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Embracing Pharmacy Evolution | Surecast Live Part 3 · 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.
0:10
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Pharmacy podcast Network.
0:27
Speaker 3: Hey, welcome back to the Shirt Coast Insights twenty twenty
0:31
Speaker 3: five coverage. This is the Shurecast. What an exciting time
0:34
Speaker 3: to be here. I want to introduce our moderator for
0:38
Speaker 3: the entire event, Kelly Cicero. Kelly, this has been an
0:42
Speaker 3: absolutely fantastic event. We're so excited about the interviews we've collected.
0:47
Speaker 4: Thanks DoD.
0:48
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to part three of Sure Costs Insights
0:51
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five. Sure cost Insights twenty twenty five. I'm
1:00
Speaker 3: here with a fellow speaker, Jessica Daily.
1:03
Speaker 4: It's good to see you.
1:04
Speaker 5: It's great to see you too, Tom, Thank you so much.
1:07
Speaker 4: Jessica a fellow Pittsburger. Absolutely Steeler fan.
1:13
Speaker 3: Always like talking to Steelers fans, all right. When Surecosts
1:17
Speaker 3: came out of the space of pharmacy way back in
1:21
Speaker 3: the day, we built an API between our pharmacy management
1:25
Speaker 3: system for our clients to the system to extract all
1:28
Speaker 3: this data. Something that you've really honed in on to
1:33
Speaker 3: bring more light to and give pharmacy operators in the
1:37
Speaker 3: chain space, in the independent community pharmacy space is the
1:42
Speaker 3: drug shortage. It's the bad word that nobody wants to
1:45
Speaker 3: think about, and it causes harm, it causes slowdowns, and
1:48
Speaker 3: it impacts adherents. So let's kind of unpack that because
1:51
Speaker 3: your presentation here at sure cost just in case the
1:55
Speaker 3: listeners didn't get to come here, they're missing out, So
1:59
Speaker 3: give us kind of your overview. There's financial implication, implications,
2:03
Speaker 3: there's obviously, like I said, adherence issues.
2:06
Speaker 4: Talk to our listeners about.
2:07
Speaker 5: That, right, So drug shortages are something that and we'll
2:11
Speaker 5: talk about this in my presentation, and I hope as
2:13
Speaker 5: many listeners as we have here have been able to
2:16
Speaker 5: join us here at short costs because the conference is fantastic.
2:19
Speaker 5: But one of the things that we deal with short
2:21
Speaker 5: with drug shortages is that it's our past and our
2:23
Speaker 5: present right. It is a constant issue that every pharmacy,
2:28
Speaker 5: every pharmacist and technician deals with on a daily basis.
2:32
Speaker 5: And in the United States and one of the wealthiest
2:34
Speaker 5: countries in the world, we shouldn't be dealing with shortages
2:37
Speaker 5: of critical medications. So what we're really going to focus
2:40
Speaker 5: on during my time is less on the woe is me,
2:44
Speaker 5: what's happening? It's really focusing on what we can do
2:47
Speaker 5: as pharmacy professionals to better understand the market, to dig
2:51
Speaker 5: really deeply into the financial metrics that ourselves and our
2:54
Speaker 5: trading partners have that actually contribute to the occurrence of
2:59
Speaker 5: drug shortage, so that we can make better decisions about
3:02
Speaker 5: how we buy, how we balance cost versus margin, and
3:06
Speaker 5: really focusing on what the pharmacy can do to impact
3:10
Speaker 5: change in their own market. And one of the biggest,
3:13
Speaker 5: most important things that we can do, and another reason
3:16
Speaker 5: why I'm so pleased that I'm here with short Cost
3:18
Speaker 5: and that we're here at the Short Cost Summit is
3:21
Speaker 5: that AI as an emerging technology has incredible application in
3:25
Speaker 5: the fight against drug shortages. And we've come from several
3:29
Speaker 5: years ago where there really was nothing to now having
3:32
Speaker 5: options and opportunities that not only help us to manage
3:35
Speaker 5: a shortage, and Sure Cost has been an incredible partner
3:38
Speaker 5: in this and mining the data within the supply chain
3:41
Speaker 5: to find products through multiple channels when you need them.
3:45
Speaker 5: But now we're really getting into the fun and exciting
3:48
Speaker 5: part of AI, where we are potentially and I hate
3:51
Speaker 5: to use the word but it's the word I'm going
3:52
Speaker 5: to use this morning, predicting what might come, And.
3:55
Speaker 4: You're going to say that here here's why.
3:58
Speaker 3: About ten years ago, the buzzword in pharmacy management system
4:03
Speaker 3: reporting was predictive analytics. Predictive analytics, and I knew from
4:08
Speaker 3: a definition of what that meant, but I never really
4:10
Speaker 3: saw it in action. Now we could take ten years
4:14
Speaker 3: of data and hone it through an AI system and
4:17
Speaker 3: say to the AI system, hey, based on past consumption
4:22
Speaker 3: on the XYZ medication and now that we're leading into
4:27
Speaker 3: this season, maybe it's vaccine or whatever, what do you
4:31
Speaker 3: predict would be the issues? Where's the bottlenecks for restriction
4:37
Speaker 3: and for.
4:38
Speaker 4: Drug shortage?
4:40
Speaker 3: Is that kind of what you're relating to and what
4:44
Speaker 3: system is that?
4:45
Speaker 2: Right?
4:45
Speaker 5: So it's actually it's amazing. It's things that maybe we
4:49
Speaker 5: used to do pen and paper, right Excel spreadsheets ruling.
