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

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

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Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
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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
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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
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Speaker 2: brings you back to the action in Denver, Colorado. Thank
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Speaker 2: you to the Independent Pharmacy Cooperative IPC for sponsoring this
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Speaker 2: coverage of the twenty twenty six McKesson Idea Shared.
1:04
Speaker 3: John Cavello back on the Pharmacy Podcast Network here at
1:08
Speaker 3: McKesson Idea Share. John, you have a special guest. We
1:11
Speaker 3: have a really special story we're going to dig into.
1:13
Speaker 3: Introduce your guests to us.
1:14
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm going to introduce Tim Lawson for Metropolitan Drugs
1:19
Speaker 4: in Metropolis, Illinois, who's an IPC member, very active in
1:25
Speaker 4: the state of Illinois and really been a beacon of
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Speaker 4: what we want as an active pharmacy owner when we're
1:32
Speaker 4: engaging policy changes that lead to outcome differences at the counter.
1:39
Speaker 4: Tim has been vigilant in fixing problems and addressing the
1:44
Speaker 4: problems of underpayments in critical area needs for vulnerable patients
1:48
Speaker 4: and Medicaid polte identifying for us in part DY, which
1:52
Speaker 4: will be a topic Tim for another day.
1:54
Speaker 5: The problems as we look.
1:56
Speaker 4: To the future of how we're going to implement these
1:58
Speaker 4: PBM PARTIS reforms.
2:01
Speaker 5: But you know, Tom, what we really want to talk to.
2:03
Speaker 4: Bet is really good news in Illinois that's making a
2:06
Speaker 4: difference to hundreds of pharmacy independent store owners and other
2:10
Speaker 4: pharmacy owners in Illinois. Like Tim, how we didn't fully
2:14
Speaker 4: fix Medicaid managed care reform yet in Illinois, but we
2:18
Speaker 4: got the policymakers in Illinois to realize critical access and
2:22
Speaker 4: potential deserts and the risk of future deserts had to
2:26
Speaker 4: be fixed. So I'm going to let Tim introduce himself
2:30
Speaker 4: and then I'll give you a little bit of the
2:31
Speaker 4: background on how we how we created a program and
2:34
Speaker 4: what the stores had to do to get into this
2:37
Speaker 4: to help them sells serve their patients.
2:39
Speaker 6: Tim, how are you.
2:40
Speaker 7: I'm great, Thanks, for having me today.
2:42
Speaker 5: But my name is Tim Rawson.
2:45
Speaker 7: I'm a retail pharmacist in Metropolis, Illinois.
2:49
Speaker 6: It's a rural.
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Speaker 7: Area, underserved area. My wife, Leslie, is also a pharmacist.
2:56
Speaker 7: She is the second generation that's been serving and community
3:00
Speaker 7: since nineteen seventy four. And my son, who unfortunately is
3:04
Speaker 7: not with us today. His name is Hayes Lawson and
3:06
Speaker 7: he is the third generation service.
3:09
Speaker 6: And that's cool, all right.
3:11
Speaker 3: So before we started recording, John, you were setting the
3:15
Speaker 3: stage for some of the winds in the great state
3:18
Speaker 3: of villain.
3:19
Speaker 5: Really, Tim, the last two years there was a lot of.
3:22
Speaker 4: Effort, and I think some of the catalysts of this
3:25
Speaker 4: was the reductions and cutbacks at Walgreens and its impact.
3:33
Speaker 4: What it meant, you know, when any store closes, the
3:37
Speaker 4: residual ripple effect is are there is there enough.
3:40
Speaker 5: Infrastructure to help those patients?
3:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, And unfortunately, Tim, I'm sure you can talk about it.
3:45
Speaker 4: Under the old system, you had really tough paradigm choices.
3:48
Speaker 4: Could you afford to help every patient? What strips for
3:52
Speaker 4: these vulnerable Medicaid patients? Could you not afford to carry
3:55
Speaker 4: because of the way that the MCOs were woefully underpaying
4:00
Speaker 4: of pharmacies, but yet over building the state. So I
4:03
Speaker 4: think Tim, it's good to sort of level set this one.
4:05
Speaker 4: What was the old system we faced before we had
4:07
Speaker 4: this fix.
4:08
Speaker 7: Well, the old system we didn't have any checks and
4:11
Speaker 7: balances there, and we had very expensive medications we would
4:16
Speaker 7: have to carry for some of these patient populations. When
4:19
Speaker 7: you talk about underserved areas, you have to understand in
4:24
Speaker 7: the state of Illinois, we had five different managed care providers,
4:28
Speaker 7: and some of these managed care providers was under water
4:32
Speaker 7: painess on brand name medications. For example, we were getting
4:36
Speaker 7: a fee structure that was decent, but you know we
4:41
Speaker 7: may be underpaid on a GLP one like Ozimpic of
4:46
Speaker 7: one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars. Well, you
4:49
Speaker 7: can't really stay in the business if you're not if
4:52
Speaker 7: you're doing that, and then you would see the commercial
4:54
Speaker 7: side being a similar situation. So it had a rippling
4:59
Speaker 7: of especially on the chain network, because we bought representatives
5:04
Speaker 7: in and started showing them a real numbers and how
5:08
Speaker 7: it could affect how it is affecting us, but how
5:11
Speaker 7: that rippling effect was having an impact on some of
5:15
Speaker 7: the chain networks.
5:17
Speaker 3: So talk to us about how this came to be
5:20
Speaker 3: the legislation itself and how you really are attuned to it.
5:26
Speaker 6: You're tied in. You understand the impact to your business.
5:29
Speaker 7: Well, we've won some battles in the state of Illinois,
5:33
Speaker 7: you have, but we haven't really won the war. So
5:36
Speaker 7: really what it came down to was Illinois had two
5:40
Speaker 7: pieces of major legislation that tackled prescription drug price in
5:45
Speaker 7: the nurstate. One of them was the Prescription dru affordabi
5:50
Speaker 7: W Board. That's the Senate Bill thirty four to ninety
5:54
Speaker 7: six that passed in May of twenty twenty six this year.
6:00
Speaker 7: What that does it creates an independent board that has
6:04
Speaker 7: the authority to set the maximum set prices or the
6:07
Speaker 7: upper payment limits on.
6:09
Speaker 5: High priced items.
6:11
Speaker 7: It really focuses on drugs that's already met on the
6:15
Speaker 7: Medicure Negotiated price list, and basically it's going to save
6:20
Speaker 7: taxpayers and lower costs for consumers. The next piece of
6:25
Speaker 7: that was instrumental was the HV sixteen ninety seven, that's
6:31
Speaker 7: the Price Drug Affordability Act, and that law was signed
6:36
Speaker 7: in in July of twenty twenty five. And what that
6:40
Speaker 7: really did it regulated the PBMs and we needed regulation
6:44
Speaker 7: correct and what it did. It prevented price gouging. It
6:48
Speaker 7: improved transparency, It banned spread pricing. It regulated the PBMs
6:56
Speaker 7: to pass one hundred percent of the of the manufacturer
7:01
Speaker 7: rebates directly back to the consumer plans. It prohibit steering
7:08
Speaker 7: patients to pharmacies that the PBM owned, or malder house
7:14
Speaker 7: or specialty pharmacies, and so it made the patient have
7:17
Speaker 7: more accessibility to the needs in our communities and you
7:20
Speaker 7: know the questions they need to be asked.
7:23
Speaker 5: The law also implemented.
7:25
Speaker 7: A fee on those PVMs that generating funds. And really
7:30
Speaker 7: that's what we really want to dive into and talk
7:32
Speaker 7: about today, is because it generated those funds to be
7:36
Speaker 7: allocated to sustain and support healthcare in these vulnerable areas
7:42
Speaker 7: where patients need to have accessibility to care. Now John
7:49
Speaker 7: can talk a little bit more about you know, he
7:52
Speaker 7: was instrumental. We fed him, we talked to him. He's
7:56
Speaker 7: worked and been an advocate for us. We used him
7:59
Speaker 7: all the time. But we all have to be as pharmacists,
8:02
Speaker 7: advocate and know our state legislators, be involved with our associations,
8:09
Speaker 7: federal association, you know, like the National Community Farms Association,
8:12
Speaker 7: I'm a part of Illinois Farmers Association and those types
8:16
Speaker 7: of things.
