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

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

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the twenty twenty six McKesson Idea Share Rewind,
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  Speaker 2: a Pharmacy podcast Network exclusive series of on site interviews
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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
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: brings you back to the action in Denver, Colorado. We'd
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  Speaker 2: like to thank AAPA for sponsoring this episode of the
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six McKesson idea show Rewind.
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  Speaker 3: Hello, this is Chean's should we with AAPA and you're
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  Speaker 3: listening to the Pharmacy.
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  Speaker 4: Podcast Kelly Shams, Welcome to Denver. This is exciting time
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  Speaker 4: here at the exhibit hall. I am just pumped up.
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: I had coffee. I think I'm going to get a
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: couple of those fruit smoothies over there in the IPC booth.
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  Speaker 4: But welcome to Denver. How you guys doing. We're doing great.
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  Speaker 4: We're excited to be here. We're excited to meet with
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  Speaker 4: our members.
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  Speaker 5: We are doing some great things, and excited about our
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  Speaker 5: dinner tomorrow night.
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  Speaker 4: Shams, you've been in Denver before, this is your first time.
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  Speaker 3: This is my first time here. I've never been, and
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  Speaker 3: I'm really excited to get out and explore the city.
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  Speaker 3: If we have any free time.
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  Speaker 6: That's just it.
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  Speaker 7: Though.
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  Speaker 6: I talk with my family, talk with my friends.
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  Speaker 4: Some of them that don't get to travel, they're like,
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  Speaker 4: you're so lucky you get to go to all these places.
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  Speaker 6: I'm like, listen to me.
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  Speaker 4: I see the inside of an uber, I see the
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  Speaker 4: inside of the airport, I see my hotel, I see
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  Speaker 4: the conference hall. It's very hard sometimes to get out
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  Speaker 4: with how busy we get. But Denvers beautiful. I'm so
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  Speaker 4: excited we're all here together. All right, let's get this started.
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  Speaker 4: For listeners who may not be familiar with AAPA, what
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  Speaker 4: is this organization?
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  Speaker 6: Shams? What is AAPA?
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  Speaker 7: Todd?
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  Speaker 3: AAPA is a national group purchasing organization dedicated exclusively to
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  Speaker 3: independent pharmacy. Today, we represent more than six hundred and
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  Speaker 3: fifty independent pharmacies across twenty eight states, and our mission
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  Speaker 3: has always been simple to help independent pharmacies remain competitive,
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  Speaker 3: more profitable, and better position to serve their communities. Our
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  Speaker 3: goal is to negotiate the way that GPOs work. Essentially
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  Speaker 3: is to negotiate competitive purchasing contracts and provide operational resources.
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  Speaker 3: And we take it one step further and we'd advocate
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  Speaker 3: for long term success of independent pharmacies as well.
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  Speaker 4: I've entered pharmacy two thousand and four, didn't understand pieces
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  Speaker 4: of the puzzle buying groups for a huge part of
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  Speaker 4: our success in technology entering. There's a trust factor in
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  Speaker 4: our buying groups, Kelly, there are several buying groups out there.
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  Speaker 6: What makes AAP a.
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  Speaker 5: Different, well it separates APA is our philosophy and also
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  Speaker 5: our company structure. We're governed by a board of directors
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  Speaker 5: that all own independent pharmacy, so they're in the trenches
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  Speaker 5: with our members and we don't believe in simply signing
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  Speaker 5: members up and hoping for the best. We build relationships
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  Speaker 5: and we have that extra care. We know our members
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  Speaker 5: personally understand and get to understand their business and work
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  Speaker 5: alongside them to improve performance. Our focus is transparency, education
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  Speaker 5: and helping pharmacies maximize every opportunity available to them and
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  Speaker 5: that's by bringing resources to that will help streamline and
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  Speaker 5: make their operations more efficient.
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  Speaker 4: Chams, I know there are a lot of things going
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  Speaker 4: on in the life of our independent farm as the owners.
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  Speaker 4: There's payroll, there's hr issues, there's the community, there's public relations.
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  Speaker 6: So much is going on.
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  Speaker 4: So a buying group is extremely important. What is it
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  Speaker 4: like when someone joins AAPA. What does that relationship I
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  Speaker 4: actually look like?
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  Speaker 3: So our support begins immediately. Every member has access to
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  Speaker 3: our team and we're constantly reviewing savings potential. We pride
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  Speaker 3: ourselves in being proactive rather than reactive, and we don't
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  Speaker 3: wait for members to ask for help. We're always working
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  Speaker 3: to identify opportunities that can improve their bottom line.
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  Speaker 6: All right.
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  Speaker 4: I keep hearing about advent Edge and it's a portal
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  Speaker 4: something obviously to do with data accessing and information Kelly,
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  Speaker 4: what is advantage?
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  Speaker 5: Advance Edge is a proprietary business intelligence platform and we're
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  Speaker 5: actually partnered with them. They're a separate business from APA,
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  Speaker 5: but we are so excited that we've been able to
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  Speaker 5: have or bring access to this to our members now
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  Speaker 5: for five years. But it's actually taken to the next
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  Speaker 5: level and there's a lot of new concepts being introduced,
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  Speaker 5: but it takes purchasing data and transforms it into actionable insights.
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  Speaker 5: Pharmacy owners can monitor their GPR, their GCR, their brand
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  Speaker 5: purchasing performance.
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  Speaker 8: They can see their rebate.
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  Speaker 5: Projections, purchasing trends, and much more, all in one place.
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  Speaker 5: So instead of guessing where their money is being lost,
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  Speaker 5: they can actually see it and actually make proactive decisions
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  Speaker 5: with our tools like the projection calculator.
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  Speaker 4: Kelly, and kind of a follow up to that, I've
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  Speaker 4: been using AI chat GPT myself for our publications and
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  Speaker 4: for formatting for Spellcheck. I am embarrassed to say that,
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  Speaker 4: but yeah, that's actually the main thing that I use
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  Speaker 4: it for is Spellcheck. But you have introduced AI into
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  Speaker 4: your organization with a platform called is it called Clara?
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  Speaker 6: I wanted to hear more about that.
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  Speaker 5: It is called Clara. So Clara is our AI powered
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  Speaker 5: per interesting assistant built directly into Advantage. And as you mentioned,
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  Speaker 5: AIS everywhere and if you can't keep up with AI
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  Speaker 5: and use it as a tool and a resource to
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  Speaker 5: really make your business more efficient, you're kind of going
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  Speaker 5: to be left out. So we've brought AI to Advantage
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  Speaker 5: and it helps pharmacies identify purchasing opportunities, answer questions about
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  Speaker 5: their data, and make smarter buying decisions right there inside
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  Speaker 5: the portal. So rather than sorting through reports, members can
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  Speaker 5: simply ask questions and receive meaningful insights that help increase
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  Speaker 5: profitability right there within the portal on the spot live.
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  Speaker 6: But it doesn't do spell check right.
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  Speaker 5: Actually, I think it does because we have spell check
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  Speaker 5: capabilities built in, So Todd, I think you'd be in luck.
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  Speaker 9: Oh, I sound like the old geezer on the front
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  Speaker 9: of the podcast shams independent pharmacy owners so busy, Like
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  Speaker 9: I said, so much in that's going on to stay
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  Speaker 9: Sometimes in business, it's so stressful that key help that
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  Speaker 9: they're receiving from a buying group that's tied in and
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  Speaker 9: understands the business intimately.
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  Speaker 4: Let's talk about that. How does AAPA help simplify things?
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  Speaker 6: Absolutely?
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  Speaker 3: Ton owners wear countless hats every day, and our goal
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  Speaker 3: is to remove some of that burden. We monitor their performance,
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  Speaker 3: we help identify opportunities being left on the table, and
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  Speaker 3: we provide guidance so pharmacists can focus more on their
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  Speaker 3: patients rather than figuring out how to increase their profits.
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  Speaker 3: When it should just be a simple it should be
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  Speaker 3: a simple operation.
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  Speaker 6: Shams.
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  Speaker 4: There are several buying groups out there through at the
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  Speaker 4: United States. They've trunk over the years, but there still
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  Speaker 4: could be some kind of confusion. So what are some
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  Speaker 4: of the biggest misconceptions that are independent pharmacies have about
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  Speaker 4: group purchasing organizations.
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  Speaker 3: I think the biggest misconception would be that many owners
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  Speaker 3: think all GPOs are essentially the same. In reality, the
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  Speaker 3: level of service, transparency and advocacy veries tremendously. We encourage
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  Speaker 3: our own We encourage our owners to ask questions and
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  Speaker 3: understand what they're really receiving, not just the contract, but
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  Speaker 3: the ongoing partnership that we provide.
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  Speaker 4: If you're speaking directly to an independent pharmacy owner, they're
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  Speaker 4: listening today, Kelly, what's the message?
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  Speaker 6: I think the.
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  Speaker 5: Biggest message is that every purchasing decision impacts your profitability.
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  Speaker 5: If you're not measuring performance, you're likely leaving money on
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  Speaker 5: the table. And our job at APA is to help
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  Speaker 5: pharmacies gain visibility into their business, optimizing purchasing and make
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  Speaker 5: informed decisions that strengthen their financial future. And we would
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  Speaker 5: love to be able to take a look at that
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  Speaker 5: by running an analysis so very transparent, data driven, and
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  Speaker 5: that would be the message.
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  Speaker 6: That data can be so confusing.