4:52
Speaker 5: Today you would have a team in your supply chain
4:54
Speaker 5: that they're your purchasers, right. They know the market, they
4:57
Speaker 5: know where to find things, and they kind of pick
4:59
Speaker 5: up on some of the subtle signals that exist in
5:01
Speaker 5: the market. They're very familiar with your patient base, they're
5:04
Speaker 5: familiar with your caseloads and they see small ticks and changes,
5:08
Speaker 5: and so a lot of that ability to respond to
5:11
Speaker 5: or prevent or manage a drug shortage in the past
5:14
Speaker 5: was really reliant on having a good buyer that knew
5:17
Speaker 5: what they were doing. So what we're able to do
5:19
Speaker 5: now with AI is we can take all of that
5:23
Speaker 5: kind of institutional knowledge that a buyer has, but then
5:26
Speaker 5: layer in very deep data sets, so we can look
5:29
Speaker 5: at information about where products are made. We can look
5:32
Speaker 5: at at information about how different distribution centers or distribution
5:36
Speaker 5: points across the country are stocked with product and what
5:40
Speaker 5: their burn rates and inventory turn rates look like. We
5:44
Speaker 5: can take information that in the past, as an individual,
5:47
Speaker 5: you may not have had either access to or the
5:50
Speaker 5: ability to maneuver and manage that data. We're talking millions
5:54
Speaker 5: upon millions of data points that are constantly changing and
5:57
Speaker 5: evolving on a daily basis. Putting that all into.
6:00
Speaker 2: AI allows us to really get.
6:03
Speaker 5: To the point where we can predict and there are
6:06
Speaker 5: absolutely cases where AI predictive software in the drug shortage market.
6:11
Speaker 5: It's not going to necessarily tell you there's going to
6:13
Speaker 5: be a drug shortage next week. Certainly can do that,
6:16
Speaker 5: but what we're seeing is that picking up on some
6:19
Speaker 5: of these subtle changes and movements across the entire US
6:23
Speaker 5: supply chain for pharmaceuticals, We're getting months advance notice when
6:28
Speaker 5: there may be a disruption coming down the pike, and
6:31
Speaker 5: so that's so important and I really want to I
6:33
Speaker 5: want to emphasize to the listeners that this idea of
6:37
Speaker 5: using predictive software to know when a shortage is coming,
6:42
Speaker 5: it's great, but we need to move away from that
6:44
Speaker 5: reactionary approach. Right, so we know a shortage may be
6:47
Speaker 5: coming in three to six months, but what you really
6:49
Speaker 5: should be doing is leveraging that software to future proof
6:53
Speaker 5: you're purchasing practices today. So risk score which products are
6:58
Speaker 5: at the highest risk in general for a potential shortage
7:01
Speaker 5: down the line. How are you managing your inventory and
7:04
Speaker 5: your purchase practices relative to those specific products. How are
7:08
Speaker 5: you balancing your cost and your margin, and how are
7:11
Speaker 5: you building out the right clinical protocols and pathways so
7:14
Speaker 5: that when an alert does come through that there is
7:17
Speaker 5: a shortage that may be imminent, you are not reacting.
7:21
Speaker 5: You're deploying your well thought out prepared supply chain resiliency plan.
7:26
Speaker 5: And so we have a much more stable, much more
7:29
Speaker 5: consistent market, and I think it really does again, digging
7:33
Speaker 5: into some of this deep information around the financials of
7:36
Speaker 5: what is causing drug shortages will allow us to make
7:39
Speaker 5: smarter decisions and invest in our supply chains in a
7:42
Speaker 5: different way than we've done before, so that we can
7:45
Speaker 5: use AI to create that stable market where the predictive
7:50
Speaker 5: software is giving us the ability to flex rapidly and
7:53
Speaker 5: to be successful rather than always be in a reactive state.
7:57
Speaker 3: I want to give a shout out to our listeners.
8:00
Speaker 3: Have Jessica back on this week in Pharmacy at some point,
8:03
Speaker 3: because I want to talk to you about the ecosystem
8:06
Speaker 3: and the baton between manufacturer, the major whole sellers, the
8:12
Speaker 3: secondary wholesalers, the buying groups that are you know out there,
8:17
Speaker 3: and then of course from there the access to our
8:20
Speaker 3: pharmacies and then of course the most important people in
8:23
Speaker 3: healthcare are patients. But Jessica Daily, this has been amazing
8:27
Speaker 3: time with you here at the Shircost Insights twenty twenty five.
8:30
Speaker 3: Thanks for being part of the show.
8:31
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me. Todd, great time.
8:39
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Josh Hart with Optu Consulting and you're
8:41
Speaker 1: listening to the pharmacy podcasts.
8:48
Speaker 3: Josh here at the Shurecost Insights twenty twenty five.
8:51
Speaker 4: It's great to see you. Hey, good to be here.
8:53
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.
8:54
Speaker 3: Hey, we are in an inflection point, as I was
8:58
Speaker 3: saying in my presentation when we were talking about AI
9:01
Speaker 3: and pharmacy, and there's no time not to be a
9:05
Speaker 3: little bit more strategic. And your group really dials into
9:10
Speaker 3: workflow and somehow having to save money with usage of data,
9:15
Speaker 3: and so talk to me about what op TO Consulting
9:19
Speaker 3: does and how you can help a pharmacy operation.
9:23
Speaker 4: Sure, yeah, and I appreciate you having me.