8:17
Speaker 4: Well, and you know, Tod, We've talked about this on
8:19
Speaker 4: past programs. I appreciate with Tim saying I'm their agent
8:25
Speaker 4: out there, working every day for them. But there are
8:28
Speaker 4: secret weapon there are superstars out there, and in Illinois,
8:32
Speaker 4: this really came about through a major coalition effort state association.
8:37
Speaker 4: I got to give a shout out to the Illinois
8:38
Speaker 4: Farmers Association, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Walgreens, every pharmacy group
8:48
Speaker 4: out there, independent, anybody, community base to deal with this problem.
8:52
Speaker 4: And you know what they did was the state tapped
8:55
Speaker 4: into finance sources, including forcing the PBMs basically to get
8:59
Speaker 4: back part of the money in this fee, leveraged that
9:02
Speaker 4: to get federal matching money of medicaid.
9:05
Speaker 5: And what they did was they created two pots of money.
9:08
Speaker 4: One is called the Critical Access Program for stores like
9:11
Speaker 4: TIMS that were already in this they were getting what
9:13
Speaker 4: to correct me if I'm wrong about five.
9:15
Speaker 5: Dollars, yes, the script.
9:16
Speaker 4: Yes, we didn't fix the full funding formula like we'd
9:20
Speaker 4: done in eighteen other states.
9:22
Speaker 5: Around the country. But this is an important first step
9:25
Speaker 5: of a lifeline for communities. It's really a community lifeline program,
9:28
Speaker 5: is what it should be called.
9:30
Speaker 4: Where increasing the dispensing fee for medicaid eliple scripts for
9:36
Speaker 4: these stores that meet these criteria of the underserved area.
9:39
Speaker 5: Or high Medicaid volume.
9:41
Speaker 4: We took it from a round a five dollars script
9:44
Speaker 4: to twenty two dollars in one cent correct.
9:46
Speaker 7: Yes, they went from five to fifteen something then to
9:49
Speaker 7: twenty one some point.
9:50
Speaker 5: Yes, So think about that, Todd.
9:52
Speaker 4: We're talking about a fourfold increase of what they were
9:56
Speaker 4: getting compared to these other pharmacies doing Medicaid patients that
10:00
Speaker 4: are probably getting around two to three dollars.
10:02
Speaker 5: So what did that do?
10:03
Speaker 4: That was the basis to expand the protection for vulnerable
10:09
Speaker 4: communities and vulnerable patients that they wouldn't lose their farmacy
10:14
Speaker 4: and everybody had to go through the program. The state
10:18
Speaker 4: decided that. But to deal with still the other vulnerabilities,
10:22
Speaker 4: we also fought for a second pot of money called
10:25
Speaker 4: the DECO program, which is done through the Economic Development
10:28
Speaker 4: Department of the State of all art And what that
10:30
Speaker 4: would be is you would have similar criteria if you
10:33
Speaker 4: weren't in a formal, federally designated underserved area that you're
10:38
Speaker 4: still meeting. You're still serving underserved Medica patients. And what
10:42
Speaker 4: they did through working with the industry to devise it
10:45
Speaker 4: with the department after people had to fill out applications.
10:49
Speaker 4: It's an annual amount of money people get about four
10:53
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty stores have now gotten just shy of
10:56
Speaker 4: fifty four thousand dollars as a one time annual funding
11:01
Speaker 4: to the lifeline to keep them serving those populations. The
11:06
Speaker 4: important thing of the difference though, for what Tim's doing,
11:09
Speaker 4: that's important in a rule community. That's a one time
11:12
Speaker 4: amount of money which is helping.
11:13
Speaker 5: A lot of stores. We heard feedback from stores already telling.
11:17
Speaker 4: Us Tim, I can't tell you how far this is
11:20
Speaker 4: going to go to help me.
11:21
Speaker 5: You know it's because the.
11:23
Speaker 4: Governor just announced it last Friday, So when we're coming
11:25
Speaker 4: to Pharmacy Podcast with Todd is like breaking news about this.
11:31
Speaker 4: But Tim, since January's been getting him and the other
11:34
Speaker 4: brethren in that pot have been getting this per prescription
11:38
Speaker 4: on a dispensing fee every script they fill. So it's
11:42
Speaker 4: going to be a different amount of money that adds
11:44
Speaker 4: up to that forty million out of that pot that
11:47
Speaker 4: will go to serving those patients. So I think the
11:50
Speaker 4: important lesson here is that all of us working together
11:54
Speaker 4: and energizing our members that this felt a need for
11:58
Speaker 4: them in their communities. And I even know like they
12:01
Speaker 4: heard from mayors and communities of their concern of needing this.
12:05
Speaker 7: Oh absolutely, I think that pharmacists needs to not only
12:10
Speaker 7: get to know these representative, they need to bring them
12:12
Speaker 7: into the pharmacy. We had a state represented we'd come
12:16
Speaker 7: into our pharmacy and we gave them specific situations and
12:20
Speaker 7: before that before they ended up voting on.
12:25
Speaker 5: Some of these deals.
12:26
Speaker 4: But I know, you know, the local officials of them
12:29
Speaker 4: being strong voices to their legislators is always a very
12:34
Speaker 4: important potent piece to this. So you know, what we're
12:38
Speaker 4: talking about is every store will know more so in
12:42
Speaker 4: the year what the true benefit of this is. But
12:46
Speaker 4: I can't think of too many other states where we've
12:49
Speaker 4: been able to get this much money going directly into
12:53
Speaker 4: community pharmacy. And you know, Todd, it's all accountable back
12:58
Speaker 4: to the state. They're the ones paying this, they're the
13:02
Speaker 4: ones tracking this.
13:03
Speaker 5: It will show outcomes, but our job's not done right tim.
13:07
Speaker 4: It fixed one side of the equation of what would
13:09
Speaker 4: they needed to do this year to keep the doors open.
13:13
Speaker 5: Well, you got to fix the rest of the problem.
13:15
Speaker 5: You know, the State Order.
13:16
Speaker 4: Of Illinois has identified that the PBMs are overbuilding the
13:19
Speaker 4: State of Illinois annually at least one hundred million dollars.
13:22
Speaker 4: Fight's crazy what they pay the pharmacies versus what they're
13:25
Speaker 4: charging the State of Illinois through through the management organizations.
13:29
Speaker 4: The rest of it has to be fixed. Like I said,
13:32
Speaker 4: you have fourteen states around the country that still do
13:35
Speaker 4: it through a fee for service where Medicaid is paying directly.
13:38
Speaker 4: But we're up to now twenty other states, with thirty
13:41
Speaker 4: four states now having a cost based passed through where
13:44
Speaker 4: the PBMs can't rip off to taxpayers harm the patients
13:48
Speaker 4: from not having access.
13:49
Speaker 5: To their pharmacy's choice.
13:51
Speaker 4: So I actually appreciate the work you guys saw us doing,
13:56
Speaker 4: which I love doing. But I got to applaud our Illinois.
14:00
Speaker 4: Every elarinly pharmacist liked him that you guys were the
14:03
Speaker 4: secret weapon. And Todd, how many times have we talked
14:05
Speaker 4: about they don't realize the kinds of superpowers they have
14:08
Speaker 4: exactly of you know, through knowing the relationship with your
14:12
Speaker 4: patients better than any politician, and if they came in
14:16
Speaker 4: your store and saw your relationships their constituents, they even
14:20
Speaker 4: know they have to pay attention to what you're saying.
14:22
Speaker 7: Well, we appreciate that because we're there to serve our
14:26
Speaker 7: communities and take care of our patients because we know
14:31
Speaker 7: them when they walk in the door, we know their name.
14:35
Speaker 7: So it's important for us. But the work's not done.
14:39
Speaker 7: John can maybe a touch on it is. You know
14:42
Speaker 7: in June this in June, the PBM filed a lawsuit
14:46
Speaker 7: against our state.
14:47
Speaker 5: So and they're trying to fight these things.
14:51
Speaker 7: I believe that it is basically claiming it conflicts with
14:55
Speaker 7: the federal benefit regulations.
14:58
Speaker 4: They're suing over that distil the law, saying it violates
15:01
Speaker 4: the risks. So you know, Todd, how many times we
15:04
Speaker 4: talked about this, So you've probably had other people.
15:06
Speaker 5: On your podcast.
15:07
Speaker 4: What we do in advocacy, but how it translates into
15:11
Speaker 4: how we have to keep fighting for the industry.
15:14
Speaker 5: It's a marathon, it's never a sprint.