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  Speaker 4: So it's exciting to hear that there's going to be
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  Speaker 4: tools to really help the pharmacy owner understand the balance
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  Speaker 4: between the generic and the brand and what's happening, what
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  Speaker 4: the specials are. This is a special opportunity for our
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  Speaker 4: pharmacy owners to engage AAPA. Ask a lot of good questions,
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  Speaker 4: ask ask Shams, ask Kelly, the hard questions. In comparison,
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  Speaker 4: maybe what you're doing if you're listening, you didn't get
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: to go to Idea share it and get to see
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  Speaker 4: McKesson Idea shares teams. This place has been absolutely phenomenal
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  Speaker 4: to be around. The energy here this year is definitely
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  Speaker 4: on a different level than it was next year, and
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  Speaker 4: this is making me excited. There's a lot of hope
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  Speaker 4: here for reinventing our community pharmacies, our independent pharmacies out there.
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  Speaker 4: So what's next for AAP Shams Todd. We're continuing to
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  Speaker 4: invest in technology. I feel like that's the biggest thing,
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  Speaker 4: especially with all the new AI, the new AI landscape
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  Speaker 4: that's taking over. So we're continuing to invest in technology.
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  Speaker 4: We're expanding member resources, and we're strengthening partnerships that bring
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  Speaker 4: even greater value to independent pharmacies. Our commitment remains this
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  Speaker 4: same as when we started to ensure independent pharmacies not
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  Speaker 4: only survive but thrive. We got to have AAPA back
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  Speaker 4: because I want to talk about cash based opportunities to
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  Speaker 4: build your business, your independent community pharmacy business. I want
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  Speaker 4: to talk more about engaging the community with services that
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: aren't necessarily tied to prescriptions. Promise me, Kelly and Shams,
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  Speaker 4: you'll be back on the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
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  Speaker 6: We'd love to definitely.
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  Speaker 4: All right, you heard it here, the twenty twenty six
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  Speaker 4: McKesson Idea Share brought to you by AAPA coverage Press
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  Speaker 4: coverage here in Denver.
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: Hold on, we're going to be right back with mord
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  Speaker 6: Idea Share.
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  Speaker 10: Hi.
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  Speaker 11: This is and Cassidy with NCPA and you're listening to
• 10:47
  Speaker 11: the Pharmacy Podcast.
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  Speaker 6: Hey.
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  Speaker 4: I have been waiting for this interview for some time.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: And Cassidy, it's so good to see you.
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  Speaker 12: Great to see you too, Todd, Welcome to Denver.
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  Speaker 11: I know, gosh, it's a great meeting going on right now.
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  Speaker 11: Lots of folks here, good weather, so hopefully it's very productive.
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  Speaker 4: We also have Kelly snead in from AAPA. We thank
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  Speaker 4: you so much AAPA for supporting the pharmacy podcast press
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  Speaker 4: coverage in this special session.
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  Speaker 12: Thank you, Kelly, We thank.
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  Speaker 5: You for having us.
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  Speaker 13: Todd.
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  Speaker 4: We're excited absolutely, John Covelo, Todd, how are you.
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  Speaker 14: I'm fine, I'm once again glad to be on one
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  Speaker 14: of your podcasts.
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  Speaker 12: Well, this is great.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: This is the industry's podcasts and we're here celebrating the
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: success of our independent community pharmacies. A big factor that
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: we understand the pressures of legislation, the pressures of laws
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: throughout the state and more importantly eventually the federal level,
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  Speaker 4: and give our listeners an overview. What is the state
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  Speaker 4: of the nation right now with legislation in support of
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  Speaker 4: independent community pharmacy.
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  Speaker 8: Yeah, good question, Todd.
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  Speaker 11: I can say that this the date of the nation
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  Speaker 11: is more positive than ever. I know things feel difficult
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  Speaker 11: out there, but I think we're on an upward trajectory
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  Speaker 11: when it's coming to PBM reform and making sure pharmacies
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  Speaker 11: are treated fairly. So at the beginning of this year,
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  Speaker 11: Congress passed really the first ever PBM reform legislation, and
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  Speaker 11: you know it is could potentially be a game changer.
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  Speaker 11: It deals with Part D and it would require that
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  Speaker 11: Medicare Part D contracts CMS define what reasonable and relevant
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  Speaker 11: contract terms are and enforce them. And the reason that's
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  Speaker 11: so important is number one, Part D is for most
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  Speaker 11: of our members who are independent pharmacies, that's the number
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  Speaker 11: one payer. And number two they're the worst payer, so
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  Speaker 11: and well, and number three states can't do anything about it.
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  Speaker 11: So Congress is the only body that can actually provide
• 12:58
  Speaker 11: meaningful Medicare party with it.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: All right, So, John, what about the temperature of the
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  Speaker 4: client base of IPC, the member base of IPC, and
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  Speaker 4: the hopefulness of where we're at with PBM legislators.
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  Speaker 14: Well, you know, to piggyback on what ants saying, you know,
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  Speaker 14: to show you how big this is. This is the
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  Speaker 14: first reform to anything in Part DAY in twenty years.
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  Speaker 14: So it was monumental to get this after living through
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  Speaker 14: the nightmare of what we had to do to fix
• 13:29
  Speaker 14: DIRS and dealing this year with the implementation of the
• 13:34
  Speaker 14: negotiated drugs this change really is monumental. But you know,
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  Speaker 14: it's also the first time in my memory and correct
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  Speaker 14: me if I'm wrong that there's ever been anything done
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  Speaker 14: on PBMs for the commercial space federal with that's correct.
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  Speaker 7: So you know, it takes a.
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  Speaker 14: Lot of dedication, it takes a lot of Britain and
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  Speaker 14: continuous efforts in this But to get federal legislation passed
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  Speaker 14: in those two areas, it took years, and that's what
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  Speaker 14: tends to happen my experience, and in Congress, it takes
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  Speaker 14: years to build towards identification of a problem and the
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  Speaker 14: commitment legislatively to get a solution to getting it put
• 14:13
  Speaker 14: into place. But you know, we continue to have successes
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  Speaker 14: at the state level. IPC was very involved in two
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  Speaker 14: big wins in Ohio and Kansas, and how our partners
• 14:22
  Speaker 14: certainly with NCPA and others around the industry.
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  Speaker 7: It's really big.
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  Speaker 14: But as Am will tell you, our work really only
• 14:29
  Speaker 14: begins in earnest once we get a bill pass because
• 14:32
  Speaker 14: it's the implementation of what we have to see to
• 14:35
  Speaker 14: get the government entities to implement it right, interpret it right,
• 14:41
  Speaker 14: and follow through on it. And then the real effort
• 14:44
  Speaker 14: is to make sure the enforcement is there of it.
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  Speaker 14: And our members that's the goal we have. They are
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  Speaker 14: the ones telling us in real time experience at the
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  Speaker 14: counters with their patients, whether these laws in fact are working.
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  Speaker 14: And then the other big thing we're doing cod and
• 15:00
  Speaker 14: in Medicaid managed care reforms, this has really proven out.
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  Speaker 14: It's the evaluation did this work, did the policy changes work,
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  Speaker 14: what did they produce that we were advocating for, did
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  Speaker 14: it improve payments? Did it save governments or private payers
• 15:17
  Speaker 14: money in the process, And most importantly, did it improve
• 15:20
  Speaker 14: the services and the quality of what we're doing for
• 15:23
  Speaker 14: patients and stay invested in communities. And I think in
• 15:26
  Speaker 14: on all these levels we're continuing to see more and
• 15:29
  Speaker 14: more success as we can document each year, but this
• 15:32
  Speaker 14: year was kind of a very big come relation at
• 15:34
  Speaker 14: the federal level.
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  Speaker 15: Yeah.
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  Speaker 8: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 11: And so there's two other things that are outstanding right
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  Speaker 11: now at the federal level I think that have a well,
• 15:42
  Speaker 11: actually three that I think have a really good chance
• 15:46
  Speaker 11: potentially in moving this Congress. And that's really really and
• 15:50
  Speaker 11: that doesn't happen very often. So you brought up Medicaid
• 15:53
  Speaker 11: managed care. That's been our priority, Medicaid managed care payment
• 15:56
  Speaker 11: reform for PCAAPA PA and CPA and all the groups
• 16:02
  Speaker 11: out there, and that would require every state Medicaid Managed
• 16:05
  Speaker 11: care program to pay at the fee for service rate.
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  Speaker 11: We were very very close to getting that also included
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  Speaker 11: in the January package. There was a little What happened
• 16:15
  Speaker 11: is CBO, the Congressional Budget Office who determines what if
• 16:18
  Speaker 11: things are going to cost money or save money, and
• 16:20
  Speaker 11: their word is it, you know, if they come out.
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  Speaker 11: So there were some concerns on how they did. They
• 16:25
  Speaker 11: had to do a new analysis because let me just
• 16:28
  Speaker 11: step back for a second. That Medicaid bill, there had
• 16:31
  Speaker 11: been a savings booked according to CBO for the last
• 16:34
  Speaker 11: five years they've been saving.
• 16:35
  Speaker 8: It was going to say save billions. That was going
• 16:38
  Speaker 8: to be an easy thing to pass.
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  Speaker 11: The last minute CBO looked at it again because after
• 16:43
  Speaker 11: the big beautiful bill last year, CBO was required to
• 16:47
  Speaker 11: rescore everything in Medicaid. And then they came back and
• 16:49
  Speaker 11: they said, well, there we may have a problem here.
