click of a switch, and it's on it's really really simple.
• 27:41
  Speaker 11: You don't have to do anything. We take care of
• 27:42
  Speaker 11: all of that for you in your setup five to
• 27:45
  Speaker 11: ten days and they're up and running. With Pioneer, we
• 27:48
  Speaker 11: have one extra step where a lot of them because
• 27:50
  Speaker 11: it's on prem we do the VPN connection with them,
• 27:53
  Speaker 11: work with their technical stuff, get that set up, and
• 27:55
  Speaker 11: then again the simple things set up. The only reason
• 27:57
  Speaker 11: why it takes that long is we take the time
• 28:00
  Speaker 11: to make sure that it's set up and customized and
• 28:01
  Speaker 11: configured correctly to them.
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: Very good, all right, So what have been some success
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: stories that have come out of your client base and
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: how is it impacting our independence.
• 28:12
  Speaker 11: We have a great couple of use cases. One of
• 28:14
  Speaker 11: the ones that we work with the USA pharmacy. Okay,
• 28:18
  Speaker 11: so Bill Snodgrouts and Travis Covey from out in North Platte.
• 28:22
  Speaker 11: They're one of the premium and I would say high
• 28:26
  Speaker 11: volume calling pharmacies that we work with. I think that'll
• 28:30
  Speaker 11: number ten in all of us. With fourteen hundred prescriptions
• 28:34
  Speaker 11: they're filling in the day. They are literally getting six
• 28:37
  Speaker 11: hundred to seven hundred calls a day. It's insane. They
• 28:40
  Speaker 11: and their model was you never have to wait for
• 28:43
  Speaker 11: a call, So they hire staff to basically fill all
• 28:48
  Speaker 11: of these calls.
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: After our solution.
• 28:51
  Speaker 11: Went live with them, they were able to redeploy that
• 28:54
  Speaker 11: staff to do other things that they actually can now
• 28:57
  Speaker 11: help with. And they're getting again and I think they're
• 29:00
  Speaker 11: getting seventy percent of their calls answered that way.
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: It's been affl Yeah, it's really cool.
• 29:05
  Speaker 11: And they're actually here at Idea, Sharon, and they're talking
• 29:09
  Speaker 11: to people and tending them their live experience, which is
• 29:12
  Speaker 11: like straight from the horse's mouth.
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: Right, that's the best testimony in the world.
• 29:16
  Speaker 11: Right.
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: We want to hear more from you.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: We want to bring you, say back on the show
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: maybe this week in Pharmacy, really dig into this so
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: that we can get this information out to more of
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: our pharmacy owners, understanding that this is a technology that's
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: ready to go right now today. Correct, give our listeners
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: who are listening the place to reach out to you
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: and get in touch with you.
• 29:38
  Speaker 11: So the best place to get in touch with us
• 29:40
  Speaker 11: is Pharmacy dot th h I n kr R dot
• 29:45
  Speaker 11: AI and then book appointment with us. We can get
• 29:48
  Speaker 11: a live demo. We'll walk you through it and yeah,
• 29:51
  Speaker 11: that's it. It's very simple.
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: All right. In the show notes.
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: By the way, we're going to have a link to
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: the website of Thinker dot AI.
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: Thank you for this time. This is great. Thank you
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: Tom Ryan.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: Welcome to the McKesson Ideas here post show here at
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: the IPC booth.
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: It's great to see you. That's great to see you, Ton.
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: All right, Denver, I come here.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: I don't really this is like my third I think
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: this is my third time in Denver, and I still
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: don't know anything about Denver because I go from the
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: airport to the car to the trade show and that's it.
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: But have you ever spent any time in Denver? Ceraadly.
• 30:34
  Speaker 7: No.
• 30:34
  Speaker 15: Every time I've been to Denver, it was to drive
• 30:37
  Speaker 15: to a steamboat or Breckinridge, or you know, just going
• 30:42
  Speaker 15: to Colorado Springs and I'm on a la over something
• 30:44
  Speaker 15: like that.
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: Exactly.
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: I have family and friends who don't travel really, and
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: they'll be like, boy, it must be nice to travel
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: at so many different places. And I'm like, eighty percent
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: of my travel is airport, hotel, room, conference room, and
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: then going home, so I don't get to see anything.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: So I got to take time sometime to see Denver
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: for sure.
• 31:07
  Speaker 15: Well, hopefully you're going to go to see the Colorado
• 31:09
  Speaker 15: Rockies play later.
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: I would, as a matter of fact, I think I am, which.
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: Would be great.
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: I would look forward to seeing that and spending some
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: time in the community around US. Independent pharmacy is under
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: and there's some real interesting stress tools that they use.
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: Technologies that they use is quite important.
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: I want to hear more about lumistry in which you
• 31:33
  Speaker 5: guys are doing.
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: Describe to our listeners a little bit about the intelligent
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: next gen IVR system that you guys have.
• 31:40
  Speaker 15: Yeah. Absolutely, you know, one of the biggest operational pain
• 31:44
  Speaker 15: points that we see is just managing call volume and interruptions.
• 31:48
  Speaker 15: We've all seen it when we go into the pharmacy.