9:25
Speaker 1: So we've been in business ten years, working with pharmacies,
9:27
Speaker 1: working with a little over sixty pharmacies. Started out in
9:30
Speaker 1: long term care and have expanded that out to specialty
9:33
Speaker 1: and fusion centers and others. And over the past year
9:36
Speaker 1: year and a half, obviously with the prevalence of AI,
9:39
Speaker 1: the maturity of the tooling, the Inflation Reduction Act and
9:43
Speaker 1: all of those stressors in the industry, pharmacies are really
9:46
Speaker 1: starting to get squeezed on the margin. So what we're
9:48
Speaker 1: trying to do is help our customers through automation AI.
9:53
Speaker 1: So that's kind of the biggest thing that we're getting
9:55
Speaker 1: asked for today. In addition to software development and reporting
9:59
Speaker 1: and all the and things. Pharmacies are struggling with labor,
10:04
Speaker 1: you know, retaining people, getting new people, growing their business
10:09
Speaker 1: with the existing staff, and so we're taking the tooling
10:11
Speaker 1: that's in the market, taking those workflows that are repetitive,
10:15
Speaker 1: and putting in robotic process automation bots to help them
10:19
Speaker 1: with that, to free people up for higher value tasks.
10:22
Speaker 3: So, Josh, as soon as you start implementing new things,
10:25
Speaker 3: you're starting to put in, like you said, automation, that's
10:28
Speaker 3: going to end, that's going to change workflow. So talk
10:31
Speaker 3: to me about how op to is assisting and workflow
10:34
Speaker 3: design as well.
10:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, So what we typically do is we start off
10:37
Speaker 1: with the problem. You know, what are some of the
10:39
Speaker 1: workflows that your team is doing or struggling to do
10:42
Speaker 1: that's labor intensive, that's repetitive, that's predictable. We'll meet with
10:46
Speaker 1: the client, we'll go over that and we'll come up
10:47
Speaker 1: with a plan on how we can automate that or
10:50
Speaker 1: make it streamlined. And it's not always one hundred percent,
10:53
Speaker 1: but if you can get eighty percent back, maybe you
10:55
Speaker 1: get six hours back out of an eight hour day.
10:57
Speaker 1: That's a big win for everybody.
11:00
Speaker 4: What do you think the.
11:00
Speaker 3: Biggest challenges right now for operations that want to scale
11:04
Speaker 3: that kind of get in their own way in some ways. Yeah,
11:07
Speaker 3: from your perspective, because you work with about sixty pharmacies
11:10
Speaker 3: throughout the country.
11:11
Speaker 4: It's correct talk to us about that.
11:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just understanding the
11:15
Speaker 1: technologies that's out there. Obviously AI is a broad brush
11:19
Speaker 1: and how to use it. There's yeah, how to use it.
11:21
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of fear missing out. You know,
11:24
Speaker 1: how can we do it, How can we do it quickly?
11:25
Speaker 1: How can we do it responsibly? What can and can
11:28
Speaker 1: it do? And the technology is moving so quick, it's changing, right,
11:34
Speaker 1: So it's maturing so fast, it's accelerating so fast. So
11:38
Speaker 1: staying ahead of that, understanding the right place to use
11:42
Speaker 1: it at the right time, and that's where we really
11:44
Speaker 1: come in. We understand how to do automation, We understand
11:47
Speaker 1: how to put AI in place at the pharmacy and
11:50
Speaker 1: do it in a meaningful way.
11:52
Speaker 4: So, Josh, this has been good.
11:54
Speaker 3: Appreciate you being on the show here at Sure Cost
11:57
Speaker 3: Insights twenty twenty five.
11:58
Speaker 4: Are you coming back for Shure Insights twenty twenty six.
12:01
Speaker 1: Oh, I hope so, yeah, we plan to be here.
12:02
Speaker 1: So that's great on us. Yeah, thank you all right.
12:05
Speaker 3: Op to Consulting to reach out to Josh, go to optu.
12:09
Speaker 4: That's op to consulting dot com.
12:12
Speaker 3: Ask for Josh. Tommy heard them on the Pharmacy Podcast.
12:20
Speaker 3: Matt Gilbert here at suir Cost twenty twenty five Insights.
12:23
Speaker 4: It's great to see you.
12:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, happy to be here.
12:25
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me.
12:26
Speaker 5: Todd.
12:27
Speaker 3: So I did tell my wife Nicole, God bless her heart,
12:31
Speaker 3: that this is my last conference. And then when I
12:34
Speaker 3: said that, someone reached out to me and said, hey,
12:37
Speaker 3: are you going to the ASHP midyear in December? And
12:41
Speaker 3: I'm like no, and they're like, well, if we sponsor you,
12:44
Speaker 3: And as soon as I hear that word, I'm just like, ah,
12:47
Speaker 3: So I'm on the fence. I'm not sure if I'm going,
12:50
Speaker 3: but I'll bet if I have two dollars in my
12:53
Speaker 3: pocket two dollar bills, I will bet those two dollars
12:55
Speaker 3: bills that you were definitely going to another conference before
12:58
Speaker 3: the end of the year.
12:59
Speaker 2: Bet the hell.
13:00
Speaker 6: That's what I would say. It's like betting on the Patriots.
13:02
Speaker 6: You can't lose at this point. I'll be there. We'll
13:05
Speaker 6: be at ASHP and God, it's a couple of weeks
13:07
Speaker 6: away now, so that's my last one for the year,
13:10
Speaker 6: so we'll see you there.