• 16:53
  Speaker 11: We think they're doing the analysis wrong. They're re looking
• 16:56
  Speaker 11: at it. So there has a lot of support and
• 16:59
  Speaker 11: Congress and then one other two other things track here
• 17:03
  Speaker 11: which has been a huge issue for years and years
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  Speaker 11: and years, and DD has been our greatest challenge because
• 17:10
  Speaker 11: Express Scripts runs the you know, they run the program.
• 17:13
  Speaker 11: They have their pharmacies in the program, and DoD says,
• 17:16
  Speaker 11: we have a contract with them. You know we're out,
• 17:19
  Speaker 11: we stay out of it. We've been wanting an audit
• 17:21
  Speaker 11: for years. They've been fighting an audit. Always say it's
• 17:24
  Speaker 11: been easier to get new Yellar's secrets out, no seriously
• 17:29
  Speaker 11: than to get what SI is paying themselves. So just
• 17:33
  Speaker 11: recently the House Armed Services Committee and the Senate Armed
• 17:36
  Speaker 11: Services Committee both included audit language in the National Defense
• 17:41
  Speaker 11: Authorization Act.
• 17:42
  Speaker 8: May not sound like a big deal, but this is.
• 17:44
  Speaker 11: What they've killed the last couple of years, and it
• 17:47
  Speaker 11: would require express scripts.
• 17:48
  Speaker 8: To disclose what they pay their own pharmacies.
• 17:52
  Speaker 11: We believe, based on how hard they've been fighting not
• 17:54
  Speaker 11: to make that public, they've probably been paying themselves much
• 17:59
  Speaker 11: higher rate than other pharmacy. So I think this is
• 18:02
  Speaker 11: this will be a huge deal, and I think we
• 18:03
  Speaker 11: have a really good chance of getting this legislation passed
• 18:06
  Speaker 11: this year.
• 18:07
  Speaker 7: So Todd always view it this way.
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  Speaker 14: Whenever somebody's fighting not to disclose and be transparent, you
• 18:13
  Speaker 14: know they have something to hide. So it'll be the
• 18:15
  Speaker 14: next version of six hundred dollars Hammers and two thousand
• 18:18
  Speaker 14: dollars toilet seats. We'll find out how much all these
• 18:20
  Speaker 14: purlations are.
• 18:21
  Speaker 8: We even trying to get an amendment.
• 18:22
  Speaker 11: This amendment last year we said that they that d
• 18:26
  Speaker 11: D could report it confidentially like they do nuclear secrets
• 18:31
  Speaker 11: to the Arm Services Committee, and they fault that. So
• 18:35
  Speaker 11: I'm just telling you that's how much they want to.
• 18:37
  Speaker 12: Keep this secret.
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: Kelly, what's the temperature of the client base that you
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: work with that I hear the term PBM reform fatigue
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: because people are just like, when is things going to happen?
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: But what are you getting from client base? And what
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: do you want to let pharmacy owners know out there?
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: So I think for the first time ever after the
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: federal legislation was passed this year, that we did see
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: some positive feedback and just a celebration. I mean, I
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: know it's not where we want it to be, but
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: there was definitely a victory across a PA members and
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: they actually see that the dollars that we pour back
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: into advocacy and working with our partners I PC and
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: NCPA really does pay off. I mean, it's not a
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: bast race, it's a marathon. But I definitely think that
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: they're more positive and understand and that's one of the
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: things we encourage, and we hope that all of our
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: members get more engaged with MCPA. We really, you know,
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: we would not be able to do a lot of
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: the things we do at the state level without their
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: support because their resources are just abundant when when it
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: comes to, I mean, in the last minute things that
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: we need to do too, if there's a you know,
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: I know, John's been there too whenever we need him
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: to go and be a resource when we need him
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: at the state level.
• 20:00
  Speaker 14: And that's a big part of the success. And I
• 20:03
  Speaker 14: want to publicly thank Kelly and certainly thank Ann and
• 20:07
  Speaker 14: our whole team. We have really, I think in the
• 20:10
  Speaker 14: last few years honed together very good ad hoc and
• 20:13
  Speaker 14: some formal coalition gatherings pharmacy umbrellas where we are strategizing
• 20:20
  Speaker 14: and speaking with one voice, and then we're all bringing
• 20:23
  Speaker 14: the strengths of the information we have to the table,
• 20:26
  Speaker 14: whether it's on Capitol Hill, Federal agencies are equally as important,
• 20:30
  Speaker 14: many ways more importantly in the states, and these successes
• 20:34
  Speaker 14: don't just happen without everybody collaborating. And I think you
• 20:39
  Speaker 14: can say, I mean everybody's really come to the table together,
• 20:42
  Speaker 14: driven towards the same goals.
• 20:44
  Speaker 8: Absolutely.
• 20:45
  Speaker 11: I mean, you'll never get anything passed unless you're speaking
• 20:48
  Speaker 11: with one voice. Because what happens is our opponents PCMA
• 20:54
  Speaker 11: and others, if there is one one voice that is
• 20:58
  Speaker 11: maybe saying something different, that those use that against this
• 21:00
  Speaker 11: and say pharmacy is not united. And quite frankly, in
• 21:04
  Speaker 11: the past, that's been one of pharmacy's weaknesses. Right, we
• 21:08
  Speaker 11: just haven't spoken with one voice, and it's frustrating.
• 21:12
  Speaker 8: But I've seen that. Look, I've seen that.
• 21:14
  Speaker 11: Change, especially over the last three years, and I don't
• 21:17
  Speaker 11: think it's any surprise, right or coincidence. We're starting to
• 21:22
  Speaker 11: see more positive wins, especially at the federal level and
• 21:27
  Speaker 11: even at the state level. I mean things that are
• 21:29
  Speaker 11: being done at the states. A couple of years ago,
• 21:31
  Speaker 11: you would have never in a million years thought that
• 21:34
  Speaker 11: Arkansas would pass legislation, you know, prohibiting PBMs from owning
• 21:40
  Speaker 11: pharmacies in this I.
• 21:41
  Speaker 8: Mean, that was you would think that was unheard of.
• 21:43
  Speaker 11: But what's very interesting about that is, you know, people
• 21:47
  Speaker 11: talk about it's it's you know, we're in a free market.
• 21:50
  Speaker 11: That's problematic, But there's a lot of legislators. Interestingly enough,
• 21:54
  Speaker 11: conservative legislators who don't necessarily, for instance, will even support
• 21:59
  Speaker 11: legislation that may prohibit different acts because they don't really
• 22:02
  Speaker 11: believe in that, but they are very supportive of structural changes.
• 22:06
  Speaker 11: I'll use Josh Holly from Missouri, very conservative senator, and
• 22:11
  Speaker 11: it's been frustrating.
• 22:12
  Speaker 8: Done get on our legislation a lot.
• 22:14
  Speaker 11: He's the lead on the I call it the Arkansas
• 22:17
  Speaker 11: Tennessee Bill, but actually was originally a federal bill. It
• 22:20
  Speaker 11: would prohibit at a national level PBMs from owning pharmacies.
• 22:25
  Speaker 11: And Josh Holly is the lead Republican and he's because
• 22:30
  Speaker 11: he's like, this is how we should do and I
• 22:32
  Speaker 11: don't believe in sort of the lack them all approach,
• 22:34
  Speaker 11: even though you know we have to do that too, right,
• 22:36
  Speaker 11: So it's just it's unbelievable the sea change over the
• 22:41
  Speaker 11: last couple of years.
• 22:43
  Speaker 12: That's incredible.
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: And that's what we need to repeat, is what Tennessee
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: and Arkansas has done, proving to the legislation that is
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: not good for public health to have so much consolidation,
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: vertical integration. It takes decisions away from physicians, pharmacist patients,
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: not knowing where to go next.
• 23:01
  Speaker 9: Thing.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: You know, pharmacists shut down and you have to drive
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: thirty miles away just to get to a pharmacy.
• 23:07
  Speaker 11: So the argument for consolidation has always been right, decreased
• 23:12
  Speaker 11: cost improves access. What's happened over the last fifteen years
• 23:15
  Speaker 11: with consolidation, costs have gone up, access has gone down,
• 23:19
  Speaker 11: So that argument is out.
• 23:20
  Speaker 6: Of the window. Yeah, yep.
• 23:22
  Speaker 14: And you know, ton, I think there also been some
• 23:25
  Speaker 14: other forces that have proven that the PBMs have not
• 23:29
  Speaker 14: saved money and they have not improved outcomes, that everything
• 23:33
  Speaker 14: they say they do has now been questioned. And there's
• 23:37
  Speaker 14: a very interesting article out there, you ever get it
• 23:39
  Speaker 14: about writing Basically, the reporter wrote this that CBS stepped
• 23:45
  Speaker 14: on the throat of a competitor and then they killed them.
• 23:48
  Speaker 14: And I keep coming back to the basics things a
• 23:51
  Speaker 14: follow the money that the PBMs controlled. When you allow
• 23:53
  Speaker 14: somebody to take money of other people's decide how much
• 23:58
  Speaker 14: to pay themselves and their competitors, I don't know where
• 24:01
  Speaker 14: economic advantages come to anybody in the system except for
• 24:05
  Speaker 14: those entities in the middle controlling the money. And I've
• 24:09
  Speaker 14: certainly seen it. I know and has and remember Back
• 24:12
  Speaker 14: in the years you couldn't get people to understand what
• 24:14
  Speaker 14: the initials PBM stood for.
• 24:16
  Speaker 7: Now they couldn't spell it.