• 31:50
  Speaker 15: The phone rings off the hook. Pharmacy teams are constantly
• 31:54
  Speaker 15: interrupted by even routine calls or refill requests. You know,
• 31:58
  Speaker 15: is my prescription ready yet? The doctor send over my prescription?
• 32:03
  Speaker 15: Store hours, general questions and those calls are absolutely important,
• 32:06
  Speaker 15: but they take staff away from doing dispensing or clinical
• 32:11
  Speaker 15: services or patient counseling. Traditional IVR systems, which is what
• 32:15
  Speaker 15: we're probably best known for, is you know the phone
• 32:19
  Speaker 15: system you you know, you call in, you have the
• 32:21
  Speaker 15: fixed menus, press one for this, two for that, and
• 32:25
  Speaker 15: that helps to reduce a lot of the load, but
• 32:27
  Speaker 15: you're still relying on patients navigating menus. You still have
• 32:30
  Speaker 15: if you've got a patient that has a whole lot
• 32:32
  Speaker 15: of prescriptions, that's a lot of them keying in a
• 32:34
  Speaker 15: lot of prescription numbers. And so what's you know, really
• 32:37
  Speaker 15: new and big right now is the next evolution is
• 32:39
  Speaker 15: the AI powered voice automation, which is the lumistry voice
• 32:43
  Speaker 15: AI assistant, And so instead of pressing buttons, patients can
• 32:46
  Speaker 15: simply speak naturally, ask their questions and their own words,
• 32:50
  Speaker 15: get real time answers that you know, connect directly to
• 32:54
  Speaker 15: and we're connected directly to the pharmacy system, so we
• 32:56
  Speaker 15: can see, okay, the prescription is ready, or yes, your
• 32:58
  Speaker 15: doctor did send it in. Oh, by the way, you
• 33:00
  Speaker 15: said you'd like to refill your all uterol. Well, you
• 33:03
  Speaker 15: also have the centerpril and lasix. Would you like to
• 33:06
  Speaker 15: go ahead and fill those as well? And from an
• 33:08
  Speaker 15: operational standpoint, that means fewer interruptions throughout the workday and
• 33:12
  Speaker 15: they can focus more, your staff can focus more on
• 33:14
  Speaker 15: high value work.
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: So what is the process to getting such a system
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: in place? And is there any API integration with a
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: pharmacy system or how does that all work from a
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: technical perspective.
• 33:29
  Speaker 15: Yeah, absolutely, So we work closely with the pharmacy PMS system.
• 33:35
  Speaker 15: We benefit thanks to our scale to have integrations with
• 33:38
  Speaker 15: all the big names, you know, the red Sales, the
• 33:41
  Speaker 15: Outcomes and you know, libertyes and everybody else, and so
• 33:45
  Speaker 15: we interact with those systems to not only be able
• 33:48
  Speaker 15: to pass prescriptions. But the new thing that's really important
• 33:51
  Speaker 15: to be able to power an agent is the ability
• 33:54
  Speaker 15: to recognize and pull information out of the patient profile,
• 33:58
  Speaker 15: to be able to check status and be able to
• 34:00
  Speaker 15: get that information in a timely fashion.
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: That's great to hear. What is the evolution of lumistry?
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: What's next coming as innovative products that you're putting out.
• 34:13
  Speaker 15: Yeah, I think the next evolution for us is really
• 34:18
  Speaker 15: going to be how can we handle more of the
• 34:21
  Speaker 15: patient facing aspects, the interactions with the patient. A lot
• 34:25
  Speaker 15: of pharmacies have maybe they have a patient portal through
• 34:28
  Speaker 15: their PMS or through maybe even their whostsaler, and those
• 34:33
  Speaker 15: things check the box, but they might not be on
• 34:36
  Speaker 15: the same tier as what CBS might have or Walgreens.
• 34:40
  Speaker 15: And we want to arm our customers with the ability
• 34:43
  Speaker 15: to compete with those big box stores or with the Amazons,
• 34:46
  Speaker 15: and so with the limitsry one patient portal, what we
• 34:50
  Speaker 15: have is we've combined it into the ability for patients
• 34:54
  Speaker 15: to refill a prescription request, transfer book appointments, complete forms,
• 34:58
  Speaker 15: access educational resear houses and videos about their medication. They
• 35:02
  Speaker 15: can you know, send a message to the pharmacy. They
• 35:05
  Speaker 15: can they can pull up you know, required documentation like
• 35:10
  Speaker 15: med guides, which allow pharmacies to be paperless. And so
• 35:14
  Speaker 15: it's really combining these things into one area, one resource
• 35:18
  Speaker 15: that the pharmacy sorry that the patient can interact with,
• 35:22
  Speaker 15: and then of course time the IVR and the AI
• 35:24
  Speaker 15: agent into all that is really the next step because
• 35:27
  Speaker 15: we're seeing such an acceleration in AI and the integrations
• 35:32
  Speaker 15: with health tech at this time.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: All right, Ryan, I really appreciate you sharing on our
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: on our post show and coverage of the McKesson idea Share.
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: I hope to have you back on another podcast and
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: bring along a pharmacy that has implemented the limustry systems
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: and really unpack some of the additional value that it
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: brings to the pharmacy operations.
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: But thank you.