13:11
Speaker 4: It's been a great event.
13:12
Speaker 3: We're really digging into data and how not only data,
13:15
Speaker 3: but AI is really helping us in operations. And I
13:19
Speaker 3: immediately think of orex safe and icon and how you're
13:22
Speaker 3: positioning pharmacies to leap into purposefully leap into long term
13:28
Speaker 3: care at home.
13:29
Speaker 4: There's so many puzzle pieces.
13:30
Speaker 3: You and I have talked about the edge of where
13:33
Speaker 3: it starts to make sense.
13:35
Speaker 4: Let's talk a little bit about that.
13:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And it all goes back to data.
13:39
Speaker 6: It's getting good, clean data on not only your existing
13:42
Speaker 6: patient population, but what the future can look like for
13:45
Speaker 6: your pharmacy. And I think that's where sure costs comes in.
13:48
Speaker 6: That's why we're here. We don't necessarily play in the
13:51
Speaker 6: inventory space, but it's a piece of the puzzle as
13:54
Speaker 6: we move people over to an LTC at home model
13:57
Speaker 6: or a foray into a closed or el environment, it's
14:01
Speaker 6: a huge piece. You've got to have the building blocks
14:03
Speaker 6: and the inventory ordering process is one of the main ones.
14:07
Speaker 3: So there is a device in the portfolio of the
14:11
Speaker 3: rxafi Con Systems that if you were going to start
14:15
Speaker 3: into this, you would implement.
14:17
Speaker 4: So let's talk about that.
14:19
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, So we've got a brand new one, the
14:21
Speaker 6: rapid Card SD, which is a fully automated single dose
14:24
Speaker 6: blister card machine. People have been clamoring, they've asked us
14:28
Speaker 6: for probably at least five years. Hey, there's only a
14:32
Speaker 6: couple solutions out there. We don't necessarily like them. We
14:35
Speaker 6: think you guys can do something better, and now we have.
14:38
Speaker 6: So we've entered that into the Orbit, along with our
14:40
Speaker 6: pouch packaging system, the rapid pack and our multidose system,
14:44
Speaker 6: the rapid Card multidose, and all of them pair very
14:48
Speaker 6: well with the Icon, which is another line that we have.
14:51
Speaker 3: So long term care pharmacy and moving deeper into serving
14:56
Speaker 3: home the home. It's the emergency service, it's delivery, it's
15:01
Speaker 3: the adherence packaging. We've got to get the paperwork right
15:05
Speaker 3: and we've got to bill correctly. So you and I
15:09
Speaker 3: have talked about how many pit You've done, so many
15:12
Speaker 3: analysis it's just awesome. By the way, shout out to
15:14
Speaker 3: our listeners. If you want to really dig in and
15:17
Speaker 3: get the actual data, Matten team will actually take your
15:22
Speaker 3: operation and tell you, hey, are you able to afford
15:26
Speaker 3: this system or how many patients do you need to
15:29
Speaker 3: afford this system? So let's go over that for the listeners.
15:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:32
Speaker 6: Yeah, So there's really three different prongs to our approach.
15:36
Speaker 6: One is we've got a partnership with Paul Shelton and
15:39
Speaker 6: Pharma Complete. He's piped in with Jerry met and what
15:42
Speaker 6: they can do is an analysis of your existing patient population,
15:46
Speaker 6: tell you who would qualify for LTC at home and
15:49
Speaker 6: what the net swing is bringing somebody over to an
15:52
Speaker 6: LTC contract. The analysis that we do on the RC
15:56
Speaker 6: safe side is we'll go through and you give us
15:58
Speaker 6: a radius around your pharmacy. We'll tell you what type
16:01
Speaker 6: of LTC, whether it's assisted living, ICFIDDS, sniffs, jails, corrections,
16:08
Speaker 6: will tell you what's available in that market and then
16:10
Speaker 6: tell you what the other players are in that market
16:12
Speaker 6: as far as a pharmacy, who's servicing what. And then
16:16
Speaker 6: the last layer recent partnership that we struck was with
16:19
Speaker 6: med Sense, which does remote therapeutic monitoring, and we always
16:22
Speaker 6: talk about that as layering the cake if you're going
16:24
Speaker 6: to go with adherents packaging or even traditional vile filling.
16:29
Speaker 6: Med Sense has RTM capabilities, so they handle a full
16:33
Speaker 6: cycle billing mechanism. They offload the devices to the patients
16:38
Speaker 6: that facilitate that remote therapeutic monitoring no upfront cost to
16:42
Speaker 6: the customer, which is huge for anybody in pharmacy. If
16:46
Speaker 6: you tell somebody they've got to spend a nickel or
16:48
Speaker 6: lift a finger, a lot of times it's not going
16:50
Speaker 6: to happen. Med Sense came up with a great solution
16:53
Speaker 6: that nets the pharmacy twenty five dollars per patient per month.
16:57
Speaker 6: So when we partnered with them, the whole idea was,
17:00
Speaker 6: we're going to do the analysis with Paul Shelton on
17:02
Speaker 6: the LTC at home patients. We'll show you what's available
17:04
Speaker 6: in the market as far as group homes assisted living
17:07
Speaker 6: is skilled, and then we'll have Medsense to an analysis
17:10
Speaker 6: all this for free before you even buy a machine
17:13
Speaker 6: to see who's eligible in your existing pharmacy base for
17:17
Speaker 6: remote therapeutic monitoring. So a lot of times we come
17:20
Speaker 6: back and the net swing of all of that is
17:22
Speaker 6: usually ten, fifteen, twenty thousand dollars of just of the
17:26
Speaker 6: existing patient population, so it can more than cost justify
17:29
Speaker 6: one of our machines.