• 24:18
  Speaker 14: Yeah. Now, I mean you have members telling you stories
• 24:22
  Speaker 14: about it, and they're catching onto the problems of what's
• 24:25
  Speaker 14: going on. And what's other really interesting is the efforts
• 24:30
  Speaker 14: of the federal agencies. I go back to when you
• 24:33
  Speaker 14: know and remember when the FTC would take the oposite viewpoint,
• 24:37
  Speaker 14: we can't interfere in this. If you do, it'll increase costs.
• 24:40
  Speaker 14: They've done a complete one eighty. They've seen that these
• 24:42
  Speaker 14: are not functioning marketplaces that have any economic efficiencies for anybody.
• 24:47
  Speaker 7: But these entities, it's it's.
• 24:49
  Speaker 14: No surprise that you know, CVS and ETNA and Signa
• 24:54
  Speaker 14: are in the top fifteen of the Fortune five hundred companies.
• 24:57
  Speaker 14: It's follow where the money's going. But the other thing
• 25:00
  Speaker 14: for me, you were asking about, what's heartening this and
• 25:03
  Speaker 14: I really value the partnership with these organizations and others.
• 25:09
  Speaker 14: We've really gotten our members to step up the amount
• 25:12
  Speaker 14: of grassroot involvement and we oftentimes talk about how do
• 25:15
  Speaker 14: we messages right, So that again what you were saying
• 25:18
  Speaker 14: in whether it's the Hill or state Capital they're hearing
• 25:21
  Speaker 14: the same thing of what the message is on advocacy.
• 25:25
  Speaker 8: People woke up.
• 25:26
  Speaker 14: I think after Rutledge, they saw hope, they saw recognition
• 25:30
  Speaker 14: after COVID, and we've been challenging them, and I got
• 25:34
  Speaker 14: to applaud all pharmacy owners out there. They've been stepping
• 25:37
  Speaker 14: up with the increases and their efforts at grassroots. And
• 25:41
  Speaker 14: I know you can talk about store engagement with their
• 25:43
  Speaker 14: elected officiency.
• 25:44
  Speaker 8: Grassroots has been unbelievable.
• 25:46
  Speaker 11: But you know what else pharmacies have done is they've
• 25:48
  Speaker 11: gotten their patients engage.
• 25:51
  Speaker 8: And that to me that.
• 25:54
  Speaker 11: If there is a silver bullet, it's the beneficiaries and
• 25:57
  Speaker 11: the patients calling in right. We ran this campaign called
• 26:02
  Speaker 11: finish the Fight for about twelve months before the final.
• 26:05
  Speaker 8: PBM bill was signed.
• 26:07
  Speaker 11: There was about eighty seven thousand patients that rode into Congress.
• 26:11
  Speaker 11: So we I appreciate pharmacy because you know, it takes
• 26:15
  Speaker 11: a village and it takes everyone. So it's fantastic. And
• 26:18
  Speaker 11: like what John mentioned, get your legislators into your store.
• 26:23
  Speaker 11: I think that's the single most effective advocacy tool.
• 26:28
  Speaker 13: Y'all.
• 26:28
  Speaker 11: They're going into recess in August and it is a
• 26:33
  Speaker 11: and and they're all the entire houses up for reelection,
• 26:37
  Speaker 11: and so they may want to come into your pharmacy
• 26:40
  Speaker 11: for a picture. But take that advantage and educate them.
• 26:43
  Speaker 11: So get them, get them into your pharmacy.
• 26:45
  Speaker 12: You're absolutely correct.
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: Use it as a pr opportunity for the for the legislator,
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: but then educate them while they're there about what you do.
• 26:53
  Speaker 11: You can get them in, get them in your pharmacy.
• 26:54
  Speaker 11: But I found that is the single most effective advocacy.
• 26:57
  Speaker 14: School out there and it hasn'tated benefit me to Todd,
• 27:00
  Speaker 14: that's political. If you get a member, I don't care
• 27:03
  Speaker 14: if it's the mayor, city council member, state legislator, member
• 27:09
  Speaker 14: of Congress. They see you having better interaction and personal
• 27:15
  Speaker 14: relationships to their constituents they do not have. That's the
• 27:18
  Speaker 14: political power of getting into advocacy and getting elected officials
• 27:24
  Speaker 14: to come to your business when they see that you're
• 27:26
  Speaker 14: on first name basis with people they need the votes of.
• 27:29
  Speaker 14: That's power beyond just political contributions.
• 27:32
  Speaker 7: I love it well.
• 27:33
  Speaker 12: I want to thank you.
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: I want to thank Kelly and AAPA for helping us
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: to fund this and put this together. Thank you so much,
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: John and IPC and you are.
• 27:44
  Speaker 7: A rock star.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: We so much appreciate you and thank you so much
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: to shout out to NCPA for all of your work.
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: You're listening to the Pharmacy Podcast here at McKesson Ideas
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: Share twenty twenty six.
• 28:00
  Speaker 16: Independent pharmacy is more than a business. It's the heart
• 28:04
  Speaker 16: of the communities you serve. At AAPA, we're committed to
• 28:09
  Speaker 16: helping independent pharmacies thrive in an increasingly complex healthcare landscape.
• 28:14
  Speaker 16: As one of the nations leading pharmacy purchasing organizations, AAPA
• 28:18
  Speaker 16: empowers over six hundred and fifty independent pharmacies across twenty
• 28:22
  Speaker 16: six states with the tools, resources, and advocacy needed to
• 28:26
  Speaker 16: strengthen profitability and improve patient care. From competitive purchasing programs
• 28:32
  Speaker 16: and transparent rebate opportunities to advanced analytics through the Advantage
• 28:36
  Speaker 16: Portal and AI powered purchasing insights from Clara the Advantage Intelligence,
• 28:41
  Speaker 16: we help pharmacy owners make smarter, data driven decisions every day.
• 28:45
  Speaker 16: But we're more than a GPO. We're a dedicated partner.
• 28:49
  Speaker 16: Our team works alongside members to identify opportunities, navigate industry challenges,
• 28:54
  Speaker 16: and deliver personalized support that drives measurable results. When independent
• 28:59
  Speaker 16: pharmacy succeed. Communities benefit if you're ready to maximize your
• 29:03
  Speaker 16: purchasing power, gain actionable insights, and join a network committed
• 29:07
  Speaker 16: to your success. Discover the AAPA difference. AAPA stronger together,
• 29:13
  Speaker 16: smarter purchasing, better results.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: Mike Bollinger from Live Oak Bank here at the McKesson
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: Idea Share twenty twenty six, Denver.
• 29:29
  Speaker 12: How much did you get out to Denver?
• 29:31
  Speaker 15: Mikest, You know, not enough. However, my wife and kids
• 29:34
  Speaker 15: are coming out tomorrow, so we're going to spend a
• 29:36
  Speaker 15: whole week out here.
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: So my wife and my kids spent their second time
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: with me at a conference last year in Orlando, and
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: we got to finally do something family ish because every
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: time I go to a conference, I see the inside
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: of an airport, the inside of an uber, the inside
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: of the hotel, the inside of the convention hall, and
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: that's it, and then it's time to go home.
• 30:00
  Speaker 12: So that's good.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: That's good to bring in your family on little relaxation
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: and stuff. So Live Oak Bank, you're not new to pharmacy.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: You guys have been around quite some time. You and
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: I have done podcasts in the past, which has been wonderful.
• 30:13
  Speaker 12: There is some really interesting news.
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: I think it's a game changer of what you guys
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: announced recently. Live Oak Bank has always been known as
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: a lender to help pharmacy start up. They've always been
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: a lender to help pharmacies acquire other pharmacies and add
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: on to their growth. But you guys are now a
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: bank like a traditional business bank for the same customer.
• 30:39
  Speaker 12: Tell us about that. That's really exciting. Yeah, So it's
• 30:42
  Speaker 12: been fun.
• 30:43
  Speaker 15: So since two thousand and eight, we have lent one
• 30:45
  Speaker 15: point two billion dollars to the pharmacy space. We're known
• 30:49
  Speaker 15: as an SBA leader. We've also started doing some conventional lending. However,
• 30:53
  Speaker 15: in the last two years, we've really built a robust
• 30:56
  Speaker 15: deposit play. And so what we're doing now is we're
• 30:58
  Speaker 15: helping pharmacy specific with their checking accounts, with their savings accounts.
• 31:03
  Speaker 15: We have a high yield savings, We have different functionality
• 31:05
  Speaker 15: to help the pharmacy owners build capacity with how they're
• 31:08
  Speaker 15: running their business. Let's be honest, nobody's thinking about changing
• 31:12
  Speaker 15: their banking relationship every day. It's sometimes pretty difficult. We're
• 31:16
  Speaker 15: taking a lot of those things out of the equation
• 31:18
  Speaker 15: and we're making it into bite sized pieces to where
• 31:21
  Speaker 15: it's done in a good way, in a very intentional way.
• 31:25
  Speaker 15: But also at the end of the day, they're going
• 31:26
  Speaker 15: to build capacity for their time, how they move money,
• 31:30
  Speaker 15: the days of thinking about moving money on a Monday
• 31:33
  Speaker 15: from when you need it on a Thursday. We can
• 31:35
  Speaker 15: remove some of those barriers. I think it's a really
• 31:38
  Speaker 15: fun transition for us to be making right now.
• 31:40
  Speaker 12: It's incredible.
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: So does that include the pharmacy owners' personal accounts too
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: and being able to separate them.