• 35:55
  Speaker 15: Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: Ton Hey here at the McKesson Idea Share twenty twenty
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: six with Veronica German and Alex Bersch and Alex you're
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: the president of Good Value Pharmacy.
• 36:10
  Speaker 16: Hey, that's right.
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: Welcome to the show and thanks for having me.
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: Veronica, you are with Pharmacy, your pharmacy sales consultant at McKesson,
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: and that in Van Buren Township, Michigan.
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: Yes, right outside of Detroit.
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: Veronica, tell me about a program that has really helped
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: you help your clients and help your patients help their
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: patients through AAPA that you were describing before we started recording.
• 36:37
  Speaker 14: Yes, Todd, So, AAPA has a portal called Advantage, and
• 36:43
  Speaker 14: as a pharmacy sales consultant, I'm on the role of
• 36:45
  Speaker 14: visiting my pharmacies. And one thing that I really do
• 36:49
  Speaker 14: like about the Advantage portal is when my AAPA customers
• 36:53
  Speaker 14: call me if I just happened to be on the
• 36:55
  Speaker 14: road and they're questioning compliance or what's their GCR at
• 36:59
  Speaker 14: that time, I can direct them right to the portal,
• 37:02
  Speaker 14: help them get logged in, let them know. Okay, let's
• 37:05
  Speaker 14: see where you are.
• 37:06
  Speaker 10: For the month.
• 37:07
  Speaker 14: And what you need to do to increase that GCR,
• 37:10
  Speaker 14: whether it be by a few more generics, you know
• 37:13
  Speaker 14: where you need to balance those generics and brands, or
• 37:16
  Speaker 14: where you are for the quarter, because we're coming up
• 37:18
  Speaker 14: on a quarter here at IDEA Share end of June,
• 37:20
  Speaker 14: which will be the end of Q one, and that
• 37:23
  Speaker 14: will let them know what they're looking for as far
• 37:25
  Speaker 14: as their base brand, brand cost of goods for the
• 37:28
  Speaker 14: following quarter. So it's just something that I can guide
• 37:32
  Speaker 14: them to to get some quick answers if we need
• 37:34
  Speaker 14: to see how they'd get to the next tier. All
• 37:37
  Speaker 14: of that is right there available in the Advantage portal,
• 37:40
  Speaker 14: and it's very helpful for my AAPA clients.
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: That's great, Veronica, thank you for that. Alex.
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: You are commanding five pharmacies in your area and impacting
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: a lot of lives that you're serving. Talk to us
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: how this program impacts you in your pharmacist.
• 37:57
  Speaker 16: Yeah, directly impacts our financials and our appliance. Specifically towards
• 38:02
  Speaker 16: the end of the month and the end of the quarter.
• 38:05
  Speaker 16: We're we're logging into the AAPU or AAPA Advantage portal
• 38:09
  Speaker 16: every day to see where we're at and by by
• 38:12
  Speaker 16: the time we're getting to the last few purchasing days
• 38:14
  Speaker 16: of the month, we have an idea of where we're
• 38:17
  Speaker 16: at and where we want to be, and so we're
• 38:20
  Speaker 16: shooting to be just above our goal for a certain
• 38:24
  Speaker 16: rebate tier, right, so we want to be just above it,
• 38:26
  Speaker 16: not too far above where it imbalances maybe the next
• 38:29
  Speaker 16: purchasing period. And so oftentimes, you know, it allows us
• 38:35
  Speaker 16: to know exactly where we're at, and then we can
• 38:37
  Speaker 16: make decisions based on that. So for example, some months
• 38:41
  Speaker 16: we might want to hold off on ordering brands until
• 38:45
  Speaker 16: the beginning of the month, or some months we would
• 38:48
  Speaker 16: decide to order up on brands so that the next
• 38:52
  Speaker 16: period we have a better shot at a better rebate.
• 38:54
  Speaker 16: So it can kind of go both ways. But what often,
• 38:57
  Speaker 16: what often happens, the most likely outcome is that we
• 39:00
  Speaker 16: order just enough generics.
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: To get us above the next rebate tier.
• 39:05
  Speaker 16: And oftentimes we're running reports which which medications are we
• 39:09
  Speaker 16: going to use in that first week of the month,
• 39:12
  Speaker 16: and so we'll order those high dollar generic items at
• 39:14
  Speaker 16: the end of the month to allow us to meet.
• 39:16
  Speaker 10: That rebate tier.
• 39:18
  Speaker 16: Or in the case of like a quarterly metric are
• 39:21
  Speaker 16: cost of goods for the next period. And so that's
• 39:24
  Speaker 16: how we used the portal to to maximize our financials
• 39:27
  Speaker 16: and profitability.
• 39:29
  Speaker 4: Yes, is this a monthly report or a weekly report?
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: Or how often are you getting the information?
• 39:34
  Speaker 16: Some So the great thing about the portal is that
• 39:36
  Speaker 16: it's it's live, it's there's about a one day delay, right,
• 39:40
  Speaker 16: so when we're looking at our numbers at the end
• 39:41
  Speaker 16: of the month, we're actually manually adding in that last
• 39:45
  Speaker 16: invoice from from today, and so so it really is
• 39:49
  Speaker 16: very close to up to date, up to the moment.