15:16
Speaker 4: To me, I think Tim, that's why we the stores
15:20
Speaker 4: are vitally important to that our work really begins once
15:23
Speaker 4: a law passes, to make sure it gets done right,
15:26
Speaker 4: that it shows up in a change and a difference
15:30
Speaker 4: at the counter for the patients and the communities, Tim
15:34
Speaker 4: and every other independent pharmacy and any community pharmacy is serving, right, Tim,
15:38
Speaker 4: it's got to you got to see where it's it's
15:40
Speaker 4: making a difference in how you run your practice.
15:43
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
15:44
Speaker 7: Yeah, So this is this is going to help us
15:48
Speaker 7: so much. Just in our area. We already have plans
15:51
Speaker 7: of trying to expand services in our community, expand delivery
15:56
Speaker 7: services these patients that can't get to our pharmacies and
16:00
Speaker 7: making things assessed to them, making sure these patients are
16:03
Speaker 7: compliant so we have better disease outcomes on these patients.
16:06
Speaker 7: So it's really dollars that they're using to really invest
16:13
Speaker 7: into the lives of our community.
16:16
Speaker 4: And you know, with all the cuts coming and the
16:18
Speaker 4: work they're trying to do with rural health transformation, I
16:21
Speaker 4: firmly believe as we fix the foundational problems of the
16:25
Speaker 4: dysfunction of what the PBMs are created, especially in Medicaid
16:29
Speaker 4: managed care members and any independent pharmacy or any community
16:35
Speaker 4: pharmacy like Tim, you're going to be crucial to making
16:39
Speaker 4: those dollars go further. If anything, state governments are going
16:42
Speaker 4: to need pharmacies a lot more really than we need them,
16:46
Speaker 4: because they will not be able to succeed making these
16:49
Speaker 4: dollars work without including us in everything and paying us
16:53
Speaker 4: fully for the cost of the services.
16:55
Speaker 7: Yes, you know, and we need to follow the outcomes
16:58
Speaker 7: on these absolutely.
17:00
Speaker 5: So, Todd.
17:02
Speaker 4: I think this is a very interesting case study of
17:05
Speaker 4: how member identifying problems, advocacy coordination, involvement of people in
17:14
Speaker 4: the community helping us be knowing what we're really doing,
17:18
Speaker 4: working with the governmental system, but educating the legislators from
17:23
Speaker 4: what they didn't know. And I got to give credit
17:26
Speaker 4: to Governor Pritzker. He made this change. You know, a
17:30
Speaker 4: lot of these reforms in these states. We've seen it
17:33
Speaker 4: in democratically controlled states. I've seen it in republican controlled states.
17:37
Speaker 4: I've seen it in purple states. The only consistent thing
17:41
Speaker 4: it's not red, blue or purple that matters in this
17:43
Speaker 4: it's green color of money. In the fact that the
17:46
Speaker 4: states are finally wising up to the facts the PBMs
17:49
Speaker 4: have not done what they promised them in their own
17:51
Speaker 4: studies said they were going to do, which will save
17:53
Speaker 4: them money on vulnerable Medicaid population.
17:56
Speaker 5: Prescription falls hasn't happened. Just anything that Strip said happen.
18:00
Speaker 5: And you know.
18:03
Speaker 4: Change takes time, but you also have to be vigilant.
18:05
Speaker 4: But I hope Todd, what we can do, maybe at
18:08
Speaker 4: the end of the year, when we see the full
18:11
Speaker 4: benefit of your this get some sense not just the
18:15
Speaker 4: money it did to preserve pharmacy, but.
18:16
Speaker 5: What were the outcome benefits? Yeah? How many? Yes?
18:19
Speaker 4: What would really be good to know? I don't know
18:21
Speaker 4: if you can say it now is well looked one day?
18:24
Speaker 4: How many scripts did you not have to turn away?
18:26
Speaker 4: How much polypharmacy did.
18:29
Speaker 5: You help avoid?
18:30
Speaker 4: That could be a measurable outcome that Medicaid would want
18:33
Speaker 4: to know.
18:34
Speaker 5: Let me give you an example. We have patients in our.
18:37
Speaker 7: Community that are on a you know, vulnerable patient that
18:42
Speaker 7: they have to get on a bus, they have to
18:44
Speaker 7: come to our pharmacy and things of that nature.
18:46
Speaker 5: We have a delivery service for those patients. It's a
18:50
Speaker 5: free delivery service.
18:51
Speaker 7: And we also if they qualify and they're in under
18:56
Speaker 7: certain income levels in our state, Medicaid we're looking for outcomes, right,
19:01
Speaker 7: that's what we really want exactly, So we try to
19:04
Speaker 7: put them on a compliancy packaging the system and we
19:07
Speaker 7: follow up with the patient on calls every month and things.
19:10
Speaker 8: Of that nature.
19:11
Speaker 7: It takes time, it takes resources to do that, but
19:14
Speaker 7: we are getting outcomes on disease states. That's preventing the
19:19
Speaker 7: state from spending money for that patient going to the
19:21
Speaker 7: emergency room and you know, having heart attacks. You know,
19:25
Speaker 7: we are looking for outcomes. Now we need to be
19:27
Speaker 7: able to gauge those outcomes and to see or have
19:31
Speaker 7: some way to scientifically say this is the outcomes that
19:35
Speaker 7: we're getting now. I think her name is Rebecca Snead
19:39
Speaker 7: with National Community Farms Association doing a study on us,
19:43
Speaker 7: and so that's.
19:44
Speaker 6: Why we really need we need analytical data.
19:48
Speaker 5: But I applaud the.
19:53
Speaker 7: Movement that's going on. John has been a tremendous resource
19:59
Speaker 7: for us, just everybody who is working diligently to try
20:03
Speaker 7: to try to fight these battles. Because these battles are
20:09
Speaker 7: still going well I'm still gonna happen.
20:11
Speaker 4: And I appreciate you saying that, Tim, But you know what,
20:14
Speaker 4: it's people like you that are our members, also people
20:18
Speaker 4: on my team and IPC.
20:20
Speaker 5: If I can give you a little pluger for IPC.
20:22
Speaker 4: Todd, you know, we have an amazing pharmacy services team
20:25
Speaker 4: that know these contracts in and out. I have our
20:29
Speaker 4: field sales team that they're telling us. That's how I
20:32
Speaker 4: got to know Tim was through my colleagues. And our
20:37
Speaker 4: communications team has been top notch. And you see the
20:40
Speaker 4: grassroots we send out on these things to engage our members.
20:44
Speaker 4: I say it basically, it takes a lot of people
20:47
Speaker 4: to make me look good. But you know, I may
20:49
Speaker 4: just be the face of it, but I'm not really
20:51
Speaker 4: the strength of what's behind it.
20:53
Speaker 5: But we're all good as good as the team we
20:56
Speaker 5: have working in this.
20:57
Speaker 4: And you know, we're up against very very powerful entities
21:01
Speaker 4: that have tremendous wealth and resources, and I've seen them
21:07
Speaker 4: live with figures every day. It's not easy being on
21:12
Speaker 4: a side. It's a worthwhile and a noble fight when
21:16
Speaker 4: you're up against main streets, up against Wallstreet, and that's
21:20
Speaker 4: what we're fighting every day. And I people like Tim
21:24
Speaker 4: inspired me and I enjoy what I do every day.
21:26
Speaker 5: But it's good to show.
21:28
Speaker 4: And help give hope and hopefully a positive attitude to
21:34
Speaker 4: your our members in other states. This can be done,
21:37
Speaker 4: and I've seen it since COVID and since Rubbedge. We're
21:41
Speaker 4: building on success, and I think the federal wins have
21:44
Speaker 4: made people feeling we're turning the tide, and that's how
21:48
Speaker 4: winds get more wins. But Todd, I really appreciate what
21:52
Speaker 4: you do because you're a beacon out there.
21:54
Speaker 5: These stories wouldn't be known if we didn't.
21:56
Speaker 4: Have pharmacy podcasts out there to always have me backpack
21:59
Speaker 4: to tell.
22:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, heck yeah.
22:01
Speaker 3: And I want to thank you Tim for participating in
22:04
Speaker 3: the McKesson Ideas here press coverage. It's so important to
22:08
Speaker 3: get this out for so many pharmacy owners out there
22:10
Speaker 3: that didn't get to come and they probably aren't hearing
22:12
Speaker 3: these stories. And I think it's going to bring hope
22:14
Speaker 3: to other pharmacy associations and the other state associations, but
22:18
Speaker 3: then other pharmacy owners.