• 31:47
  Speaker 15: No, so we're still doing business only, okay, and so
• 31:50
  Speaker 15: we're all business focused, but yeah, we're helping the business
• 31:53
  Speaker 15: checking and savings now.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: So talk to us about how the pharmacy deserts have
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: taken away necessary healthcare services from some of those pockets
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: of the United States, and how Live Oak Bank coupled
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: with aspiring, entrepreneurial and very aggressive pharmacy owners. Talk to
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: us about how the expansion has been lately, maybe picking
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: up any stores that right Aid collapsed or picking up
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: other independent community pharmacy stores.
• 32:22
  Speaker 12: But tell us some about those stories.
• 32:24
  Speaker 15: Yeah, so it's been a really interesting thing. So I've
• 32:26
  Speaker 15: been in the space oh way too long, but you know,
• 32:30
  Speaker 15: the idea that we used to do one single owner,
• 32:33
  Speaker 15: one owner would just run that owner operate that pharmacy.
• 32:36
  Speaker 15: We've seen the evolution of the pharmacy owners owning two, three,
• 32:39
  Speaker 15: five thirty locations and to your point, there's a lot
• 32:42
  Speaker 15: of areas that are losing their pharmacies. These owners are
• 32:45
  Speaker 15: going in and figuring out how do they own and
• 32:47
  Speaker 15: operate and it's Thue scale, right, so they're using their
• 32:51
  Speaker 15: scale to then put pharmacies back into the locations. And
• 32:55
  Speaker 15: so we've we've really worked a lot with the multi
• 32:57
  Speaker 15: store owners and we've really pushed our direction that way.
• 33:00
  Speaker 15: We still do the onesie Tuesday pharmacy owners, but a
• 33:03
  Speaker 15: lot of it is the multi store owner and helping
• 33:06
  Speaker 15: them grow the business so that they can reach some
• 33:08
  Speaker 15: of those deserts or rural areas that have lost their pharmacies.
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: If there's an owner of pharmacy pharmacist that wants to
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: start a pharmacy, they're listening today's podcast, they want to
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: know more.
• 33:20
  Speaker 12: What's the best way to reach out to you?
• 33:22
  Speaker 7: Sure, so you can go.
• 33:23
  Speaker 12: To live oak bank dot com.
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: Well, actually we're live oak dot bank.
• 33:26
  Speaker 15: Now you can go to you can follow me Mike
• 33:30
  Speaker 15: dot Bollinger at Live Oak Dot Bank. But our pharmacy team,
• 33:33
  Speaker 15: we have Greco da Valencia and Shayla Long, two of
• 33:36
  Speaker 15: the best lenders in the space. And Nina Murray is
• 33:38
  Speaker 15: our pharmacy dedicated banker now, so you have several resources
• 33:42
  Speaker 15: for us to reach out to.
• 33:43
  Speaker 6: That's cool.
• 33:44
  Speaker 12: Mike, it's great to see you here in Denver.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much for being on the podcast press show,
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: and we look forward to hearing more success from Live
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: Oak Bank.
• 33:52
  Speaker 7: It's great to be here at Idea Cher. Thanks for
• 33:54
  Speaker 7: having me.
• 33:55
  Speaker 12: Thank you.
• 33:59
  Speaker 17: Hey, Jake Johnson, pharmacist with Palm's Pharmacy, and you've listened
• 34:03
  Speaker 17: to the Pharmacy podcast.
• 34:07
  Speaker 12: Shot a Jake from Palm's Pharmacy. It's so good to
• 34:09
  Speaker 12: have you here.
• 34:10
  Speaker 13: Thank you for having us.
• 34:11
  Speaker 17: Thank you.
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: I finally get to hang out with Jake for a
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: little bit. Yes, I watch him on social media. I
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: know him as like the abused staff member.
• 34:21
  Speaker 13: Oh poor guy. He's wonderful.
• 34:23
  Speaker 18: Well was the only male at Palm's Pharmacy, but now
• 34:27
  Speaker 18: we have another.
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: Not too bad, not too bad. I would like to
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: I like working for women and I like working around women.
• 34:38
  Speaker 12: We live in an.
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: Industry that's sixty two of pharmacist are women, so it's
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: a woman dominated industry.
• 34:46
  Speaker 13: It's because we rock.
• 34:47
  Speaker 12: You do rock, that's true.
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: Talk to us about an update about what's been going
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: on in your life shata and being here at McKesson
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: ideas share. Also share about your award in this grace
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: Oh Lord.
• 35:01
  Speaker 13: Have mercy.
• 35:03
  Speaker 18: So first we'll talk about Palm's pharmacy before the award.
• 35:07
  Speaker 18: So Palm's Pharmacy, we are now Urak, a uric accredited
• 35:12
  Speaker 18: mail order pharmacy as well as a mail service pharmacy.
• 35:18
  Speaker 13: Nice, okay, good yea, yeah, so.
• 35:21
  Speaker 12: We are forget about the mails you know what I mean.
• 35:26
  Speaker 18: Sorry, So we are yeah, Miller Pharmacy an official one
• 35:32
  Speaker 18: now is incredible. Yeah, but we're also retail compounding. We
• 35:35
  Speaker 18: do a lot of things, so that's one of our
• 35:37
  Speaker 18: big achievements, right, Jake.
• 35:38
  Speaker 12: Yeah, Urq was a big deal for us. That was exciting.
• 35:41
  Speaker 12: It's a lot of work too, and it's expensive.
• 35:45
  Speaker 13: Yes, it was, trust me.
• 35:47
  Speaker 18: That's why we're telling you because we spent a lot
• 35:50
  Speaker 18: of money on it. Yes, it's very expensive, very time consuming.
• 35:54
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and.
• 35:57
  Speaker 13: The upkeep is also fun.
• 35:59
  Speaker 12: Too, Documentation all that stuff.
• 36:02
  Speaker 13: So that's what else, anything else new with us.
• 36:05
  Speaker 12: You're a trailblazer.
• 36:07
  Speaker 13: Oh, yes, that too.
• 36:08
  Speaker 12: Yes, you forgot to mention that, I got to mention.
• 36:10
  Speaker 13: Yes, McKesson awarded me the trail Blazer award.
• 36:15
  Speaker 12: Right, the trail Blazer of the Year award.
• 36:18
  Speaker 13: No is it of the year, It should be a pepper.
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: Well we all know you're the trailblazer forever, but mackesson
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: has to give it to someone next year.
• 36:27
  Speaker 18: Well they need to change then, okay, because I think
• 36:30
  Speaker 18: I am forever. Yeah, so that was very It was
• 36:34
  Speaker 18: a huge honor for them for me to receive it
• 36:37
  Speaker 18: for them too.
• 36:38
  Speaker 12: Hello, It's important to different things. I want to say.
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: Number one, the social media interaction that you put out
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: from Palm's Pharmacy is hilarious, but it's also and a
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: lesson to other independent pharmacy owners that they should be
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: marketing themselves. They should be branding themselves out there. Number Two,
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: your inspiration shot as a pharmace the owner, not only
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: to pharmacy owners, but women pharmacy owners is very important
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: because there's a lot of people there who have self
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: doubt and saying I can't do it. Talk to us
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: about the jump from when you worked for someone else
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: and you began working for yourself.
• 37:15
  Speaker 12: What was that transition like for you?
• 37:17
  Speaker 18: In starting I'm still transitioning. That's just that sounds bad.
• 37:20
  Speaker 13: I didn't mean that.
• 37:21
  Speaker 12: Transition from shot out to shot of the trailblazer.
• 37:26
  Speaker 13: I know what. It's a huge transition.
• 37:29
  Speaker 18: No, there is a there is a transition from community pharmacy,
• 37:33
  Speaker 18: retail pharmacist to owner.
• 37:35
  Speaker 13: There's a lot of what's that syndrome?
• 37:38
  Speaker 12: This is self doubt but.
• 37:41
  Speaker 13: Conster syndrome official word. Yes, there's a lot of that.
• 37:45
  Speaker 12: Every day it's a pharmacist. Thank you, She chimed.
• 37:49
  Speaker 13: In, thank you.
• 37:50
  Speaker 12: That's what I'm here for, keeping us, keeping us straight.
• 37:54
  Speaker 13: Yes, so.
• 37:56
  Speaker 18: Yeah, so that is an everyday thing. Even when people
• 37:59
  Speaker 18: come up to me and congratue me, I'm always like,
• 38:00
  Speaker 18: oh my god, oh yeah, thank you.
• 38:02
  Speaker 13: You know, it's really difficult for me.
• 38:04
  Speaker 18: But going from a retail pharmacist to an owner, it's
• 38:06
  Speaker 18: a huge learning curve. As of today, I'm still learning
• 38:10
  Speaker 18: from other pharmacy owners. So it's not it's ever changing
• 38:12
  Speaker 18: and ever. I mean you have to be open to
• 38:15
  Speaker 18: learn as well. If you just think you know it all,
• 38:17
  Speaker 18: God bless, I think you know you just got to keep.
• 38:20
  Speaker 7: Learning, never end.
• 38:21
  Speaker 12: And your team so important finding the right people.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: You were talking to me about that yesterday at the
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: at the IPC party. Having the right team and the
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: right mix is so important to the culture of Palm's Pharmacy.
• 38:34
  Speaker 12: To talk to us about that as well.
• 38:35
  Speaker 13: Oh that is huge.
• 38:36
  Speaker 18: I mean, first, it got to lead by example when
• 38:38
  Speaker 18: it comes to team culture, because if I didn't invest
• 38:43
  Speaker 18: in my team, they want to invest in in me
• 38:45
  Speaker 18: and Palm's Pharmacy. And also picking the right folks that
• 38:50
  Speaker 18: have great work ethic just great.