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: Baronica, this is this has to give you joy when
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: you're working with your pharmacies in your territories and they
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: get excited because the data is coming back positive. Absolutely,
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: especially in an age where independent pharmacies are under so
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: much pressure.
• 40:10
  Speaker 14: Absolutely, it's very helpful, like I said, and it has
• 40:15
  Speaker 14: all the information right there at their fingertips. And it's
• 40:18
  Speaker 14: a tool that I also use when I'm making those visits.
• 40:21
  Speaker 14: Come on, let's log into the portal, let's see where
• 40:24
  Speaker 14: we stand. Also, some customers sometimes forget the deal details
• 40:28
  Speaker 14: a little bit. The deal details are laid out right
• 40:32
  Speaker 14: there in the portal, so it is very helpful. My
• 40:34
  Speaker 14: AAPA clients love it and it's something I love to use.
• 40:38
  Speaker 14: It's definitely a helpful tool.
• 40:41
  Speaker 7: Well.
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: Shout out to AAPA for assisting us the Pharmacy Podcast
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: network and being here at the McKesson Idea Share. Alex,
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: I have to bring you back on the Pharmacy Podcast.
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: We have a lot of things that we'd like to
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: talk to you about as a multi store operator and owner.
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: I want to thank you Alex for being on the show.
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: And Nika, thank you so much for setting the stage
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: for the information around this very impactful system.
• 41:06
  Speaker 14: Thank you for having me here.
• 41:07
  Speaker 16: Thank you.
• 41:11
  Speaker 9: Hi.
• 41:12
  Speaker 17: This is Crystal Leonard's president of Healthmart and health Mart
• 41:15
  Speaker 17: Atlas and you're listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: Crystal Leonards back on the McKesson Idea Share press coverage
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: here at the Pharmacy Podcast. So excited to have spent
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: some time with you. Thank you for making this time
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: and thank you for having us back at Ideas here.
• 41:35
  Speaker 17: Yeah, thank you for being here. I appreciate it. It's my
• 41:37
  Speaker 17: favorite conference of the year.
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: Yes, absolutely all right, And they seem to becoming faster
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: and faster and I'm just like I blinked and it's
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: like it's conference seas and again this always tells me
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: to get ready for the upcoming conferences in the summer
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: and fall as well, so it's like get ready for more.
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: So we're always concerned about the success of our independent
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: community pharmacies. How would you describe the current environment for
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: our independence and what's getting harder and what's getting better?
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: Where do you see momentum?
• 42:09
  Speaker 17: Yeah, I think it's definitely a difficult time in independent pharmacy.
• 42:15
  Speaker 17: There's a lot of change on the horizon, whether it's
• 42:18
  Speaker 17: regulatory change at the state or federal level, operational pressures
• 42:22
  Speaker 17: on the pharmacy staffing challenges, especially in some of those
• 42:26
  Speaker 17: hard to reach areas. But independent pharmacies are so resilient.
• 42:30
  Speaker 17: I continue to be amazed by by their resilience. And
• 42:34
  Speaker 17: I think there's real momentum around pharmacy care delivery and
• 42:40
  Speaker 17: patient care closer to home. So it's exciting to see
• 42:43
  Speaker 17: that momentum. And I think we've never been closer to
• 42:46
  Speaker 17: having pharmacists recognized as providers and being able to provide
• 42:50
  Speaker 17: those critical services in their communities.
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: I agree, we're also seeing an increase in the home
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: services that is being pulled from independent community pharmacy sees
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: the people that know their patients best in their community.
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: So where are health Mart and health Mart atlass leaning
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: in the most health Like, how are they giving the
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: most help to pharmacies to stay strong and competitive in
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: today's environment.
• 43:14
  Speaker 17: Yeah, health Mark is really helping to strengthen what happens
• 43:18
  Speaker 17: behind the pharmacy counter, so whether it's resources, support, education.
• 43:25
  Speaker 17: Just a few examples that we're talking about here at
• 43:27
  Speaker 17: IDEA Share, for example, is our health Mart Perks program,
• 43:31
  Speaker 17: where we have vendor discounts for more than forty different vendors.
• 43:35
  Speaker 17: The one that seems to be having a lot of
• 43:37
  Speaker 17: momentum at this show in particular, is a staffing solution,
• 43:42
  Speaker 17: particularly in those hard to reach areas, whether you need
• 43:44
  Speaker 17: to fill a single shift or find a new pharmacist
• 43:47
  Speaker 17: or a technician. There's also a lot of focus on
• 43:51
  Speaker 17: training our staff, not only new staff, but also ensuring
• 43:55
  Speaker 17: our current staff can practice at the top of their license,
• 44:00
  Speaker 17: whether that be the pharmacist or the technician taking on
• 44:03
  Speaker 17: additional responsibilities as well. And then we've just kicked off
• 44:07
  Speaker 17: a nationwide digital social media campaign for health Mart, so
• 44:14
  Speaker 17: that's something that's new for us this year in addition
• 44:16
  Speaker 17: to the local marketing that the pharmacies do on their behalf,
• 44:20
  Speaker 17: and then on a health Mart atlass front, we're focused
• 44:23
  Speaker 17: on reimbursement and helping pharmacies navigate all the changes that
• 44:27
  Speaker 17: are coming with reimbursement and ensuring that they're ready.