22:20
Speaker 6: Thank you, appreciate it, talk well.
22:21
Speaker 5: Thank you once again, Top.
22:22
Speaker 3: Absolutely we'll be right back with more coverage of McKesson
22:26
Speaker 3: Ideas here twenty twenty six.
22:31
Speaker 9: You've built your pharmacy through hard work and determination, and
22:34
Speaker 9: the right partner can help give you the tools to
22:37
Speaker 9: take it further. At Independent Pharmacy Cooperative, we're more than
22:43
Speaker 9: a GPO. We bring your team, your purchasing strategy and
22:47
Speaker 9: the tools to expand your pharmacy, from digital health and
22:51
Speaker 9: connected care to new programs that give you a path
22:54
Speaker 9: to growth that means smarter buying that protects your margin,
22:59
Speaker 9: modern tools that expand patient care, and new revenue streams
23:03
Speaker 9: that actually stick. Because when everything works together, your pharmacy
23:08
Speaker 9: doesn't just keep up, it grows independent pharmacy cooperative giving
23:13
Speaker 9: you the freedom to farm.
23:20
Speaker 3: Fellow Pennsylvanian Chris Darling, cowder Sport, Pennsylvania, I can't even
23:27
Speaker 3: say that, Chris.
23:28
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's a nice little town in northwestern rural Pennsylvania.
23:33
Speaker 3: Okay, northern western, so up above Poconos.
23:38
Speaker 10: We're probably an hour and a half, two hours from
23:40
Speaker 10: the Poconos, I think at least that far. Really up
23:42
Speaker 10: above nowhere, allegating National forest. Just a beautiful area, Yeah,
23:48
Speaker 10: eerie worn Wellsboro Cowdersport area, very cool.
23:53
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, I spend a lot of time in Ohio,
23:55
Speaker 3: pile down in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, which is more near
24:01
Speaker 3: West Virginia. But it's exciting to gather together. We're here
24:06
Speaker 3: in Denver. Independent community pharmacy is going through a play
24:12
Speaker 3: tectonic change. We're wrestling how to best use data, how
24:18
Speaker 3: to transfer from being focused on a dispensing fee versus,
24:23
Speaker 3: you know, really taking care of our patients for more
24:25
Speaker 3: of a holistic perspective. But I want to hear from
24:27
Speaker 3: your perspective, what are you excited about as a pharmacy
24:31
Speaker 3: owner right now?
24:32
Speaker 10: So that is a great question, Todd, and one that
24:37
Speaker 10: you know. I think that awareness, a legislative awareness, I
24:42
Speaker 10: would say, is happening both at the state and federal level.
24:45
Speaker 10: I was. I was down with with Mark Kenny and
24:47
Speaker 10: the IPC team to d C a month or two
24:50
Speaker 10: ago when we did some visits with some of the
24:54
Speaker 10: Senators and House representatives, and everyone understands the issue. It's
24:59
Speaker 10: kind of getting it moving forward. Though. There's some legislation
25:03
Speaker 10: federally for PBM reform, some that's going in effect in
25:08
Speaker 10: a few years, others that breaking up vertical integration, those
25:12
Speaker 10: type of things. And at the state level in Pennsylvania
25:15
Speaker 10: it's been tough. We've lost I'm one of the few
25:18
Speaker 10: pharmacies in that area. You could draw a thirty mile
25:21
Speaker 10: circle around me and it's me. So we need change
25:26
Speaker 10: and I feel like if we can get through that,
25:29
Speaker 10: there's you know, we kind of the peaks and drops
25:32
Speaker 10: of pharmacy. I think we're climbing back up out of
25:34
Speaker 10: this trough and hopefully growth, you know, news stores, resurgence
25:39
Speaker 10: of the excitement of some of us multi store owners
25:43
Speaker 10: of adding stores rather than just kind of circling the wagons.
25:47
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm glad you brought up vertical integration. Shout out
25:51
Speaker 3: to the state of Tennessee and Arkansas for putting in
25:54
Speaker 3: a bill that doesn't allow a PBM to own pharmacies
25:59
Speaker 3: within that state. That has to happen in all the
26:01
Speaker 3: other forty eight states. It has to happen in Pennsylvania.
26:06
Speaker 3: It will bring the playing field back to the level
26:09
Speaker 3: that it should have been, and it will help to
26:13
Speaker 3: stop the bleeding of pharmacy deserts becoming rampant throughout the country.
26:18
Speaker 3: And your testimony that being thirty mile radius and it's
26:22
Speaker 3: your pharmacy that's the only healthcare provider entity out there.
26:27
Speaker 3: So what do we have to do from a legislative
26:30
Speaker 3: perspective to get our Congress in the state and of
26:35
Speaker 3: course eventually the Senate to understand the dangers of continuing
26:40
Speaker 3: to allow a PBM to own a pharmacy and then
26:43
Speaker 3: get to play its own game. Where then it pushes
26:45
Speaker 3: out competition.
26:47
Speaker 10: So I think certainly legislators like to hear from their constituents,
26:52
Speaker 10: right and the messaging is very important. The message can't
26:56
Speaker 10: be I'm suffering as an owner. They understand that and
27:00
Speaker 10: that's a reality, but it needs to be at the
27:02
Speaker 10: patient level access to care. They need to see that.
27:07
Speaker 10: You know that that delivery to that woman that needed
27:10
Speaker 10: her medication didn't occur because the resources weren't there to
27:13
Speaker 10: get it to her or or or they weren't able
27:16
Speaker 10: to get to the store to pick up something. It
27:19
Speaker 10: really needs to be grassroots at the store level, getting
27:25
Speaker 10: the end product the patient to react. Right when we
27:30
Speaker 10: had the right Aid closures in Pennsylvania, the same we
27:34
Speaker 10: were saying the same things before that, right as owners,
27:37
Speaker 10: but patients started to say things, I can't get my medication.
27:41
Speaker 10: You know, it's I'm struggling with this. And in that
27:45
Speaker 10: healthcare crisis that we did have, and it was a
27:48
Speaker 10: crisis in some of our rural areas that brought it
27:51
Speaker 10: to light, and it has to be at the patient level.
27:54
Speaker 10: We just need we need to grassroots type campaign and
27:58
Speaker 10: call and work on that with our legislators.
28:00
Speaker 3: It's awesome Chris Darling, got to have you back on
28:03
Speaker 3: the shows. We're going to be doing some more more
28:07
Speaker 3: with independent community pharmacies at the local level. We want
28:10
Speaker 3: to know what's working at the local level to help
28:12
Speaker 3: you grow revenue, stand out in your in your community
28:16
Speaker 3: as a unique healthcare provider.
28:18
Speaker 6: We appreciate you being on the show.
28:19
Speaker 8: Yeah, thank you, Todd.
28:20
Speaker 10: I appreciate it too.
28:25
Speaker 3: All in psychs here at McKesson Idea Share twenty twenty six.
28:29
Speaker 6: All and thank you for stopping by.
28:30
Speaker 11: Todd.
28:31
Speaker 12: Appreciate the opportunity to be with you.
28:33
Speaker 3: Very important account to the membership and the usage of
28:38
Speaker 3: intelligence on your team for Pharmacy Podcast Network. We really
28:42
Speaker 3: appreciate the bottom line podcast and the information that comes
28:45
Speaker 3: out there. Talk to us about this show. How has
28:48
Speaker 3: the show been for you guys?
28:50
Speaker 12: This show has been really good from the perspective of
28:52
Speaker 12: seeing so many of our existing mcasson based clients. We
28:57
Speaker 12: don't travel around visiting the pharmacies across country. We assume
29:00
Speaker 12: mostly at the trade shows, so these major trade shows
29:03
Speaker 12: always important to see existing clients. In addition, we have
29:09
Speaker 12: obviously had some pretty good success in the last couple
29:12
Speaker 12: of days in talking to new opportunities. So it's a
29:16
Speaker 12: combination of both as far as we're concerned. And we
29:20
Speaker 12: had another show this weekend to tan We had another
29:23
Speaker 12: group of the Georgia Show, but we try to attend
29:26
Speaker 12: fifteen to twenty shows a year well.