17:31
Speaker 3: I'm guessing that listeners are listening to this podcast series
17:34
Speaker 3: with sure costs here at Insights probably mid mid November
17:38
Speaker 3: to end of November. And do we have enough time
17:43
Speaker 3: to get the tax break by using the technology by
17:46
Speaker 3: December thirty first.
17:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we do. That's been a huge push.
17:49
Speaker 6: Actually, I talked to five or six people just at
17:51
Speaker 6: this show that said, Matt, if you can guarantee me
17:54
Speaker 6: a machine by the end of the year, we'll buy one.
17:56
Speaker 6: So we're pushing. We're pushing our install teams super super hard.
18:01
Speaker 6: I'm sure the sales reps will be out helping install machines.
18:04
Speaker 6: Our president said he'll be out installing machines if somebody
18:07
Speaker 6: wants to.
18:07
Speaker 2: Get one in before the year.
18:09
Speaker 6: We're probably going to install forty or fifty of them
18:11
Speaker 6: in the next month or so. So it's going to
18:14
Speaker 6: be gangbusters the next month.
18:16
Speaker 4: Well, get on it. You heard it here.
18:18
Speaker 3: Check out arcsafe dot com. Ask for Matt Gilbert. You've
18:22
Speaker 3: been a champion to help people become more profitable.
18:26
Speaker 4: We trust your organization. Thank you for being on the
18:28
Speaker 4: show mat Yeah, thanks, Todd.
18:29
Speaker 6: We'll see at ASHP and I need that two bucks.
18:37
Speaker 4: Hi.
18:38
Speaker 2: This Mike Salasso.
18:39
Speaker 7: I'm the director of sales at Capital Drug and I'm
18:42
Speaker 7: here with my good friend Todd Yuri and you're listening
18:45
Speaker 7: to the Pharmacy Podcast.
18:51
Speaker 3: Mike, we are here at the Shircust twenty twenty five
18:54
Speaker 3: Insights event.
18:54
Speaker 4: It's great to see you.
18:56
Speaker 2: Nice being you and thanks for this opportunity.
18:58
Speaker 4: Todd absolutely Capital Drug.
19:00
Speaker 3: For those who don't know, tell us a little bit
19:03
Speaker 3: of the background, like how did Capital Drug come around?
19:05
Speaker 7: A lot of history with Capital We just celebrated seventy
19:09
Speaker 7: five years in the industry.
19:10
Speaker 2: Compar Yeah, we're family owned.
19:13
Speaker 7: We're working on a third generation of the Richards family
19:17
Speaker 7: coming up. Great company. I've been with Capital I've been fortunate.
19:21
Speaker 7: I've been there for eight years now.
19:24
Speaker 4: So tell me.
19:26
Speaker 3: We're here at Shircus, which we're concentrating on data analytics,
19:30
Speaker 3: running our operations better. How have you helped your customers
19:33
Speaker 3: leverage Capital Drug to be a more profitable community pharmacy.
19:37
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a good question, Toad. So we try to
19:40
Speaker 7: do things a little bit different, okay, and you are
19:42
Speaker 7: spot on.
19:43
Speaker 2: It is all about the data.
19:45
Speaker 7: And you know, we're living in a world if you will,
19:49
Speaker 7: you know with pharmacy and suppliers that if you don't
19:52
Speaker 7: buy right, you have no chance of making any money.
19:55
Speaker 7: So you know you're buying power and buying smart is critical. Well,
20:00
Speaker 7: shark Hoss is a absolutely a fantastic you know, mechanism, platform,
20:07
Speaker 7: data center, whatever you want to call it, a way
20:10
Speaker 7: to make smart purchases. And we've been with Sharkoss for
20:14
Speaker 7: a very very long time. We have great work and
20:16
Speaker 7: relationship with Nathan and Jeff and it's just super company
20:20
Speaker 7: to do business with. And the customers that that we service,
20:23
Speaker 7: I mean, we're we're doing really well with and we're
20:26
Speaker 7: doing well for them.
20:28
Speaker 2: It's great.
20:29
Speaker 3: So, so, Mike, I know that there's some trends taking place.
20:33
Speaker 3: One of the trends that I noticed two stores from
20:36
Speaker 3: friends of mine in the Pittsburgh area that are.
20:39
Speaker 4: Now one.
20:42
Speaker 3: Cash percent no more, no more insurance. Now I'm seeing
20:46
Speaker 3: a combo shop where you have pharmacies that are playing
20:49
Speaker 3: on both sides where they'll take insurance, but then all
20:51
Speaker 3: of a sudden they do have elements of cash. So
20:55
Speaker 3: talk to me about those trends and how the secondary
21:00
Speaker 3: is actually almost more important than it was ten twenty
21:02
Speaker 3: years ago.
21:04
Speaker 7: Yeah, so with the stores today that are taking cash
21:07
Speaker 7: only and or the combo shops as you spoke of.
21:11
Speaker 7: I mean, our goal and our thrust really is the
21:13
Speaker 7: same as working with a pharmacy that is traditional you know,
21:18
Speaker 7: commercial insurance if you will. What we do and this
21:22
Speaker 7: is where we're different, I believe from the rest.
21:24
Speaker 2: We work on data.