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: For those excellent. Excellent.
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: So we spoke about health Mart and health Mart at
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: list last year at McKesson ideas. Share what has happened
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: in the last year that you're most proud of and
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: what do those accomplishments mean for our independent pharmacy owners.
• 44:46
  Speaker 17: Yeah, one of the things I'm most proud of is
• 44:49
  Speaker 17: Healthmart being recognized as a network and several meaningful ways
• 44:53
  Speaker 17: this last year. The first is number one in customer
• 44:57
  Speaker 17: satisfaction I'm on chain drugstores JD Power, and then more
• 45:02
  Speaker 17: recently McKesson and Healthmart being recognized by the American Pharmacists
• 45:06
  Speaker 17: Association the hab Donning Award for Care and Practice. And
• 45:12
  Speaker 17: those aren't a reflection of us, but more so each
• 45:16
  Speaker 17: of our health Maart pharmacies and the care that they
• 45:18
  Speaker 17: provide in their communities into the patients that they serve.
• 45:22
  Speaker 17: So that's definitely something I've been proud of this last year.
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: That's awesome news, Crystal.
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: So what does the future look like for independent pharmacies
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: and how do you see Healthmart and health mart atlests
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: evolving to help pharmacies thrive in the future.
• 45:36
  Speaker 17: I would say health Mart and health Mart outlists are
• 45:39
  Speaker 17: solely focused on helping our independent pharmacies thrive in the future.
• 45:43
  Speaker 17: And a few of the ways that we're looking forward
• 45:46
  Speaker 17: is as we're navigating for health Mart outlists some of
• 45:49
  Speaker 17: these changes and reimburshment structures, helping ensure that they're educated
• 45:54
  Speaker 17: on those changes, ensuring that they have transparency, so full
• 45:58
  Speaker 17: access to all their track copies on our portal, and
• 46:03
  Speaker 17: ability to access information in terms of monitoring their reimbursement
• 46:07
  Speaker 17: and reconciliation.
• 46:08
  Speaker 6: And then on the.
• 46:09
  Speaker 17: Healthmart side, helping them credential and be prepared as care
• 46:15
  Speaker 17: evolves and they need to add new skill sets, so
• 46:18
  Speaker 17: helping them as the environment around them changes. And I
• 46:22
  Speaker 17: think there's so much a majority of our owners, our
• 46:25
  Speaker 17: owner operators, single store owner operators, so they're working in
• 46:29
  Speaker 17: their business every day. I think helping them to navigate
• 46:33
  Speaker 17: that change and really be future ready as the industry
• 46:36
  Speaker 17: changes is a key focus.
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: Yes, more clinical services where the dispensing fee isn't the
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: only source of income. There's going to be other things
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: that they're going to be able to do in the communities,
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: beginning to make make that connection that like, wow, my
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: pharmacy is doing more than just dispensing my medication. That's huge,
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: and having a brand behind it, and then, like you said,
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: a network of pharmacies on an ab a national stage.
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: I think that's really important to educate the public of
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: what pharmacy can actually do.
• 47:06
  Speaker 17: Yes, one and all the pharmacies are unique and independent
• 47:10
  Speaker 17: in their own way, but I think there's power in
• 47:13
  Speaker 17: having that unifying national brand and support behind them.
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, Crystal, this has been wonderful to catch up with
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: you at McKesson Idea Share twenty twenty six and we
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: can't wait to see you next year.
• 47:24
  Speaker 17: Thanks so much for having me, Todd.
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 47:30
  Speaker 11: Heh.
• 47:30
  Speaker 7: Kiro Claudius with TGM Labs and you are listening to
• 47:33
  Speaker 7: the Pharmacy podcast Network.
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: Kiro here at the McKesson Idea Share in Denver. It's
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: so good to link up with you. Didn't get a
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: chance to talk with you in other conferences.
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: How are you doing amazing?
• 47:46
  Speaker 7: I mean, the vibe here is great, lots of talking,
• 47:49
  Speaker 7: lots of demos we've done.
• 47:51
  Speaker 10: It's been great so far.
• 47:52
  Speaker 5: We feel the same way.
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: Lots of energy, lots of positive ideas coming out. I
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: love that idea, sharing, sharing ideas. To make independent community
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: pharmacy better. Something that has to be nailed down, defined better,
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: explain better is how we get AI into the community pharmacy,
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: How we get artificial intelligence into the operations. Talk to
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: us about the one factor that's kind of rising to
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: the top and independent community pharmacy more than any others,
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: and that's the factor of data.
• 48:26
  Speaker 5: Like talk to us about.
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: Data entry and how TGM Labs is stepping up.
• 48:31
  Speaker 7: Great question so far, with all the talks that I've
• 48:33
  Speaker 7: had since I came here, data entries without adopt the
• 48:36
  Speaker 7: biggest bottleneck in retail. I mean, can you imagine of
• 48:39
  Speaker 7: all the things that I've heard so far, every retailer
• 48:42
  Speaker 7: that comes in data entry, data entry, big headache, big
• 48:46
  Speaker 7: bottleneck that comes in through prescriptions, come in five hundred
• 48:50
  Speaker 7: and six hundred per day. Can you imagine the amount
• 48:52
  Speaker 7: of time each technician spends at least four to five
• 48:55
  Speaker 7: hours of their daytime it's just doing data entry. I mean,
• 48:57
  Speaker 7: it's twenty twenty six and the AI boom is real.