29:29
Speaker 3: And what is the basic factors for our pharmacy owners
29:34
Speaker 3: in the realm of taxes, especially with growth, I think
29:39
Speaker 3: of long term care, pharmacy, at home expansion. If they're
29:43
Speaker 3: if you don't have if they're not using all, if
29:46
Speaker 3: they're not using Psychs and Company as their as their accountant.
29:51
Speaker 3: What are some of the heads up in expanding your
29:55
Speaker 3: business going from one pharmacy multiple pharmacies?
29:58
Speaker 12: Is there anything that oh well goodnes It all boils
30:01
Speaker 12: down todd to having the fundamental cruel accounting in place
30:05
Speaker 12: for these pharmacies. So many pharmacies are operating out in
30:07
Speaker 12: their checkbook that don't have a clue where they are.
30:11
Speaker 12: And obviously with third party of receivals as it is today,
30:14
Speaker 12: with the MFP, as it is with the Beacon system,
30:17
Speaker 12: with perpetual inventory systems, and with all the major script
30:21
Speaker 12: management systems now pretty much allowing for perpetual inventory, allowing
30:26
Speaker 12: those adjustments to occur each month for receivals, inventory payables.
30:30
Speaker 12: All that is key to knowing exactly where you are.
30:32
Speaker 5: And if you're looking at.
30:33
Speaker 12: Expanding by buying files or going to further opportunities with
30:37
Speaker 12: new stores that are being offered to you, and with
30:40
Speaker 12: the transitions that are taking place in this industry right now,
30:44
Speaker 12: it's more important than there before to know exactly where
30:46
Speaker 12: you are on a CRL basis for tax purposes is
30:50
Speaker 12: nothing about You might want to be looking at cash
30:53
Speaker 12: basis accounting for tax purposes if you are allowed to
30:58
Speaker 12: do that, if you fall within the realms the IRIS rules.
31:01
Speaker 12: But a crew based accounting monthly with the adjustments, not
31:05
Speaker 12: a year in with the adjustments, but monthly is cribbic.
31:09
Speaker 3: What are you seeing as some of the pitfalls of
31:13
Speaker 3: a lot of the pharmacy owners out there who might
31:15
Speaker 3: not be clients And what stories have you heard about
31:18
Speaker 3: tripping in your business and not doing what's right and
31:23
Speaker 3: that causing additional harm to the business even above and
31:26
Speaker 3: beyond PBMs.
31:28
Speaker 12: Well, it's sometimes when they go to want to sell
31:33
Speaker 12: files or sell multiple they may have multiple operations inside
31:38
Speaker 12: of one entity and there's no separation of accounting between
31:42
Speaker 12: the multiple entities. Sometimes that's an issue with one ballot
31:46
Speaker 12: sheet and maybe one P and L and they've got
31:49
Speaker 12: two or three different enterprises that're running through your P
31:53
Speaker 12: and L. That's a potential problem. But again, having each
31:57
Speaker 12: pharmacy standing on its own, separate balance sheet, separate P
32:01
Speaker 12: and L, is very critical understanding what's taking place within
32:05
Speaker 12: his industry. And there's just so many pharmacies out there today.
32:08
Speaker 12: Just it's beyond me why this isn't more recognized than
32:13
Speaker 12: it is within the industry, but it's not. Unfortunately.
32:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, yep, all right, what's the next show that the
32:19
Speaker 3: team's going to.
32:20
Speaker 12: We've got We've got the NCPA Ship Workshop. I think
32:24
Speaker 12: around the tenth of July that Bonnie and I will
32:27
Speaker 12: be there Bonnie Bond, then we'll be at of course
32:30
Speaker 12: Sincora and Cardinal latter part of July, I believe, both
32:35
Speaker 12: of which in Orlando, so we'll be there.
32:38
Speaker 6: We can't wait to see you.
32:39
Speaker 3: We'll be at I think the Thought Spot with Sincora
32:42
Speaker 3: as well, and we'll make sure to get to get
32:44
Speaker 3: you guys on the schedule.
32:45
Speaker 12: Absolutely glad to help you.
32:47
Speaker 6: Thank you so much, Thanks Todd.
32:48
Speaker 12: I appreciate.
32:52
Speaker 5: PSYCHX and Company.
32:53
Speaker 13: Is a proud member of the Pharmacy Podcast Network. Listen
32:56
Speaker 13: to their podcast Master the Margin, where they discuss key
32:59
Speaker 13: topics insights around pharmacy accounting. Master the Margin stays up
33:03
Speaker 13: to date with the changing pharmacy legal landscape and helps
33:05
Speaker 13: your pharmacy stay ahead of the curve. Listen now on
33:08
Speaker 13: your favorite podcast platform.
33:13
Speaker 6: Hey, welcome, Diana. This is the first time on the show.
33:15
Speaker 3: We're so excited to have you here at the McKesson
33:18
Speaker 3: Idea Share.
33:19
Speaker 6: I hadn't heard about Go.
33:21
Speaker 3: Mango Meds and this is why I'm excited you're here.
33:24
Speaker 6: So talk to us. What is the product, what is it?
33:27
Speaker 3: How does it help to impact independent community pharmacy.
33:30
Speaker 14: Yeah, so we've been around for about three years. We
33:35
Speaker 14: came into the marketplace with a belief that there is
33:40
Speaker 14: an enormous opportunity to help independent pharmacies take back control
33:45
Speaker 14: of their cash pricing and that they needed a solution
33:49
Speaker 14: that would do that for them that they could trust.
33:52
Speaker 14: So we established go Mango as a direct to retail solution.
33:58
Speaker 14: We have built a run our own adjudicator. We aren't
34:02
Speaker 14: dependent upon anybody else. We looked at the admin fee
34:05
Speaker 14: structures that are in the marketplace, and we have very
34:10
Speaker 14: intentionally come in at the very low end of that market.
34:14
Speaker 14: Our pricing and our entire offering is transparent. We don't
34:20
Speaker 14: sign any long term contracts, we don't require pharmacies to
34:24
Speaker 14: pay us anything upfront. If you don't use us, we
34:27
Speaker 14: don't get paid. But really what distinguishes us in the
34:31
Speaker 14: marketplace is the customized program that we establish that optimizes
34:36
Speaker 14: pricing over time. And what we do is we work
34:40
Speaker 14: with each and every pharmacy that comes to us to
34:44
Speaker 14: obtain a file, and when we obtain that file, it
34:47
Speaker 14: allows us to analyze their data and establish a customized
34:51
Speaker 14: pricing list so that when they start using us, we
34:55
Speaker 14: first of all, we do begin the optimization process, but
34:58
Speaker 14: we also simultaneously minimize the disruption that's going to happen
35:04
Speaker 14: by the adoption of a new cash program. And then
35:08
Speaker 14: we monitor and manage that program for that each pharmacy.
35:12
Speaker 14: So this is NPI specific, and that's another aspect of
35:16
Speaker 14: the customization is that I mean we have multi pharmacy groups.
35:21
Speaker 15: We do we take the direction of.
35:24
Speaker 14: The owner senior manager as to how they want to operate.
35:29
Speaker 14: If they when we take in like for example, if
35:32
Speaker 14: we took in the files for a five pharmacy group,
35:35
Speaker 14: we would analyze all of them.
35:37
Speaker 15: The pharmacy group.
35:38
Speaker 14: Will then tell us I would like to set up
35:40
Speaker 14: one consistent, priceless across all my pharmacies, or I would
35:43
Speaker 14: like them to be NPI specific. We can show them
35:46
Speaker 14: what the profit increase opportunity is for either of those scenarios,
35:53
Speaker 14: and we can set up how either way for the
35:57
Speaker 14: pharmacy owner, depending upon what they want.
36:01
Speaker 15: And I think all of that together.
36:04
Speaker 14: Makes us unique, and our goal is you know, we
36:07
Speaker 14: don't work for anybody else. We don't work for another PBM.
36:10
Speaker 14: We're not a marketing organization. We are pharmacy operations. People
36:16
Speaker 14: that have come into the market and believe honestly that
36:19
Speaker 14: it hasn't been a fair fight for independence, and that
36:23
Speaker 14: we have the skills and the experience to re empower them.
36:28
Speaker 14: We think that over time, discount cards and other programs
36:33
Speaker 14: have basically eroded trust and the majority of pharmacies we
36:37
Speaker 14: talk to, interestingly enough, what they do is they sell price,
36:42
Speaker 14: and as you know, as valiant as that is, and
36:46
Speaker 14: as you knows, as well intentioned as it is, it's
36:50
Speaker 14: very I think we pretty much after analyzing hundreds and
36:54
Speaker 14: hundreds of files. We've never seen one where there isn't
36:58
Speaker 14: an enormous amount of suboptimization and that we can't fix
37:01
Speaker 14: for them.