21:25
Speaker 7: Okay, So what I'm telling pharmacies is what to buy
21:30
Speaker 7: from us and what not to.
21:32
Speaker 2: Buy from us. Okay.
21:34
Speaker 7: So my belief is and I worked for one of
21:37
Speaker 7: the big wholesalers for a long time and had a
21:40
Speaker 7: very great experience there. But my belief is, hey, if
21:44
Speaker 7: you sign a contract, well, obviously it was a good
21:47
Speaker 7: contract to sign, so you should live up to that.
21:50
Speaker 7: But there is room within that contract a shop away.
21:54
Speaker 7: And so our goal and what we've been able to
21:57
Speaker 7: do with the majority of our customers, especially are shore
22:00
Speaker 7: costs customers, because they have the analytics at their fingertips, okay.
22:05
Speaker 2: Is that you know we'll get them.
22:07
Speaker 7: You know, they'll have to say, you know, for arguments,
22:09
Speaker 7: say fifteen thousand dollars that they can spend away from
22:12
Speaker 7: their primary and not get hurt with their GCR and
22:16
Speaker 7: rebates and so on and so forth. We'll turn that
22:18
Speaker 7: fifteen thousand dollars into twenty thousand dollars worth the product,
22:22
Speaker 7: and so it's a win win for everybody.
22:25
Speaker 2: Okay.
22:26
Speaker 7: The primary is not getting hurt, okay, because you lived
22:28
Speaker 7: up to your agreement.
22:29
Speaker 2: Okay. The store is happy, okay, because.
22:33
Speaker 7: They turned some you know, they generated some serious profit
22:38
Speaker 7: with us. And I'm not going to tell you we're
22:41
Speaker 7: unhappy because we're happy too. And so you know, we're
22:44
Speaker 7: a secondary. We're not looking to knock anybody out of
22:47
Speaker 7: the box.
22:47
Speaker 2: Okay.
22:48
Speaker 7: We respect where we sit in the in that space,
22:52
Speaker 7: and we play well, you know, with others.
22:54
Speaker 3: Okay, Mike, tell me about Capital's coverage from the nation perspective.
23:00
Speaker 3: If I'm a pharmacy in Austin, Texas, or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Orlando, Florida,
23:05
Speaker 3: somewhere out in California, where are you able to get
23:08
Speaker 3: product to?
23:09
Speaker 7: So we we are licensing in forty eight states, Okay,
23:13
Speaker 7: West Coast. We service all the you know, forty eight
23:17
Speaker 7: But depending on the carriers, Okay, it could either be
23:20
Speaker 7: next day delivery or two day delivery. Out to say
23:23
Speaker 7: some of the what you know Western states, okay, but
23:27
Speaker 7: obviously you know the customer knows that you know. So
23:31
Speaker 7: we try to be and we do a very good
23:33
Speaker 7: job of being very transparent with all our customers. That
23:36
Speaker 7: seems to be the new corporate buzzword transparency. I don't know,
23:39
Speaker 7: I just call it honest.
23:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so fun word for honesty.
23:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's a new word for honesty. I don't well,
23:46
Speaker 2: I have to regard the saurus to see if it's
23:48
Speaker 2: in there.
23:49
Speaker 3: So when you think of the future of pharmacy, and
23:54
Speaker 3: we see clinical becoming more where you're disease state tracking
23:58
Speaker 3: and it's the pharmacy that's running the plans, dispensing is
24:03
Speaker 3: becoming something that we see automation taking over. Where do
24:09
Speaker 3: you see community pharmacy ownership. Do you see an opportunity
24:14
Speaker 3: to come out of the gate differently or do you
24:18
Speaker 3: see a time to come to your customer base and say, hey,
24:22
Speaker 3: get into long term care at home or get into compounding.
24:26
Speaker 3: Like you've seen enough pharmacy business over your years to
24:30
Speaker 3: be almost a consultant to your members, and especially if
24:35
Speaker 3: they're new pharmacy owners. So give us your view of
24:37
Speaker 3: the future of pharmacy.
24:38
Speaker 7: You know, I've been doing this a long time, and
24:42
Speaker 7: it's funny. There's certain things that have not changed. My
24:46
Speaker 7: view of the independent pharmacy is they are a fixture
24:50
Speaker 7: within the community, okay. And I think the first thing,
24:54
Speaker 7: and for a large part I've seen a lot of
24:56
Speaker 7: them do, is they embrace the community and what are
24:59
Speaker 7: the community these needs? And if if that moves into
25:02
Speaker 7: a long term care, you know, if that moves into
25:04
Speaker 7: a specialty or so on and so forth.
25:06
Speaker 2: Okay. You know.
25:08
Speaker 7: The thing that kind of hampers independent pharmacy is when
25:12
Speaker 7: all of a sudden, somebody you know, takes their pick
25:14
Speaker 7: and strikes gold. The chains are not far behind and
25:19
Speaker 7: trying to replicate, okay. So you have to know who
25:22
Speaker 7: you are and what you are, okay. And so you know,
25:26
Speaker 7: the community pharmacies that I've been calling on fort they
25:30
Speaker 7: give it away here for thirty five years. I mean,
25:33
Speaker 7: most of these guys are striving.
25:35
Speaker 2: You know, they're really.
25:36
Speaker 7: Doing well, okay, because they service the community.
25:40
Speaker 2: I mean I had had one one.
25:42
Speaker 7: Friend of mine who zoned the pharmacy for a long time,
25:46
Speaker 7: and all of a sudden, the CVS care mark cards
25:48
Speaker 7: getting started getting mailed out and so on and so forth, and.