• 49:01
  Speaker 7: If you're not on the train, you're gonna be left behind.
• 49:03
  Speaker 7: That's really the easiest way I could explain it so far,
• 49:06
  Speaker 7: that is true.
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: So talk to me about how that would if I'm
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: a pharmacy owner. I haven't leveraged AI for data entry, Like,
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: what what do I have to do as a pharmacy
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: owner to get started?
• 49:20
  Speaker 10: That's a good question.
• 49:21
  Speaker 7: So the best way I could explain is that you
• 49:24
  Speaker 7: got to start off with the mindset. If you have
• 49:26
  Speaker 7: something that works and you don't want to change it,
• 49:29
  Speaker 7: that's fair, that's great. But do you want to expand?
• 49:31
  Speaker 7: Do you want to increase that volume that you're going
• 49:33
  Speaker 7: to be getting. If not, then this is not the
• 49:35
  Speaker 7: product for you. But if you want to expand, you
• 49:37
  Speaker 7: want to grow, then you have to leverage AI into yours.
• 49:40
  Speaker 7: And so TGM Labs is the pivotal point. TJM Labs
• 49:44
  Speaker 7: has been here for two and a half years. We're
• 49:46
  Speaker 7: the founders. We started this. We're the ones that know
• 49:48
  Speaker 7: every PMS system that exists, so we're aware of the
• 49:51
  Speaker 7: situations that you guys are going through. So the best
• 49:54
  Speaker 7: way to start off is really. I mean, you could
• 49:57
  Speaker 7: check us out TGM Labs. We give you a pitch,
• 50:00
  Speaker 7: a small demo really to explain to you how the
• 50:02
  Speaker 7: botworks in terms of data entry.
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: And then the data entry this is inner, this is
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: the this is the data that's going into my pharmacy
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: management system, and then TGAM Labs is actually doing.
• 50:14
  Speaker 10: That for me, yes, exactly.
• 50:16
  Speaker 7: So the way it works really is that the our
• 50:19
  Speaker 7: AI boss uses large large learning, large language model with
• 50:23
  Speaker 7: vision AI. It sits on top of your PMS system.
• 50:26
  Speaker 7: That script comes in from a provider, you know, it's
• 50:29
  Speaker 7: the typical process your your technician logs in with their credentials.
• 50:33
  Speaker 7: Our AI bots that's the same thing. It reads it off.
• 50:37
  Speaker 7: It uses the SIGs that are specific to your own
• 50:39
  Speaker 7: PMS system. And one thing I like to say is
• 50:41
  Speaker 7: that our AI bots are different. So our AI bot
• 50:44
  Speaker 7: right now, that's whatever's doing the work right now, is
• 50:46
  Speaker 7: different from an AI bot for our next client. They're
• 50:49
  Speaker 7: all very customizable to your own specific needs, and data
• 50:53
  Speaker 7: entry is pretty much similar throughout the way. Of course,
• 50:57
  Speaker 7: different pharmacies have different workflows, so we like to work
• 51:00
  Speaker 7: with your team to specify the things that you want
• 51:02
  Speaker 7: to change or add on it and from there on,
• 51:05
  Speaker 7: our AOL boss just takes over all.
• 51:07
  Speaker 4: Right, you heard it here, go to tjmlabs dot com.
• 51:12
  Speaker 5: That's the address. Yep, thank you great, and then ask
• 51:15
  Speaker 5: for a demo.
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: Ask to understand how this works with your specific pharmacy,
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: and be very detailed with the TGM labs team. Be
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: as detailed as possible, and then they'll get you set up.
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: I love the energy of your team. I love the
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: fact that it's driven by a pharmacist that started the company.
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: I think that's special in of itself. We appreciate you
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: being the show.
• 51:38
  Speaker 5: Got to have you back on twrus of course.
• 51:40
  Speaker 7: I'm happy to be here.
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 51:45
  Speaker 7: Hi.
• 51:45
  Speaker 18: This is Mark Essence and you're listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: Mark is so good to be here in the IPC
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: booth again at McKesson IDAs here at twenty twenty six
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: in Denver.
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: How are you.
• 51:57
  Speaker 10: I'm great.
• 51:58
  Speaker 18: It's always exciting to have you in the booth. You've
• 52:00
  Speaker 18: certainly gotten a lot of attention here in the booth
• 52:02
  Speaker 18: with a lot of sitdowns. I've been watching you all
• 52:05
  Speaker 18: the last couple of days.
• 52:05
  Speaker 10: You're with you guys.
• 52:06
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: This is the final interview of the three part series
• 52:11
  Speaker 4: that we did here at McKesson Ideas Share. This has
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: been a special event for us as a publication that
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: strives to get information out to not.
• 52:20
  Speaker 5: Only our independent.
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: Community pharmacies, but partners out there, organizations out there, politicians
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: out there who didn't get to come and be here,
• 52:29
  Speaker 4: but they get to listen to the words of partners
• 52:32
  Speaker 4: and tech companies and our pharmacy owners.
• 52:36
  Speaker 5: And that's what this is all about. It's about the
• 52:38
  Speaker 5: pharmacy owner.