37:02
Speaker 15: So we're here to help.
37:04
Speaker 5: That's great.
37:04
Speaker 6: That's great.
37:05
Speaker 3: So agnostic to the pharmacy management system. It's just the
37:09
Speaker 3: export of a file that you're looking for. Talk to
37:12
Speaker 3: us about the technicalities of how it works.
37:14
Speaker 14: Yeah, I share a data template with the pharmacies that
37:18
Speaker 14: express sincere interest in working with us, They share a
37:21
Speaker 14: file back. We also we share a confidentiality agreement upfront.
37:27
Speaker 14: It's our commitment you know that, that and our legal
37:31
Speaker 14: binding commitment that we are not going to do anything
37:34
Speaker 14: nefarious with your data. And from there, as quickly as
37:39
Speaker 14: the pharmacy gets us a file, we take anywhere from
37:43
Speaker 14: a week to ten days to analyze that. The pharmacies
37:46
Speaker 14: get a comprehensive analysis back of what is happening in
37:49
Speaker 14: their entire cash in the in the cash.
37:52
Speaker 15: Portion of their book of business.
37:55
Speaker 14: It's a very valuable strategic tool and quite frankly, if
37:59
Speaker 14: if a pharmacy doesn't want to move forward from there,
38:01
Speaker 14: they have that from us. We've learned in the marketplace
38:04
Speaker 14: that other organizations consultancies mainly have charged hundreds.
38:07
Speaker 15: Of dollars for that.
38:08
Speaker 14: It's a free thing that we do upfront to earn
38:11
Speaker 14: the confidence of the pharmacies we want to work with.
38:13
Speaker 14: But as we're doing that, we also set up that
38:16
Speaker 14: customized priceless and that pharmacy can begin testing right away
38:20
Speaker 14: and being here at Idea Share and you know within
38:24
Speaker 14: the health Mart Atlas World, we are perk spender and
38:30
Speaker 14: we have a special deal.
38:32
Speaker 15: We offer three months free testing.
38:34
Speaker 14: So actually the benefit to the pharmacy is our normal
38:37
Speaker 14: dollar ten admin fee. They don't even have to pay
38:40
Speaker 14: that for three months. We've tried to remove every barrier
38:44
Speaker 14: so you can test for three months with no admin
38:47
Speaker 14: fee and if we see don't quote me on this,
38:50
Speaker 14: but it's in the fine print, but I think if
38:52
Speaker 14: they run at least one hundred claims a month for
38:55
Speaker 14: those three months, we'll extend that runway two more months,
38:59
Speaker 14: so they'll get five months free. So it's plenty of
39:02
Speaker 14: time to determine how it's working for you. And then
39:05
Speaker 14: we provide monthly reporting that shows if we're working for you,
39:10
Speaker 14: and we have because we have no long term contracts,
39:12
Speaker 14: they can stop at any time. We're really proud of
39:15
Speaker 14: the fact that health marek Autlysts has or that that
39:20
Speaker 14: via the Perks program, we are the only cash solution
39:24
Speaker 14: promoted through Perks, even you know, over top their own
39:30
Speaker 14: internal program, they've shared that with us, So it's really
39:34
Speaker 14: it's really been a strong endorsement. We're already serving a
39:37
Speaker 14: number of longtime health Mark customers and we would be
39:42
Speaker 14: honored to serve more and help them.
39:45
Speaker 15: The ones that come on and start using our custom solution,
39:47
Speaker 15: we just don't lose.
39:48
Speaker 14: Them because it's such a good solution that works, removes
39:52
Speaker 14: administrative headache, improves profitability, stabilizes and rationalizes pricing, and overall
40:01
Speaker 14: is just a really good addition to their overall toolkit
40:05
Speaker 14: to being a successful independent pharmacy.
40:07
Speaker 15: And at the bottom of.
40:08
Speaker 14: It, what we want to do is we really just
40:10
Speaker 14: want to re empower pharmacies to be confident about growing
40:14
Speaker 14: their cash because that is the one area of their
40:17
Speaker 14: business that they have full control over. But yet for
40:20
Speaker 14: the most part, the industry has seeded control over to
40:24
Speaker 14: the big cash card programs that are out there, and
40:27
Speaker 14: so that's at the heart of why we created this company.
40:32
Speaker 14: And I have a very passionate and incredibly talented team
40:35
Speaker 14: behind me, and we're just excited every day when we
40:40
Speaker 14: talk to pharmacies and they're like, thank you, thank you
40:42
Speaker 14: for what you do, thank you for helping us, thank
40:44
Speaker 14: you for making this headache go away.
40:46
Speaker 15: I didn't know how to fix this problem.
40:48
Speaker 5: Diane.
40:48
Speaker 3: I really appreciate you being on the mccusson Idea Share
40:51
Speaker 3: podcast press show. Excited that you got to be here.
40:55
Speaker 3: We'd like to have you back on this week in
40:56
Speaker 3: Pharmacy on twerks, So I'll be reaching out to you
40:59
Speaker 3: and your team. Tell our listeners how do they get
41:01
Speaker 3: a hold of you? Where where should they go to
41:03
Speaker 3: learn more?
41:04
Speaker 14: Yeah, you can find us most easily on our website
41:08
Speaker 14: ww dot go Mango Meds just like it sounds g
41:12
Speaker 14: O m A n g O m A d s
41:15
Speaker 14: dot com.
41:17
Speaker 15: And you know you can reach us there.
41:20
Speaker 14: Of course, if you're at Ideas here, we should come
41:22
Speaker 14: over and talk to us at our booth. We do
41:24
Speaker 14: get around to a lot of conferences across the United States,
41:27
Speaker 14: but yeah, the website, the website is probably the easiest way, okay,
41:31
Speaker 14: And you can also reach me on my emails Diana
41:34
Speaker 14: at Gomengo.
41:35
Speaker 8: Meds dot com.
41:36
Speaker 15: Great and we'd love to hear from you. We'd love
41:38
Speaker 15: to help.
41:39
Speaker 6: We'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much.
41:44
Speaker 11: All right, this is Sam Pizzo with lspedia and you're
41:47
Speaker 11: listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
41:51
Speaker 3: Sam, thanks for stopping by in the IPC booth talking
41:56
Speaker 3: at the McKesson ideas here.
41:58
Speaker 6: It's good to see Good to see you too. You
42:00
Speaker 6: and I have been in the business for some time.
42:02
Speaker 3: We've watched each others' careers kind of make shifts. Lspedia
42:07
Speaker 3: is an important part of this ecosystem. We've talked with
42:10
Speaker 3: him with match our X during a campaign that we
42:13
Speaker 3: had to really bring more attention. But let's update the
42:16
Speaker 3: listeners if they don't know what is lspedia.
42:19
Speaker 13: So.
42:20
Speaker 11: Lspedia is a civilization company that provides track and trace
42:24
Speaker 11: or solutions to not just the dispensers in the industry,
42:28
Speaker 11: but the entire all the stakeholders within the ecosystem, from
42:32
Speaker 11: the pharmaceutical manufacturers to the wholesalers and to the dispensers
42:37
Speaker 11: and everyone that touches it in between. So we have connections.
42:41
Speaker 11: We provide the services across the entire system, not just
42:45
Speaker 11: with dispensers. That's what makes us a leader in the space.
42:50
Speaker 3: So the DSCSA compliancy was extremely confusing. First it was on,
42:55
Speaker 3: then it had a date, then it changed, then it
42:58
Speaker 3: went you know, independent, and he's had to do it
43:01
Speaker 3: this way, chains how to do.
43:02
Speaker 6: It this way?
43:03
Speaker 3: Can you give us an update of what's actually going
43:05
Speaker 3: on with the SSA.
43:06
Speaker 11: Yeah, they have put another hold they did last year
43:12
Speaker 11: until November of this year for smaller dispensers. Dispensers that
43:16
Speaker 11: have less than twenty five licensed employees, so basically the
43:21
Speaker 11: pharmacists and the technicians, but the larger guys all need
43:25
Speaker 11: to be doing the need to be compliant. They need
43:28
Speaker 11: to be following the rules and taking care of what
43:31
Speaker 11: they need to do from a regulatory standpoint. Coming this year,
43:36
Speaker 11: November twenty seven, that will be the final deadline. There
43:41
Speaker 11: are people saying that it's going to get delayed because
43:43
Speaker 11: there has been so many delays in the past. I
43:46
Speaker 11: don't see it being delayed. I think it's been pushed
43:49
Speaker 11: back far enough where everyone's going to have to be compliant.