• 38:53
  Speaker 13: I mean for me it's Aura.
• 38:54
  Speaker 18: I got to see they're they're a good person, Like
• 38:57
  Speaker 18: this person standing right next to us.
• 38:59
  Speaker 12: Yeah, that's not on my house.
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: Angie is the Jedi master of the social media.
• 39:06
  Speaker 18: Should introduce yourself. Angie our director of operations.
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: Hello, it is Angie.
• 39:12
  Speaker 18: Yes, she is our HR. She's our really also the
• 39:16
  Speaker 18: other half.
• 39:17
  Speaker 12: You're the one you make Angie fire everybody?
• 39:20
  Speaker 18: Oh why are you telling everybody this? Okay? But she
• 39:24
  Speaker 18: also hires them to.
• 39:26
  Speaker 12: Hires them too.
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, she's smiling at you, or she's pointing the
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: finger out the door.
• 39:33
  Speaker 13: If you don't behave yes, yes, yes, yeah, sure, yeah.
• 39:37
  Speaker 12: Whatever I want to ask you something, Jake.
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: So, the realm of community pharmacy, especially in the big
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: box chain pharmacy environment, you probably have people that you
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: went to pharmacy school that feel like they're burning out
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: or they feel stressed because of the environment that they're in.
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: Talk to us about the difference of being part of
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: an Indi panic community pharmacy that's privately owned versus any
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: experience you had in the major chain realm.
• 40:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 40:08
  Speaker 17: My only really experience tended to be with rotations through
• 40:12
  Speaker 17: some of the big box chains, and I could tell
• 40:14
  Speaker 17: it right away. It was like it was just completely
• 40:15
  Speaker 17: different atmosphere patient wise, professional wise.
• 40:21
  Speaker 12: And that's really why I.
• 40:23
  Speaker 17: Liked staying with Palm's Pharmacy as an intern in and
• 40:26
  Speaker 17: then as a pharmacist. I get to do things I
• 40:29
  Speaker 17: would never get to do with other pharmacies. I get
• 40:30
  Speaker 17: to implement new things. I get any ideas I have.
• 40:33
  Speaker 17: She's really open to and perceptive too, so that's fun
• 40:36
  Speaker 17: fun for me. It keeps things changing.
• 40:39
  Speaker 12: That's really why I like it.
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: I'm always in the the IPC booth. It's because of
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: Shadow that we have the partnership with IPC, which I'm
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: so thankful for and kicking it off years ago. But
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: your ability to dig deeper into clinical services? What are
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: you guys doing, Like we just talked with somebody for
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: about full script and being able to take supplements, and
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: then there's other tracks like what are you guys doing
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: in clinical services?
• 41:07
  Speaker 12: Jig, Well, we do have.
• 41:11
  Speaker 17: Another pharmacist who's kind of starting to take over that
• 41:14
  Speaker 17: realm with clinical services and in the actual clinic that
• 41:18
  Speaker 17: we have. Yes, digging deeper and I think we're trying
• 41:22
  Speaker 17: to do Yeah, more like diabetes management monitoring, remote monitoring
• 41:28
  Speaker 17: and stuff like that is kind of what we're trying
• 41:30
  Speaker 17: to move into and forward with.
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: Are we allowed to talk about the new entity that's
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: coming about at the which.
• 41:36
  Speaker 7: One with the clinic?
• 41:37
  Speaker 13: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah the pharmacy.
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, pharmacy, right, so that's better connected for clinical services too.
• 41:43
  Speaker 18: Oh, that is going to be at least eighty five
• 41:45
  Speaker 18: to nine clinical services.
• 41:48
  Speaker 12: So let's back up for the listeners so they don't realize.
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: So Palms Pharmacy now has a Palm's Pharmacy Express.
• 41:55
  Speaker 12: It's embedded in a clinic.
• 41:57
  Speaker 18: Yes, that's in primary care clinic. We have a pharmacy
• 42:00
  Speaker 18: that's already built out. We're just waiting to open up
• 42:03
  Speaker 18: and dragging my feet. It'll be very clinical oriented. They'll
• 42:07
  Speaker 18: be working close with the nurse practitioners there to do
• 42:11
  Speaker 18: remote patient monitoring. We'll be to have also the inbody
• 42:15
  Speaker 18: in there to make sure are all patients including our
• 42:18
  Speaker 18: GLP want patients that are monitoring their muscle loss that's
• 42:21
  Speaker 18: you know, muscle loss, their fat loss, all that great stuff.
• 42:24
  Speaker 18: And bone loss as well, that's pretty important. We'll be
• 42:28
  Speaker 18: offering uh, thank you Angie, a lot of shots, a
• 42:33
  Speaker 18: lot of vaccinations, thank you, dancing as well now just joking, oh.
• 42:38
  Speaker 12: Wow, just got to just got an Instagram.
• 42:40
  Speaker 18: And look up hello, as well as consults, vitamin consults,
• 42:46
  Speaker 18: lab consults otcs. We have a formulary and it'll be
• 42:50
  Speaker 18: really cute pharmacy.
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: But this is the model shot up for the future
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: of independent community pharmacy. You can't be the old fashioned
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: let's just do a bunch of dispensing and think we're
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: gonna make it.
• 43:01
  Speaker 18: You got to innovate and you got to stay try
• 43:03
  Speaker 18: to stay ahead of the curve.
• 43:04
  Speaker 13: Is what we try to do.
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: What do you think the percentage is of revenue that's
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: coming from dispensing versus extra services. What's the percentage you
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: think in your own business between two.
• 43:16
  Speaker 18: For Palms itself, it is dispensing just because mail order
• 43:19
  Speaker 18: that's a different entity. But definitely for the for the
• 43:22
  Speaker 18: second pharmacy, I definitely want a proof of concept, So
• 43:24
  Speaker 18: I will tell you one that next year. Yes, I
• 43:27
  Speaker 18: would say by the end of the year. I will
• 43:28
  Speaker 18: definitely know more on how it falls. But you know,
• 43:31
  Speaker 18: we have a lot of clinical services that we'll be offering,
• 43:34
  Speaker 18: especially with the medical billing side, because I know everybody's
• 43:37
  Speaker 18: been talking about that old medical billing for consults. I
• 43:40
  Speaker 18: will actually have numbers for you, okay.
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: And then what about something like women's services are advertising
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: in the Tampa creator Tampa area that you are the
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: center for women's health service that is.
• 43:53
  Speaker 18: Definitely coming through and we're going to get certified and
• 43:56
  Speaker 18: our favorite word menopause, So menopause. That's what we'll be
• 44:01
  Speaker 18: talking about, and we'll be advertising a lot of women's
• 44:03
  Speaker 18: health stuff because a lot of women are looking for
• 44:06
  Speaker 18: menopause assistants.
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: Shot Uh and the Palms Pharmacy team, Jake, thanks so
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: much for taking your time to be on the show.
• 44:14
  Speaker 12: We appreciate everything that you do. A shout out to
• 44:17
  Speaker 12: a j on the house.
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: Can't wait to do our next TikTok ish, Instagram.
• 44:25
  Speaker 13: Yes, Shepheritely please follow us on all platforms.
• 44:28
  Speaker 12: Please Palm's Pharmacy. Yes, thank you. Hi.
• 44:35
  Speaker 10: My name is Blair Telamyr with Pqus by Innovisor and
• 44:39
  Speaker 10: you're listening to the Pharmacy podcast.
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: Blair Tilamere. It's been too long since you've been on
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: the shows. It's so good to talk with you.
• 44:49
  Speaker 12: How are you. I'm doing well.
• 44:51
  Speaker 13: How are you toime?
• 44:51
  Speaker 12: It's very good.
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: You know, of all the people in the pharmacy industry,
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: I want to be the one to do a bio
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: biography of you sometime via podcast, because I've been watching
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: your career probably since I started getting involved in helping
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: you right around twenty eighteen. But I started paying attention
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: to you and I think we linked up LinkedIn probably
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: twenty fourteen fifteen.
• 45:16
  Speaker 12: But you have evolved.
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: It reminds me of what the pharmacy industry is going through.
• 45:22
  Speaker 12: Just open up and just in.
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: Case people don't know you, give us a little background
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: of your pedigree in the business of pharmacy.
• 45:29
  Speaker 12: Absolutely so.
• 45:30
  Speaker 10: I'm a clinical pharmacist. I've always been very passionate about community,
• 45:35
  Speaker 10: especially independent pharmacy and clinical services being offered there. So
• 45:42
  Speaker 10: as a pharmacist in Arkansas, we have providers status, but
• 45:46
  Speaker 10: in twenty fifteen we didn't. So my journey was really
• 45:49
  Speaker 10: about exploring and understanding what clinical services I could offer at.
• 45:54
  Speaker 12: The time, which is now.
• 45:56
  Speaker 10: Exciting to me to see so many of these new
• 46:00
  Speaker 10: opportunities in medical billing realized because back then twenty fifteen,
• 46:05
  Speaker 10: I was writing a blog. That's why my career is
• 46:08
  Speaker 10: very multifaceted, but I was writing and blogging about MTM
• 46:13
  Speaker 10: services really for Medicare D patients, and I was talking
• 46:20
  Speaker 10: about provider status and.
• 46:22
  Speaker 12: What was coming.