25:52
Speaker 2: He took he literally took.
25:54
Speaker 7: A high school kid to actually too high school kids.
25:57
Speaker 7: He gave him the local telephone book and have them,
26:00
Speaker 7: had them.
26:01
Speaker 2: Call every person.
26:04
Speaker 7: In the town and said, hey, look, I know that
26:07
Speaker 7: you just got this card in the melt because I
26:09
Speaker 7: got one too. Okay, we filled those prescriptions. You don't
26:15
Speaker 7: have to go to CBS, you know, for them. And
26:17
Speaker 7: they were like really, they were like, you know, so
26:22
Speaker 7: part of it is education on both sides of the aisle,
26:25
Speaker 7: so to speak. The pharmacist has to stay you know,
26:27
Speaker 7: definitely current, what's in the market, what you know, what
26:30
Speaker 7: they can do, and so on and so forth, and
26:32
Speaker 7: learn that pharmacy, you know, fortunately.
26:34
Speaker 2: Or unfortunately really is a business, you know. Uh.
26:38
Speaker 7: And then from there start educating you know, their their patients,
26:42
Speaker 7: I mean, their patients have you know, buy and large,
26:45
Speaker 7: you know, no idea that hey, I just filled this prescription.
26:48
Speaker 7: And you know, the pharmacist was really nice and they
26:51
Speaker 7: did a great job. And I didn't know that they
26:53
Speaker 7: lost eight dollars. You know, they don't know, you know,
26:58
Speaker 7: they they don't know. And so but again it's keeping
27:02
Speaker 7: that foot traffic in your store.
27:04
Speaker 4: You know so, Mike, this has been good to spend
27:07
Speaker 4: time with you. If someone's listening, they want to get
27:09
Speaker 4: a hold of you. What's the best place to go
27:11
Speaker 4: to get a hold of you.
27:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, I mean they can.
27:14
Speaker 7: My email is m dot Salazzo at Capital dash drug
27:19
Speaker 7: dot com. The best way to get in touch with
27:21
Speaker 7: me is three one seven seven two seven thirty.
27:25
Speaker 2: Two sixty four. Todd. Appreciate you doing for this community.
27:29
Speaker 2: Really do you got You're doing a good job.
27:31
Speaker 7: Man.
27:31
Speaker 4: I appreciate you, Mike, Thank you so much.
27:33
Speaker 2: Thanks buddy, Bye bye.
27:38
Speaker 4: Paul Shelton.
27:40
Speaker 3: It's good to see you here at Sure Cost Insights
27:42
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five.
27:43
Speaker 8: Absolutely good to see you as well. Ton. Thanks for
27:45
Speaker 8: having me.
27:46
Speaker 4: You show up at all the events.
27:47
Speaker 3: How many conferences is is this one for you for
27:51
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five?
27:52
Speaker 2: Oh?
27:53
Speaker 8: I think either nine or ten for this year. It's
27:56
Speaker 8: something crazy like that. I think it's the fourth one
27:58
Speaker 8: in the last two months.
27:59
Speaker 3: So you know what I heard? I heard that. Actually
28:03
Speaker 3: I heard I didn't hear this. I'm making this up.
28:06
Speaker 3: But if you bring your wife to a conference with you,
28:09
Speaker 3: it doesn't count towards your count because then she forgives
28:14
Speaker 3: you and like as mine did.
28:15
Speaker 8: So well, that's that's totally real, unless she is also
28:18
Speaker 8: working in your booth, in which case it just counts
28:21
Speaker 8: as her working as well.
28:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then she's really mad that she's super happy.
28:26
Speaker 3: You better take her to play or some kind of
28:29
Speaker 3: weekend or something, Paul, long term care at home is
28:34
Speaker 3: a super hot topic.
28:36
Speaker 4: You and I have been talking about.
28:38
Speaker 3: It for two or three years now, but it's finally received.
28:42
Speaker 3: It's its place, it has its components that we know
28:46
Speaker 3: black and white now what we have to do in
28:49
Speaker 3: order to implement and grow. However, there are some pharmacies
28:54
Speaker 3: that may be listening right now that it's just not
28:56
Speaker 3: right for them, and I want you to kind of
28:59
Speaker 3: like clarify that and demystify that form.
29:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.
29:02
Speaker 8: Absolutely so. Over the last years so, we've been able
29:05
Speaker 8: to run population assessments on just over three hundred and
29:08
Speaker 8: ten pharmacies across the United States. And it's been really
29:11
Speaker 8: interesting in that is of those three hundred and ten pharmacies,
29:14
Speaker 8: we've had about fifteen where it was like, yeah, I
29:18
Speaker 8: love the idea, but it just doesn't make sense right now.
29:21
Speaker 8: And the ones that were that we had that issue.
29:25
Speaker 4: About half of them.
29:25
Speaker 8: Were actually in very highly dense pant population centers where
29:29
Speaker 8: you'd think it would make sense. Unfortunately, those population centers
29:32
Speaker 8: have a very high occurrence of Medicaid only patients for
29:35
Speaker 8: their patient population, and it just it got to the
29:38
Speaker 8: point where it's like, okay, five percent of your total
29:40
Speaker 8: patient population may qualify for this. It doesn't make sense
29:43
Speaker 8: to go through the process of getting that second NPI
29:45
Speaker 8: and NCPDP and going through all your credentialing process. The
29:49
Speaker 8: other place we've seen it not work very well is
29:51
Speaker 8: in rural rated pharmacy. So if you've got a pharmacy,
29:53
Speaker 8: we had one Dawn in North Carolina that was awesome.