43:53
Speaker 5: So it's important.
43:54
Speaker 11: For the smaller pharmacies and everyone that's not doing something
43:58
Speaker 11: today they get them line. You don't want to wait
44:00
Speaker 11: to the last minute. When you wait to the last minute,
44:02
Speaker 11: you're going to have a backlog. There won't be It
44:05
Speaker 11: doesn't matter if you're working with LSPO or someone else.
44:08
Speaker 11: You're not going to have the You won't be guaranteed
44:11
Speaker 11: that you'll be compliant on the first day. So it's
44:13
Speaker 11: important to start looking at a solution today.
44:17
Speaker 3: Is LSPDA also giving our pharmacy owners the documentation of
44:24
Speaker 3: how to react maybe to an audit.
44:25
Speaker 6: How does that work?
44:26
Speaker 5: That's a great question.
44:27
Speaker 11: The part of our tool is a standard operating procedure.
44:32
Speaker 11: It's an outline that we provide to the pharmacies and
44:36
Speaker 11: we encourage them to make that one of the first
44:38
Speaker 11: things you do and lay out what your plans are.
44:41
Speaker 11: If you have a suspect product, where are you going to?
44:44
Speaker 11: Where's your quarantine area with you know who who's trained
44:49
Speaker 11: on it.
44:49
Speaker 13: You've got to.
44:50
Speaker 11: Lay all those pieces out. So we do provide the
44:52
Speaker 11: pharmacies with the dispensers with the tools that they need,
44:56
Speaker 11: including the standard operating procedure.
44:59
Speaker 3: All right, what is I'm listening to the show? I
45:01
Speaker 3: wasn't able to attend. My idea share what's the best
45:05
Speaker 3: way to reach out and get a hold of you.
45:07
Speaker 11: So best way is to come on our website www
45:10
Speaker 11: dot lspedia dot com and you can navigate within that
45:16
Speaker 11: website all the information sire.
45:18
Speaker 3: All right, Sam, thank you so much for taking your
45:21
Speaker 3: time to be on the show. This is important that
45:23
Speaker 3: people understand this information. If there's any questions you can't
45:26
Speaker 3: get a hold of Sam, well just reach out to us.
45:28
Speaker 3: I'll get you in touch with Sam. Sam, thanks for
45:30
Speaker 3: being here.
45:31
Speaker 11: Thank you Potch.
45:35
Speaker 8: Hello friends. My name is em La Tabo.
45:37
Speaker 16: I own Pow Pharmacy in Powell, Ohio and the Integrated
45:40
Speaker 16: Pharmacist Academy, and you are listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
45:46
Speaker 11: Ama.
45:46
Speaker 3: It's so good to have you on the show. Welcome
45:49
Speaker 3: to Idea Share. Mckesson's Idea Share twenty twenty six.
45:52
Speaker 6: How are you.
45:53
Speaker 8: I am doing good. Thank you for having me. Todds.
45:56
Speaker 3: So, you're kind of a superstar because your pictures everywhere.
46:00
Speaker 3: You're on the IPC's website and I see you other places.
46:03
Speaker 3: So when I saw you in person, I was like,
46:05
Speaker 3: is that like a keynote.
46:06
Speaker 5: Speaker or you know?
46:08
Speaker 6: So I had I had to get you on the show.
46:11
Speaker 8: Well, I am honored to be on the show.
46:12
Speaker 16: I have had seen many superstars on this show, so
46:15
Speaker 16: I'm just honored to be listed.
46:17
Speaker 8: Among the Well.
46:19
Speaker 3: My favorite interviews are with pharmacy operators and owners who
46:23
Speaker 3: really dig into the whole spirit of what is pharmacy.
46:27
Speaker 3: In the business of pharmacy, it's under drastic extress right now,
46:31
Speaker 3: it's under change. We're moving from just getting reimbursed by
46:35
Speaker 3: a dispensing fee to start making money as providers of
46:38
Speaker 3: consultation and education. What are you most excited about about
46:43
Speaker 3: being a pharmacy owner.
46:45
Speaker 16: I'm most excited about the fact that our ability to
46:49
Speaker 16: generate revenue and take care of patients has no limit,
46:53
Speaker 16: and I just can't wait for thee way. Every pharmacy
46:57
Speaker 16: owner can only realize that, but actually.
47:00
Speaker 8: Take advantage of it. So right now we have at
47:02
Speaker 8: least a faint.
47:03
Speaker 16: Idea that there are other opportunities to generate revenue apart
47:06
Speaker 16: from building insurance and complaining about declining reimborsements. But I
47:11
Speaker 16: am not saying don't get me wrong here. I served
47:14
Speaker 16: as a trustee for District nine for Ohio Pharmacist Association.
47:17
Speaker 16: I'm all for advocation, and I want us to advocate
47:20
Speaker 16: and to be able to fight the PBM fight. But
47:22
Speaker 16: in the meantime, the tagline for my pharmacy is there's
47:26
Speaker 16: a lot more to health and prescriptions. So we're not
47:28
Speaker 16: going to sit in the back row of the room
47:29
Speaker 16: and complain. We're going to step up and we're going
47:31
Speaker 16: to take care of patients and we're going to get
47:33
Speaker 16: paid for doing that, forgetting about the insurance. So patients
47:37
Speaker 16: are desiring. Patients want to be taken care of. Nobody
47:40
Speaker 16: wakes up in the morning and says I want to
47:44
Speaker 16: go to the pharmacy to just pick up some simil statud. No,
47:46
Speaker 16: they want to feel better and they'll pay us to
47:48
Speaker 16: feel better. So we need to figure out ways to
47:51
Speaker 16: give the patient what they need so they have the outcomes,
47:55
Speaker 16: and then they'll pay us for this so we can
47:56
Speaker 16: generate revenue and we feel better doing it. And that's
47:58
Speaker 16: what it is to be a pharmacy owner and a pharmacist.
48:01
Speaker 5: I love that.
48:02
Speaker 3: I love the whole attitude because that is the proactive
48:06
Speaker 3: way of being a pharmacy instead of hey, I'm not
48:09
Speaker 3: a sick care destination. I am a healthcare destination. And
48:13
Speaker 3: we're doing much more than just dispensing medication.
48:16
Speaker 16: Yes, yes, and what I have done at my pharmacy,
48:19
Speaker 16: you know, So knowing that you know, as a pharmacy owner,
48:23
Speaker 16: we all desire to take care of patients and generate revenue.
48:27
Speaker 16: But then we have to realize that we have tools
48:29
Speaker 16: and resources that we can use, and the successful pharmacy
48:33
Speaker 16: owner is the one that makes the most use of
48:36
Speaker 16: their resources. And so at my pharmacy our, about seventy
48:40
Speaker 16: percent of our revenue is generated from non prescription services,
48:43
Speaker 16: so wanness services. And this is my goal to be
48:46
Speaker 16: able to teach other pharmacists how to do what I
48:48
Speaker 16: have done and to be able to enjoy doing it.
48:50
Speaker 16: So we have used a full script in a way
48:54
Speaker 16: that I just in my mind there should not be
48:57
Speaker 16: a single independent pharmacy in the US that is not
48:59
Speaker 16: using full script because that has really helped us to
49:03
Speaker 16: leverage this wellness dispensing. Sixty three billion dollars is what
49:07
Speaker 16: patients have spent in the wellness industry in the past
49:10
Speaker 16: few years.
49:10
Speaker 8: Just think about that.
49:12
Speaker 16: The Council for Responsible Nutrition says about seventy to seventy
49:15
Speaker 16: four percent of patients are taking supplements. They're buying this
49:19
Speaker 16: on Instagram, Amazon from people who do not have clinical
49:23
Speaker 16: knowledge and pharmacists are here shining away from the conversation.
49:27
Speaker 16: So full Script has given me the tools to be
49:29
Speaker 16: able to discuss dietary supplements with confidence.
49:32
Speaker 8: And I serve as a.