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: It's about empowering the pharmacy owner to empower their communities
• 52:43
  Speaker 4: through healthcare that they can't get anywhere else because of
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: issues that of course we're all experiencing. I want you
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: to tell our listeners, share with our listeners how this
• 52:52
  Speaker 4: event has gone and what's new in the IPC booth
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: this year.
• 52:56
  Speaker 18: So interesting enough. So I've been doing this twenty five
• 52:59
  Speaker 18: years now and I've been to many many Ideas years.
• 53:02
  Speaker 18: As far as engagement with stores, this has probably been
• 53:05
  Speaker 18: the most successful one that we've ever seen, so we've had.
• 53:09
  Speaker 18: The booth has been full of the last several days
• 53:12
  Speaker 18: of people signing up for programs that we've launched. For
• 53:15
  Speaker 18: whatever reason, there just seems to be a more optimistic
• 53:18
  Speaker 18: vibe this year. I think certainly the PBM reform for
• 53:22
  Speaker 18: par D was a big part of it. A lot
• 53:24
  Speaker 18: of legislative stuff and successes this year, but just overall,
• 53:27
  Speaker 18: I think people are starting to come to realization that
• 53:31
  Speaker 18: there's still opportunities to make independent pharmacy successful in our booth.
• 53:34
  Speaker 18: This year, our biggest thing was we launched our new
• 53:37
  Speaker 18: GLP one program where we're able to access all the
• 53:40
  Speaker 18: Lily Direct and the Nobodirect contracts where the pricing that
• 53:43
  Speaker 18: you see online for the one hundred and ninety nine
• 53:45
  Speaker 18: and two hundred ninety nine for all the cash pay
• 53:47
  Speaker 18: that's adjudicating ABP minus fourteen seventy five. We rolled out
• 53:51
  Speaker 18: that new contract that we have and it's been extremely successful.
• 53:53
  Speaker 18: We've had nothing but a lineup on the sign up
• 53:56
  Speaker 18: side of everybody coming in to listen to exactly how
• 53:58
  Speaker 18: the program works. To be able to have our members
• 54:01
  Speaker 18: start to play in the GLP one space on par
• 54:04
  Speaker 18: with your online pharmacies like Him and Her and Row
• 54:07
  Speaker 18: as well as direct with Lily or Noble no.
• 54:09
  Speaker 5: Ordisks, that's exciting. That is so exciting.
• 54:12
  Speaker 4: So what about the partnerships you have really built a
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: robust base of partners who come here technology companies we've
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: got an opportunity to talk about Full Script talk to
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: us about some of those partnerships as well.
• 54:25
  Speaker 18: So we've launched a couple of new new relationships this year.
• 54:28
  Speaker 18: So we have what I see what someone's the vendor
• 54:30
  Speaker 18: advantage networks. So besides part of that, yeah, absolutely, And
• 54:33
  Speaker 18: besides being a volume aggregator on the pharmaceutical side, which
• 54:38
  Speaker 18: we are with McKesson, we also do this with other
• 54:40
  Speaker 18: vendors and to bring useful and vetted vendors to our
• 54:45
  Speaker 18: store such they can implement them in their stores. We
• 54:48
  Speaker 18: had at a great time here with Full Scripts. They've
• 54:51
  Speaker 18: had dozens and dozens of sign ups for their new
• 54:54
  Speaker 18: program for selling oral peptides as well as high end
• 54:58
  Speaker 18: functional medicine vitamins as well as all the other products
• 55:01
  Speaker 18: they have. They said this is one of their most
• 55:03
  Speaker 18: successful events that they've ever had in terms of getting
• 55:06
  Speaker 18: new members. And then we also had uh the first
• 55:09
  Speaker 18: fora for i PC into introducing AI into pharmacy. You know,
• 55:13
  Speaker 18: how do you take that first step into AI, And
• 55:16
  Speaker 18: it's a logical step that's inexpensive, and so we've introduced
• 55:19
  Speaker 18: an I v R I vr AI product with Thinker
• 55:23
  Speaker 18: Thinker AI who's been in our booth and they've had
• 55:25
  Speaker 18: a lineup waiting people waiting to get into see the demos.
• 55:29
  Speaker 18: I actually did a live demo last night on stage
• 55:32
  Speaker 18: where I called a farm, I called the pharmacy, and
• 55:35
  Speaker 18: I actually did it right on my phone into the speaker.
• 55:37
  Speaker 18: Talk about taking a risk, kind of like Elon Musted
• 55:39
  Speaker 18: with the steel balls, through the through the through the
• 55:42
  Speaker 18: cyber truck. So I took a risk, but but it
• 55:45
  Speaker 18: worked out just fine with the IVR, picked up my medications,
• 55:48
  Speaker 18: you know, refilled my script, knew what I was doing
• 55:51
  Speaker 18: and asked me if I wanted to pick up and
• 55:52
  Speaker 18: hung up the phone, and so it couldn't have gone better.