29:55
Speaker 2: They're out on the outer banks.
29:56
Speaker 8: They're literally an hour from every other pharmacy in the
29:59
Speaker 8: state as the crow flies, maybe only about fifteen to
30:02
Speaker 8: twenty miles, but because of the geography, it's a very
30:05
Speaker 8: isolated area.
30:07
Speaker 4: They had full rural rates.
30:08
Speaker 8: Every single payer recognizes them as a rural pharmacy. We
30:11
Speaker 8: ran the numbers and it was I think roughly four
30:14
Speaker 8: hundred dollars of opportunity for the pharmacy. And we looked
30:17
Speaker 8: at them and said, pretty bluntly, this doesn't make sense.
30:19
Speaker 8: Several others in Nebraska and Oklahoma that were rural rated
30:22
Speaker 8: in one in Texas, it just didn't make sense for
30:25
Speaker 8: them because again, they already had pretty solid reimbursement through
30:28
Speaker 8: those rural rate contracts. What's interesting, though, is the other
30:33
Speaker 8: two hundred and ninety five pharmacies that we looked at
30:36
Speaker 8: had more than one thousand dollars a month of opportunity
30:39
Speaker 8: when we did that assessment. And so at some point
30:41
Speaker 8: where like Okay, the vast majority of pharmacies should.
30:45
Speaker 4: Be participating in this.
30:46
Speaker 8: They should be looking at this as a way to
30:48
Speaker 8: change how they provide care for their patients and frankly,
30:52
Speaker 8: how they provide outcomes for their patients. That's really what
30:54
Speaker 8: this is all about. LTC at home doesn't exist without
30:57
Speaker 8: the increased outcomes of the patients. And really where we're
31:00
Speaker 8: seeing some great opportunity for pharmacies.
31:02
Speaker 3: Paul, of all of the pieces of the puzzle to
31:05
Speaker 3: build my long term care at home pharmacy model, yep,
31:10
Speaker 3: what do you see. Because you've done it so many times,
31:13
Speaker 3: you've helped so many pharmacies get into it, what's the
31:16
Speaker 3: most difficult of those pieces of the puzzle.
31:20
Speaker 8: Honestly, Todd is taking the first step. It's the pharmacy
31:23
Speaker 8: deciding that they're going to do this. The NCPDP or
31:26
Speaker 8: the NPI process takes fifteen minutes. The NCPDP is another call.
31:30
Speaker 8: It hour and a half to two hours of paperwork,
31:32
Speaker 8: and you get that in two weeks. At that point,
31:34
Speaker 8: we're getting you to select a p SAO GPO partner.
31:37
Speaker 8: That takes thirty days, and now you're set up with
31:40
Speaker 8: one of the major payers for it. I mean literally
31:41
Speaker 8: in forty five days, you can be ready to go.
31:43
Speaker 8: During that same time period, you're getting your backup pharmacy
31:46
Speaker 8: solutions set up, so you get IV and custom combat formulation,
31:49
Speaker 8: you get your twenty four hour access set up with
31:51
Speaker 8: a call center solution, and then finally your compliance packaging,
31:55
Speaker 8: and then that last big barriers delivery. But I mean,
31:59
Speaker 8: how many pharmacies today are already doing delivery, They're already packaging,
32:03
Speaker 8: They're just not getting compensated for the work that they're
32:05
Speaker 8: already doing. It's I think that's my biggest frustration, is
32:08
Speaker 8: like the barriers that taking that first.
32:11
Speaker 3: Step, Paul share with the listeners, the website and the
32:16
Speaker 3: organization that you're part of and you over help to
32:19
Speaker 3: oversee so that they can go there to kind of
32:22
Speaker 3: get these pieces of the puzzle and reach out to you.
32:24
Speaker 8: Absolutely, thanks, thanks for that. It's the Long Term Care
32:26
Speaker 8: at Home Pharmacy Network. The website is very challenging. It's
32:31
Speaker 8: LTCAH dot com, so literally just LTCAH so long Term
32:37
Speaker 8: Care at Home dot com. And the network is an
32:40
Speaker 8: industry advocts the organization. We've got over eight hundred and
32:43
Speaker 8: seventy five members now growing like crazy, just because obviously
32:47
Speaker 8: many pharmacies are moving this direction, and really looking forward
32:49
Speaker 8: to see what the new year has for us. Get
32:52
Speaker 8: some really exciting projects in the works about changing how
32:55
Speaker 8: people access all the compliance tools that they have at
32:58
Speaker 8: their fingertips, so they have easy access to IB therapy
33:01
Speaker 8: and custom COMPOUNDIT formulation solution, easy access to an after
33:05
Speaker 8: hours call center solution, and really just policies and procedures
33:09
Speaker 8: are things they need to be due to be successful.
33:11
Speaker 8: So really looking forward to having people join us.
33:13
Speaker 3: Well, it's always good listening to your presentations. I like
33:17
Speaker 3: listening to you on other podcasts that you've participated in.
33:20
Speaker 3: We're on an encyclopedia for long term care pharmacy at home,
33:24
Speaker 3: and we really much appreciate you being here on the
33:26
Speaker 3: show today.
33:27
Speaker 8: Absolutely, thanks so much for the invite.
33:28
Speaker 4: Thanks Paul, good seeing