49:33
Speaker 16: KO for full Script, So I work with full Script
49:36
Speaker 16: to be able to help other pharmacists to get on
49:38
Speaker 16: board because these patients are going to buy the supplements
49:42
Speaker 16: either from G and C or Amazon or TikTok someplace else. Meanwhile,
49:48
Speaker 16: these seventy four percent of these patients are coming from
49:50
Speaker 16: the pharmacy and we're apt, we're equipped with the drug
49:53
Speaker 16: interaction reports. One thing that Foscript gives me is the
49:55
Speaker 16: ability to say, say, if you come to the pharmacy
49:58
Speaker 16: and you're taking Devo diroxine, and oh I heard about Ashroghana.
50:01
Speaker 16: My sister is taking ashaganda, my friend is taking Ashagunda,
50:04
Speaker 16: and there I want to take it. I'll be like, no, thought,
50:08
Speaker 16: I don't want you to take ashaganda because you are
50:10
Speaker 16: on legal thyroxine. As your pharmacist, I would prefer that
50:13
Speaker 16: you take elthan in. Those are the tools that I
50:15
Speaker 16: have as your pharmacists. If you are buying this out
50:17
Speaker 16: of environments shop down the line, they will not have
50:20
Speaker 16: this for you down the street. So that's why, as
50:22
Speaker 16: a pharmacist, a better place to take care of these
50:24
Speaker 16: services for you. And you're going to pay me for
50:27
Speaker 16: that consultation, and you're going to pay me once you
50:30
Speaker 16: once I sell that elth and into you, so and
50:32
Speaker 16: you feel better.
50:34
Speaker 3: Tell us how full script works from the very beginning,
50:37
Speaker 3: and then also tell me about the interaction between the
50:40
Speaker 3: pharmacy system, information and full Script and like the whole ecosystem.
50:45
Speaker 16: So the way I look at it is, once you
50:46
Speaker 16: as a pharmacy owner. Let's assume that you're a pharmacy owner.
50:49
Speaker 16: Now are you interested in providing wellness services for your
50:52
Speaker 16: for your patients. So, first of all, we have the
50:55
Speaker 16: collaboration with full Script on IPC, which I'm very excited about.
50:58
Speaker 16: And the reason is that IPC pharmacies are getting a
51:02
Speaker 16: specific discounts a price that all the pharmacies are not getting.
51:05
Speaker 16: But here's the deal. When I talk with pharmacy owners,
51:09
Speaker 16: the first hesitation that they talk about selling supplements is
51:13
Speaker 16: the overhead. You have to order these supplements and then
51:16
Speaker 16: you stop them in the pharmacy and maybe some people
51:18
Speaker 16: will not buy them, and then they get expired on you,
51:20
Speaker 16: and that's just waste of time, energy and effort. So
51:23
Speaker 16: but what full script does is that if you sign
51:25
Speaker 16: up for a full script account, the first thing is
51:27
Speaker 16: that you don't even have to stop these supplements. So
51:29
Speaker 16: if I come into your pharmacy and I say I'm
51:31
Speaker 16: looking for Ashra Gandha and you don't have it on hand,
51:34
Speaker 16: you can give me full scip a creator cure code
51:36
Speaker 16: for you and which I can scan and place that order,
51:39
Speaker 16: and full script is going to ship it to my home.
51:42
Speaker 16: Full scrip ships it to my home as the patient,
51:44
Speaker 16: and you never touch the product as a pharmacy owner,
51:46
Speaker 16: but you get that profit margin.
51:48
Speaker 8: The profit margin comes to you.
51:50
Speaker 6: It's like as if it was on your.
51:51
Speaker 16: Show, exactly exactly, and full script communicates with the patient
51:55
Speaker 16: on your behalf.
51:56
Speaker 8: So that's the first advantage.
51:58
Speaker 16: But secondly, if you're certain things are your you need
52:00
Speaker 16: to sell a lot, fullscripe also offers you the opportunity
52:03
Speaker 16: to order those wholesale and stock them on your shelf.
52:06
Speaker 16: So consider full script as you know you think of McKesson,
52:09
Speaker 16: your wholesaling your prescriptions, buying your prescriptions from Mackesson. But
52:13
Speaker 16: full script is like the number one wholesale for supplements.
52:16
Speaker 16: That's the first thing. You have access to over three
52:19
Speaker 16: hundred and seventy different brands and they are all third
52:21
Speaker 16: party tested pharmaceutical grade.
52:24
Speaker 8: And not only that, you have.
52:25
Speaker 16: Resources on full script So you can go and click
52:27
Speaker 16: on there and say I want some information about probiotics.
52:30
Speaker 16: So you want to give your patients a one pager
52:32
Speaker 16: on probiotics, you just type in there. On our resources side,
52:35
Speaker 16: we have researchers on folkscript who have come to put
52:38
Speaker 16: together these patient friendly resources and you can give out
52:41
Speaker 16: these to your patients and say what is a probiotic?
52:43
Speaker 16: What the hell is a CFE? And how do you
52:45
Speaker 16: put propertis on your plate? In terms of food, how
52:47
Speaker 16: do you put your trendanse foods on your plate? So
52:49
Speaker 16: foolscap is looking at it from a whole person perspective,
52:52
Speaker 16: whole patient care. So it's not just in addition to
52:55
Speaker 16: you know, it's not just a supplement movement nutrition. So
52:58
Speaker 16: we're giving all the lifestyle recommendations. This is what people
53:01
Speaker 16: want to do feel better. So that's the second benefit,
53:04
Speaker 16: not just the supplements, then the resources that go with
53:07
Speaker 16: the supplements, and then the drug interaction. For script assists
53:11
Speaker 16: which has the drug interaction and templates that we can
53:13
Speaker 16: put in prescriptions and drug and supplements and we figure
53:16
Speaker 16: out what interactions and which ones we can replace with.
53:20
Speaker 8: So those are the tools that as.
53:21
Speaker 16: A clinical pharmacist I need to take care of my patients.
53:26
Speaker 16: And I'm going to take it one step further if
53:27
Speaker 16: you allow me. Yeah, So right now, patients, let's talk
53:33
Speaker 16: about inflammation for a second. Okay, we know that inflammation
53:36
Speaker 16: is a driver of most chronic diseases. Right, So if
53:39
Speaker 16: you and I a twin brother and sister, we have
53:42
Speaker 16: similar genetic component and we both have high blood pressure,
53:45
Speaker 16: and I have a higher level of inflammation and you
53:47
Speaker 16: have a lower level of inflamation, You're gonna outdo me.
53:49
Speaker 16: You're gonna live well and do fine. But with inflammation,
53:52
Speaker 16: it just makes everything worse. So the goal is to
53:55
Speaker 16: measure inflammation and.
53:56
Speaker 8: Reduce it basic things like that.
53:57
Speaker 16: So seriactive person is just an easy biomarker that we
54:01
Speaker 16: can measure.
54:02
Speaker 8: So full script gives me the.
54:03
Speaker 16: Ability as an independent pharmacist to be able to measure
54:06
Speaker 16: all these biomarkers. I can measure your vironmin D, I
54:09
Speaker 16: can measure your magnesium. I can measure your lplttle E.
54:12
Speaker 16: It will be all the new cholesterol guidelines. I can
54:15
Speaker 16: measure hundreds and hundreds of biomarkers and be able to
54:20
Speaker 16: mix supplyment recommendations with confidence. Turnkey model already set up.
54:24
Speaker 16: So as an IPC pharmacist, if you sign up for
54:26
Speaker 16: Fokkift today, you are dedicated four gift success manager. Somebody
54:31
Speaker 16: is going to do a demo for you thirty minutes
54:33
Speaker 16: show you how to use the platform, and all these
54:35
Speaker 16: services are already on their turnkey. You don't have to
54:38
Speaker 16: do anything like you already have that clinical knowledge from
54:40
Speaker 16: pharmacist goal, so please use it to take care of
54:43
Speaker 16: the patients. Don't let it die with you in there.
54:45
Speaker 16: We need it as your patients.
54:47
Speaker 6: I love it, I love it.
54:48
Speaker 3: We have to have you back on this weekend Pharmacy
54:51
Speaker 3: where we can talk more about what full Script has
54:54
Speaker 3: done for your business.
54:55
Speaker 6: Absolutely, thank you so much for being on.
54:57
Speaker 3: The show here at the McKesson Idea Share podcast press coverage.
55:00
Speaker 8: Thank you so much, Oh my pleasure. Thanks for having
55:02
Speaker 8: me time