• 46:24
  Speaker 10: But I think the main message, and I think the
• 46:28
  Speaker 10: through line throughout my career has been being able to
• 46:32
  Speaker 10: implement the services that you can already do. And I
• 46:36
  Speaker 10: think that's where as an individual you kind of say,
• 46:40
  Speaker 10: so much is changing, we need so much reform. There's
• 46:43
  Speaker 10: a lot of stuff going on. What can I do
• 46:46
  Speaker 10: as an individual? And for me, it was doing what
• 46:49
  Speaker 10: I was able to do, you know how I was
• 46:52
  Speaker 10: able to practice in the state of Arkansas and sharing
• 46:55
  Speaker 10: that information with other people on LinkedIn. So many pharmacists
• 47:01
  Speaker 10: kept reaching out to me and saying, you know, how
• 47:03
  Speaker 10: do we do point of care testing, how do we
• 47:06
  Speaker 10: do chronic care management? How do we do pharmacogenomic testing?
• 47:10
  Speaker 10: And so I've done a lot of different stuff in
• 47:13
  Speaker 10: my career. I'm really excited that it's pharmacies really getting
• 47:18
  Speaker 10: to a point to where clinical services are not something
• 47:21
  Speaker 10: offered separate from the dispensing process, but actually integrated in
• 47:26
  Speaker 10: the dispensing process.
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: And you've been waiting for this because you were really
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: ahead of the curve for twelve years, which is just
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: nuts to think of how innovative you were. Another innovation
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: history point is you launched the very first online conference
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: that was dedicated to pharmacy, very entrepreneurial, where you would
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: take people and really teach them, coach them, and then
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: of course they could sign up for some of your
• 47:51
  Speaker 4: consultative services later. That plays into EQUIP, that plays into PQS,
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: that plays into the whole kind of like philosophy of
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: the workganization. So talk to us about that transition of
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: now going back into a company where your entrepreneurial spirit
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: and understanding now gets amplified by what they've built.
• 48:12
  Speaker 10: Absolutely. Yeah, I you know, I think throughout my career.
• 48:15
  Speaker 12: I was really.
• 48:16
  Speaker 10: Focused on how do we diversify revenue for community pharmacies,
• 48:22
  Speaker 10: how how are we changing practice, and how are we innovating.
• 48:25
  Speaker 10: When when I, you know, was working through northeast Arkansas
• 48:31
  Speaker 10: and southwest Missouri, I was able to use the equipped
• 48:34
  Speaker 10: dashboard to monitor star ratings and we would put these
• 48:39
  Speaker 10: patients on medcinc or you know, offer comprehensive medication reviews
• 48:43
  Speaker 10: doing MTM type stuff. When I saw what equipp has built,
• 48:50
  Speaker 10: so PQS was uh, you know, was a company that
• 48:55
  Speaker 10: came from the p QUA Quality Measures. So we really
• 48:59
  Speaker 10: helped to set up a dashboard that gave pharmacies an
• 49:03
  Speaker 10: understanding of where they were landing on the star ratings
• 49:07
  Speaker 10: performance chart. So I had been using it as a
• 49:12
  Speaker 10: you know, as a pharmacist in my own practice. When
• 49:15
  Speaker 10: they showed me this was about a year and a
• 49:18
  Speaker 10: half ago. I think it was at the APAHA in
• 49:20
  Speaker 10: Nashville that always tell each other and when they showed
• 49:25
  Speaker 10: me this this piece of software that connects to the
• 49:28
  Speaker 10: pharmacy's dispensing system that doesn't require a log into a
• 49:34
  Speaker 10: new portal in order to understand what opportunities there are
• 49:38
  Speaker 10: people can capture it right there within their workflow in
• 49:41
  Speaker 10: the dispensing process. And that's when I really said, this
• 49:45
  Speaker 10: makes any community pharmacy a clinical service pharmacy, and it
• 49:51
  Speaker 10: makes any pharmacist a clinical pharmacist. It makes it super
• 49:56
  Speaker 10: easy for people to be able to capture these medical billing.
• 50:01
  Speaker 12: Services and then get paid for it.
• 50:03
  Speaker 10: Exactly diversification of revenue. I mean, my career has really
• 50:07
  Speaker 10: come full circle to now we have the technology in
• 50:11
  Speaker 10: place that allows pharmacists to do this without having to
• 50:16
  Speaker 10: step into a different portal or stop what they're doing
• 50:20
  Speaker 10: and call a patient. Most of these opportunities are offered
• 50:24
  Speaker 10: face to face, and that's the way. You know, my
• 50:27
  Speaker 10: great grandfather was a pharmacist in the Chicago area, and
• 50:31
  Speaker 10: that's the way I think he would recognize my practice
• 50:36
  Speaker 10: today as being very patient care, face to face type
• 50:41
  Speaker 10: of type of services.
• 50:43
  Speaker 4: So as a as a kind of a splinter to
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: the next thing, that's kind of where we're going. I
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: don't think dispensing is the future of community pharmacy. I
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: think it's just kind of like a transaction per se.
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: I think the future is digging deep into a patient
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: that has diabetes or hypertension, or maybe they want to
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: get pregnant, or maybe they're trying to get healthier or
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: whatever is happening, and now they're going to meet up
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: with their physician. The physician's going to like give them
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: kind of a check and balance overview, you know, and
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: then they're going to give the baton to that pharmacist
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: that's ready for it. But they have to have the infrastructure,
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: they have to have the pieces of technology prepared. That's
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: what you guys are doing at a quip PQS exactly exactly.
• 51:28
  Speaker 10: So I get excited about point of care testing services too.
• 51:33
  Speaker 10: So at PQS, we do have a controlling blood pressure opportunity,
• 51:37
  Speaker 10: we have A one C opportunities. So these are paid
• 51:40
  Speaker 10: opportunities for pharmacists to be able to do point of
• 51:43
  Speaker 10: care testing services.
• 51:45
  Speaker 12: And I was at a session.
• 51:46
  Speaker 10: This morning where they did an A one SE on
• 51:49
  Speaker 10: a patient came back super high. That same day, they
• 51:53
  Speaker 10: got him in over the counter continuous glucose monitor and
• 51:57
  Speaker 10: now they're doing remote physiologic monitors on that patient.
• 52:01
  Speaker 12: Is A and C is a goal.
• 52:03
  Speaker 10: His doctor said, what did y'all do? And a lot
• 52:08
  Speaker 10: of it was lifestyle change. He didn't realize he was
• 52:11
  Speaker 10: eating a giant bowl of cereal before betting, you know,
• 52:14
  Speaker 10: every night, and that was spiking no right, so so
• 52:18
  Speaker 10: serving size. You know, it's not something that we really
• 52:22
  Speaker 10: think about as pharmacists, but we're the ones dispensing that medication.
• 52:27
  Speaker 10: We're the ones, you know, handing out the GLP ones.
• 52:30
  Speaker 10: You have to have a conversation about lifestyle modification, preventative services.
• 52:36
  Speaker 10: I think pharmacy, you know, we've always kind of with
• 52:40
  Speaker 10: clinical services anyway, it's been patients with two or more
• 52:43
  Speaker 10: chronic conditions, six or more medications. What I'm seeing is
• 52:48
  Speaker 10: a shift pharmacy's demographic is now we have the opportunity
• 52:53
  Speaker 10: to focus on a much younger, much healthier population, especially women,
• 52:58
  Speaker 10: were making a lot of the decisions about health care
• 53:01
  Speaker 10: for our family members. So pharmacies that are offering strip
• 53:05
  Speaker 10: and flu testing for you know, in Arkansas, kids over
• 53:09
  Speaker 10: the age of three, we can do strep and flu.
• 53:12
  Speaker 10: So I'm seeing a diversification of revenue, but also of
• 53:17
  Speaker 10: patients that are coming into the pharmacy for the first
• 53:21
  Speaker 10: time and they're looking for peptides, they're looking for supplements,
• 53:25
  Speaker 10: they're looking for you know, lifestyle recommendations, and there's much
• 53:29
  Speaker 10: more of a focus on well, how do I how
• 53:32
  Speaker 10: do I stay healthy? You know, if you go into
• 53:34
  Speaker 10: the physician's office and tell them you're healthy, they're going
• 53:38
  Speaker 10: to be like, why are you here? So I really
• 53:40
  Speaker 10: see this opportunity for pharmacies to you know, to be
• 53:44
  Speaker 10: the experts around health and wellness too, and a position
• 53:48
  Speaker 10: themselves in that way and capture that whole new market.
• 53:51
  Speaker 12: Share ye and make money for sure.
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: All right, So someone's listening, they're interested in learning more.
• 53:58
  Speaker 12: What's the best way to reach out to you and get.
• 54:00
  Speaker 10: You Pharmacy Qualitysolutions dot Com would be the best way
• 54:04
  Speaker 10: to get in touch with with us at PQS to
• 54:07
  Speaker 10: get set up on the Equipped dashboard. We are connected
• 54:11
  Speaker 10: in most pharmacies in the United States, Chains Independence, all
• 54:17
  Speaker 10: community pharmacies have access to the Equipped Dashboard. So getting
• 54:22
  Speaker 10: your access, getting online, trying out the copilot. We have
• 54:26
  Speaker 10: a thirty day free trial with that software. You can
• 54:30
  Speaker 10: access that through our website as well. And you know,
• 54:33
  Speaker 10: they are welcome to reach out to me too. So
• 54:36
  Speaker 10: Blair Tilamyra LinkedIn is probably the easiest place to find me,
• 54:41
  Speaker 10: but I always welcome taking these opportunities to meet and
• 54:45
  Speaker 10: connect and you know, let's hop on a quick zoom
• 54:48
  Speaker 10: meeting and talk about pharmacy opportunities.