• 55:55
  Speaker 18: So those are the big things. But these vendor partnerships
• 55:57
  Speaker 18: that we have are extremely important because because there are
• 56:00
  Speaker 18: so many opportunities out there for indefendive pharmacies to engage
• 56:04
  Speaker 18: with other vendors that you know, maybe just starting up,
• 56:07
  Speaker 18: they may be new. But when we're able to do
• 56:09
  Speaker 18: is we're able to get contract pricing for them to
• 56:11
  Speaker 18: make sure that they're getting the most competitive offer, but
• 56:12
  Speaker 18: they're also been vetted.
• 56:14
  Speaker 5: Mark something else I want to give a shout out.
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: The government relations team that's part of IPC is just
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: it's a head and shoulders above just so so integrated
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: with members and members stories. Earlier on the show, we
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: were talking with Tim Lawson and John Cavello about some
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: champion wins out of the state of Illinois. How important
• 56:39
  Speaker 4: is connecting the state representative with the community of pharmacy
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: and really under and really making government relations a true
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: thing that really helps to look out for the for
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: the community's health.
• 56:51
  Speaker 18: So it's one of our largest cost centers here at IPC,
• 56:54
  Speaker 18: So we invest a lot of money within in the
• 56:56
  Speaker 18: government affairs space. What's really important is to the constantly
• 57:00
  Speaker 18: we have face fronting all of our issues that we
• 57:03
  Speaker 18: have at Independent Pharmacy. Because at the end of the day,
• 57:06
  Speaker 18: a lawmaker is not They're a generalist, they're not any specificity.
• 57:10
  Speaker 18: They're dealing with military bills, they're dealing with finance bills,
• 57:13
  Speaker 18: they're dealing with other industries. So our government affairs and
• 57:17
  Speaker 18: the money that we spend on that, both at the
• 57:18
  Speaker 18: state and the federal level, really goes towards keeping our
• 57:22
  Speaker 18: top issues such as ECAPPS as well as PDM reform
• 57:27
  Speaker 18: front of mine, in front of these legislators. So it's
• 57:28
  Speaker 18: a worthwhile investment that we take of our members, our
• 57:32
  Speaker 18: members on their behalf, in order to make sure that
• 57:35
  Speaker 18: we can either a engage directly with these lawmakers, as
• 57:39
  Speaker 18: we did with Britney Patterson who was at our meeting
• 57:42
  Speaker 18: last night and engaged with our members and at a
• 57:44
  Speaker 18: speech off the stage, or it's a matter of setting
• 57:47
  Speaker 18: up our members to be able to give them forms
• 57:49
  Speaker 18: where they can reach out to their members, or to
• 57:51
  Speaker 18: either have them in the store or sending letters to
• 57:53
  Speaker 18: Washington in a pre formatted format. So it's been it's
• 57:57
  Speaker 18: extremely important to what we do and it's a large
• 57:59
  Speaker 18: part of the company.
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: Coming into the second half of twenty twenty six. This
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: is a supercharged event that's got us excited about the
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: rest of the year what's coming. It's a positive vibe.
• 58:12
  Speaker 4: Like you said, the energy has been all positive. What
• 58:15
  Speaker 4: about twenty twenty seven? Where are we going to be well?
• 58:18
  Speaker 18: I think the things that we're starting to work on,
• 58:19
  Speaker 18: as we're starting to work on brand manufacturers to see
• 58:22
  Speaker 18: where it is that we can at the retail space
• 58:24
  Speaker 18: start to encourage brand manufacturers to potentially see the value
• 58:28
  Speaker 18: of what an independent pharmacy does. We've had some success
• 58:31
  Speaker 18: with some contract pricing that have come in from various
• 58:34
  Speaker 18: brand manufacturers that members are able to access on their
• 58:37
  Speaker 18: ordering platform. But we are getting a lot more traction
• 58:41
  Speaker 18: as manufacturers are seeing the actual value of independent pharmacy
• 58:46
  Speaker 18: that quite honestly, we've never had a voice in in
• 58:48
  Speaker 18: the last ever since I've been in this industry. So
• 58:51
  Speaker 18: I think what we're going to do is continue all
• 58:53
  Speaker 18: down that path, try to get contract pricing on the
• 58:55
  Speaker 18: brand side, so that way we can kind of mitigate
• 58:58
  Speaker 18: some of these things at the PBMs due to us
• 59:00
  Speaker 18: with it, you know, the ABP minus twenty fours if
• 59:03
  Speaker 18: we can get contract pricing. So that's our big focus
• 59:05
  Speaker 18: for twenty twenty seven.
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: Well, I want to thank you IPC for having us
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: in your booth again and us being able to put
• 59:13
  Speaker 4: together just an amazing coupling of insights and interviews here
• 59:18
  Speaker 4: at McKesson Ideas Share twenty twenty six, and we'll be
• 59:21
  Speaker 4: part of the booth in twenty twenty seven. We're going
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: to McKesson Idea Share in Las Vegas.
• 59:27
  Speaker 18: Yes, we'll be at the Mandelai Bay. We look forward
• 59:29
  Speaker 18: to seeing you there as well as hopefully a lot
• 59:31
  Speaker 18: of your listeners will be.
• 59:32
  Speaker 4: In thank you for listening to the coverage of Idea
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: Share mckesson's Idea Share twenty twenty six.
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: A shout out to IPC.
• 59:40
  Speaker 4: And AAPA for all of your support of the Pharmacy
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: Podcast Network.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 7: Four