Pharmacies push medication synchronization
By Tim Rausch, The Augusta Chronicle, Ga. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Its the latest trend: medication synchronization. It is an attempt by pharmacies to get customers to come in once to get all of their prescription drugs, hailed as a time-saving and money-saving opportunity.
While the marketing is true, pharmacists say, part of the reason it is being offered in increasing numbers is to cut business costs and remain in good standing with insurance companies.
Beyond the money, the synchronization programs might make people healthier, said
If people are getting their monthly prescriptions at one time, they are more likely to get all the medications, and take them, Greene said. If people are making multiple trips to the pharmacy in a month, it is easy to put off one of those trips and interrupt the medication regimen.
"Patients are now coming in and asking for it, so the word has gotten out," Carmichael said.
Patients save time and gas money under the programs, and pharmacies save through inventory control and fewer work hours.
"When you come in once a month, we know ahead of time that you're going to get your nine prescriptions. It is a lot more likely we're going to have your drug in stock," Greene said. Work hours can be adjusted for pharmacies that appear to have busy days, he added.
At Barney's, which has a delivery service, making one trip to a customer's house saves fuel costs and driver time, said owner
"Our delivery drivers are making two or three trips a week to the same house because they can't get all their stuff together," he explained.
This mutually beneficial arrangement did not come from the normal way a trend begins. It was not born from an idea to gain a competitive advantage, but rather from changes to
"Compliance and adherence rates are a national issue," said BJ Cobb, the senior manager of pharmacy professional services for
The
So the health insurance companies are ranked.
"However, insurance companies are passing the buck onto pharmacies," Carmichael said. "Every pharmacy wants to have a good star rating because if we don't we could potentially lose our contracts with insurance companies. That is our incentive."
In the pharmacy world, compliance is patients with recurring prescriptions picking them up 80 percent of the time.
Greene said the average person on multiple prescriptions picks refills 55 percent of the time. With medication synchronization, though, that compliance number hits 82 percent.
"It would seem odd that an insurance company would be interested in people taking medications because that's more money they pay out, but not when compared to the cost of hospitalization for not taking the meds," he said.
And though the programs have been born out of changes to
"We want to be a pharmacy with hundreds of patients in med sync, so that's what we're working toward," she said.
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