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, one of Pharmacy fifty alumni, one of the most
• 54:55
  Speaker 4: influential people in pharmacy. I can't remember which year it
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: was because if we've done them so many times now,
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: I think we're on coming up on our sixth season.
• 55:02
  Speaker 12: But this has been wonderful to catch up with you.
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: I hope that I can get you back maybe on
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: this week in Pharmacy and bring a pharmacy owner with
• 55:10
  Speaker 4: you that's used the system to kind of give us
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: a testimonial layout of how there's been a profitability change
• 55:16
  Speaker 4: in their business too.
• 55:17
  Speaker 12: Absolutely, I would love that. All right, Thank you Blair,
• 55:20
  Speaker 12: Thank you.
• 55:25
  Speaker 7: Hey.
• 55:25
  Speaker 19: This is Nick Varner agis from Fagran. You're listening to
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  Speaker 19: the Pharmacy Podcast.
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  Speaker 4: Nicholas, thanks so much for joining me here at the
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  Speaker 4: IPC booth. We're talking about Idea Share McKesson Idea Share
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  Speaker 4: twenty twenty six.
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  Speaker 12: It's great to see.
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  Speaker 7: You you too, Dad, Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 4: All right, So the reason why I was excited to
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  Speaker 4: talk with you is independent community pharmacy is going through
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  Speaker 4: a massive, massive changes in order to make the difference
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  Speaker 4: between relying on a dispensing fee as the central point
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  Speaker 4: of their income and starting to do more value based
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  Speaker 4: clinical documentation, remote patient monitoring, contraception. Like, there's other things
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  Speaker 4: happening that an independent community pharmacy can offer their community
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  Speaker 4: that the community needs anyway, and it's going to bring.
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  Speaker 12: Them more revenue.
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  Speaker 4: Compounding is a gold mine and we have We're so
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  Speaker 4: proud to have the APC Scott and his team on
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  Speaker 4: the Pharmacy Podcast Network that brings us lots of great
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  Speaker 4: information updates and what's happening with compounding legislation. Fog Ron
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  Speaker 4: has been a champion of compounding. I don't even know
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  Speaker 4: how long longer than I've probably been in pharmacy. I've
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  Speaker 4: been here since two thousand and four and really has
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  Speaker 4: been always in touch with not only pharmacies that are
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  Speaker 4: already in it, but pharmacies that want to get in it.
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  Speaker 4: So talk to us about the state of independent community
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  Speaker 4: pharmacy and compounding.
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  Speaker 19: Yeah, so I think with kind of what's going with
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  Speaker 19: pharmacy right now, just like you said, with the negative
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  Speaker 19: reimbursements that pharmacies are dealing with, it's obviously a stressful
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  Speaker 19: time for pharmacies out there. And I love to see
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  Speaker 19: that there are so many states that are working on
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  Speaker 19: legislation or they've enacted legislation for independent pharmacies to actually
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  Speaker 19: be able to kind of recoup some of that negative reimbursement.
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  Speaker 19: But one of the big things for independent pharmacies that
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  Speaker 19: they can actually get into, and we're seeing more and
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  Speaker 19: more pharmacies actually doing it, is compounding. Obviously, there are
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  Speaker 19: a lot of regulations really regulated by not only the FDA,
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  Speaker 19: but more so the state Board is a pharmacy, right
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  Speaker 19: so there are states that are a little more stringent
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  Speaker 19: than other states. We always kind of know what those
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  Speaker 19: states are. So when we're working with the pharmacy, whether
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  Speaker 19: it's a pharmacy that is an exist steinh pharmacy startup
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  Speaker 19: that is wanting to get into, you know, compounding, we
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  Speaker 19: work with them to kind of go from A to
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  Speaker 19: Z with everything that they're going to need.
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  Speaker 7: And then in addition.
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  Speaker 19: To that, we also look at are they looking to
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  Speaker 19: open a pharmacy that's just compounding or have they been
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  Speaker 19: doing it for ten years and they're redoing their lab
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  Speaker 19: or adding hazardous or adding sterile. What we're seeing a
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  Speaker 19: lot of right now is a lot of the pharmacies
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  Speaker 19: that are already doing compounding.
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  Speaker 7: Now they're adding.
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  Speaker 19: Sterile because obviously with GLP ones things like that, with
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  Speaker 19: peptides coming down the road, we kind of see that
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  Speaker 19: that's going to be the next big cash cow, if
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  Speaker 19: you will.
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  Speaker 7: So we kind of look at that. And the biggest
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  Speaker 7: thing for.
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  Speaker 19: Pharmacies that are wanting to get into is they need
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  Speaker 19: to kind of know.
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  Speaker 7: Where to start. And that's the cool thing with Fagron.
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  Speaker 19: We have everything from a diaz We have our active
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  Speaker 19: pharmaceutical ingredients. We have dietary supplements that are now API
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  Speaker 19: grade which can be used for compounding. Along with that,
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  Speaker 19: we have our bases that you would mix the APIs in.
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  Speaker 19: We have all kinds of equipment, any equipment that a
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  Speaker 19: pharmacy is going to need to actually do that compounding,
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  Speaker 19: we have that. And then in addition, we have education,
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  Speaker 19: so the courses, the support, we have compounding support which
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  Speaker 19: is called facts that we have a couple of pharmacists
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  Speaker 19: on the team that are just phenomenal. And then in
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  Speaker 19: addition to that, we have incredible customer service, our sales team,
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  Speaker 19: our customer success team, all the support on the back end.
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  Speaker 7: The warehouse.
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  Speaker 19: Really everyone comes together to make sure that the customer
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  Speaker 19: gets the absolute best experience that we can give them.
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  Speaker 19: And that's what I love about working for this company
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  Speaker 19: and being in this industry is we can really make
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  Speaker 19: a huge impact obviously for the patient, right the patient
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  Speaker 19: is the end user. But when you're talking about pharmacies,
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  Speaker 19: we want to help pharmacies.
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  Speaker 7: Grow, and compounding does that.
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  Speaker 19: Compounding most compounds, you're looking at about a forty to
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  Speaker 19: fifty dollars you know, maybe fifty five you know, average
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  Speaker 19: that you can make with a compound because most aren't
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  Speaker 19: covered by insurance, So that can really be a big
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  Speaker 19: boost for pharmacies that are getting into it.
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  Speaker 4: Nicholas, I remember hearing about a multimillion dollar investment that
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  Speaker 4: fog Run made into an education center in southern Florida
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  Speaker 4: and then you bring pharmacies in for days of training
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  Speaker 4: on specific things.
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  Speaker 12: You guys still doing that.
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  Speaker 19: So we haven't done the on site hands on training
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  Speaker 19: probably since COVID.
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  Speaker 7: That's uh, yeah, that's exactly it. But we have had
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  Speaker 7: a lot of requests for that. Right now.
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  Speaker 19: We do have a home study course for nonsterile for
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  Speaker 19: customers wanting to get into compounding, and that's something we
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  Speaker 19: always recommend as well, but due to demand, I believe
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  Speaker 19: that we're going to be bringing them that back very soon.
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  Speaker 19: Maybe yeah, it would be it would be incredible. And
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  Speaker 19: then there's a lot, so a lot of customers that
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  Speaker 19: are out there. They might be more familiar with some
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  Speaker 19: of our competition and they're more familiar with the name
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  Speaker 19: let Go, So I just want to make sure that
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  Speaker 19: we're clearing that up that let Go is part of
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  Speaker 19: the gron fa Gran acquired let Go, uh so you're
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  Speaker 19: getting that same service, that same quality, but it's it's
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  Speaker 19: fa grn so that falls under our brand. And there's
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  Speaker 19: a several companies that fall under the Fa Gran umbrella,
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  Speaker 19: and we're all committed to, you know, ensuring that the
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  Speaker 19: customer has success.
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  Speaker 4: Nicholas, I want to have you back on this week
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  Speaker 4: in pharmacy. I want to talk with one of your
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  Speaker 4: client customers that has been, you know, using your services,
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  Speaker 4: and then I'm going to reach out to your marketing
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  Speaker 4: team see if we can't get that training center the
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  Speaker 4: grand the regrand opening, because I want to be there
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  Speaker 4: for it because I heard about it, I was excited
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  Speaker 4: about it, and then, like I said, I think COVID
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  Speaker 4: spoiled it for everybody, and yeah.
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  Speaker 12: Let's do it.
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  Speaker 4: Let's get vacation packages for people that want to take
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  Speaker 4: a little time off, come to South Florida learn something
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  Speaker 4: about their business, and.
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  Speaker 7: That would be that would be amazing.
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  Speaker 19: While you know, just just make sure that if they're
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  Speaker 19: they're getting started or they're you know, enhancing their lab
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  Speaker 19: that they come to us for equipmen as well.
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  Speaker 7: I'll be happy to take care of them.
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  Speaker 19: And our sales team, like I said, they're just absolutely incredible.
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  Speaker 10: Uh.
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  Speaker 19: They will bend over backwards to help any customers with
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  Speaker 19: you know, pricing and and things to to help them
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  Speaker 19: kind of increase their revenue and and make it mutually beneficial.
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  Speaker 7: So that's what it's all about.
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  Speaker 19: And we wouldn't be here without our customers. So we're
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  Speaker 19: we're excited to be here at McKesson Idea Share and
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 19: you know, supporting our customers.
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  Speaker 4: Well, we were glad to have you and thanks so
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  Speaker 4: much for being part of the show.
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  Speaker 7: Thanks for having me. Dad appreciate it.
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  Speaker 13: F