AAP Preferred Partners
Content provided by AAP’s extensive offering of Preferred Partners, curated to support the operations and profitability of its Members.
Content provided by AAP’s extensive offering of Preferred Partners, curated to support the operations and profitability of its Members.
In today’s evolving healthcare landscape, pharmacists are increasingly stepping into pivotal roles as providers of clinical services. Beyond dispensing medications, they are actively involved in medication therapy management (MTM), chronic disease management, immunization programs, and other patient-centric initiatives. To effectively deliver these services and enhance patient outcomes, pharmacists are turning to innovative software solutions that streamline workflows, improve efficiency, and facilitate comprehensive care.
One of the fundamental challenges in offering clinical services is managing patient appointments. Appointment schedulers, specifically designed for pharmacies, provide a centralized platform to efficiently schedule and manage patient appointments. These software solutions often integrate with pharmacy management systems, allowing pharmacists to seamlessly coordinate appointments with their dispensing operations. Plus, many appointment schedulers offer website and mobile app integrations, allowing patients to schedule their own appointments based on the pharmacists’ available appointment hours.
By making the appointment process more efficient, pharmacists can optimize their time, reduce wait times for patients, and improve overall patient satisfaction.
Join Infinitrak Marketing and Sales coordinator, Andrew Knight, and President and Chief Compliance Officer, Mark Tate. Together, they will delve into the critical state of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and discuss what pharmacies need to do now to navigate its requirements successfully.
In this webinar, they will explore:
Join them to discover how InfiniTrak can help streamline or develop your compliance practices, ensuring that you stay ahead with real-time data analytics and comprehensive security measures.
InfiniTrak is a leading provider of DSCSA compliance SaaS solutions, designed to optimize the pharmaceutical supply chain through advanced tracking and tracing technology. Their platform ensures seamless compliance, enhanced security, and operational efficiency for stakeholders at all levels.
Join Nic Bernabe, Product Manager from Outcomes, to discuss their latest innovation, PillCount.
PillCount, Outcomes’ latest innovation, is built to advance your pharmacy into the next era. Equipped with powerful iPad processing capabilities, PillCount runs their advanced AI software, which is continually evolving to deliver near-perfect counting accuracy of 99%, exceptionally fast counting speeds and the capacity for future enhancements. As a cloud-based solution, PillCount eliminates the need for manual software updates, offering automatic updates instead. Outcomes prioritize security, proudly holding hi-trust and SOC 2 certifications. All these features are integrated into a compact footprint that can be easily repositioned and tailored to fit the unique layout of your pharmacy.
If you are not efficiently managing your expired pharmaceutical returns, you could be leaving money on the shelf. In an independent community pharmacy where every dollar is important, the value of expired products can be significant. Pharmaceutical returns companies, like AAP’s Preferred Partner Return Solutions, can help navigate the challenges of returning drugs for credit and help you get the most out of your pharmacy’s expired products. In some cases, expired products can be worth up to the full amount of their original value and pharmacies are often surprised by the amount of credit they can get back. The average Return Solutions customer receives about $20,000 a year in credit from their outdated returns.
Choosing the right returns company to partner with your pharmacy ensures you are getting all the credit that was promised in an easy-to-track manner. While some returns companies issue credit as a series of multiple checks or credits to your wholesaler, Return Solutions issues all credit due through their OneCheck Select program in a single check, within as few as 10 days after your return. The fee for processing your items is a flat percentage of your returnable products, and there are no additional fees for shipping, controls processing, or destruction of non-returnable items that are shipped with returnable products. Some companies will offer a low rate up-front, only for you to be surprised by high additional fees and low reimbursements.
Written by the PharmCon freeCE Team, based on a freeCE Monograph developed by Peter Kreckel, RPh., Retired Adjunct Assistant Professor, Saint Francis University.
Over the past two decades, significant advancements have been made in understanding and managing hot flashes, a common symptom experienced during the menopausal transition.
One notable trend in managing hot flashes is “sleep divorce,” a term used by the Cleveland Clinic to describe the practice of partners sleeping in separate beds or bedrooms. This practice is gaining popularity, with about 1 in every 5 couples opting for separate sleeping arrangements.
How can you ride the wave of shifting pharmacy trends to ensure long-term financial security for your practice? Join Jon Minkin, Enterprise Account Executive, and Anthony Grassano, Enterprise Account Executive at Nimble while they dive into the tools and tactics that pharmacies of the future will invest in to see sustained growth — and how specifically Nimble can help your pharmacy practice.
Nimble partners with independent pharmacies to help them make more money, save more time and delight their patients. They streamline pharmacy operations, so orders, refills, payments, and operational needs are centralized. For patients, Nimble makes it simple to pay for prescriptions and refills.
The evolution of LTC Pharmacy at Home services are continuing through this year. The need for better pharmacy care for people who are homebound or need assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) is a reality with the increasing elderly population. According to projections in a new report from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), the aging of the baby boom generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) could fuel a 75 percent increase in the number of Americans ages 65 and older requiring nursing home care, to about 2.3 million in 2030 from 1.3 million in 2010. New facilities are not being built today to accommodate people with institutional needs.
In this pre-recorded webinar, please join Adrienne Vandergriff from Return Solutions to learn valuable insights on how to increase cash flow from your expired returns.
Get faster credit with the easiest tracking and most efficient Rx returns process using Return Solutions’ OneCheck Select program. OneCheck credit is consolidated into a single check with manufacturer credit values listed on the check stub, eliminating credit tracking. Reclaim your time to spend with patients by choosing the comprehensive on-site service or do returns on your own with the easy and economical mail-in option. As an AAP member, receive up to 90% of the returnable product value of your first return within just 30 days with our new customer promotion. Learn more at https://drugreturns.com/home/aap/.
In today’s fast-paced world, convenience and efficiency are paramount, especially in healthcare. Pharmacies must embrace technological advancements to provide top-notch service and maintain a competitive edge. One such advancement is the mobile app, a tool that has become indispensable in enhancing patient care and streamlining pharmacy operations.
The Role of Mobile Apps in Pharmacy Care
Mobile apps have revolutionized many aspects of our daily lives, and healthcare is no exception. These apps offer many benefits in pharmacy care, enhancing patient experience, improving medication adherence, and optimizing pharmacy operations.
Many people over 40 will check out the reading glasses floor display when visiting the pharmacy. They will see various styles and lens powers if your display is well stocked. Many will give several pairs a quick test run to find the correct viewing power.
Convenience: Drugstores like to put the medication in the back because prescriptions are considered “destination products” or the sole reason customers might even be in the store. Customers usually make their way through the store counter-clockwise and likely pass items or displays the store wants you to see.
Knowing they must see the pharmacist or their staff, having a reading glass display near the pharmacy counter increases the likelihood that they will peruse it to see what is new and purchase a pair or two.
This placement makes it easier for customers to ask the pharmacist questions about reading glasses, making them more likely to buy readers and accessories.
In this pre-recorded webinar, please join Andrew Knight – Marketing and Sales coordinator at InfiniTrak. Andrew has a decade of experience in customer service. Leaning on his experience, Andrew helped reinvigorate the InfiniTrak implementation process and has been positively guiding the customer experience at InfiniTrak for over a year.
Welcome to the Informational webinar at InfiniTrak, where they lead the way in DSCSA compliance with their innovative, easy-to-use SaaS solutions. InfiniTrak platform offers tailored features that streamline the compliance process across all levels of the pharmaceutical supply chain, enhancing safety and efficiency. Discover how InfiniTrak can streamline or develop your compliance practices, ensuring you stay ahead with real-time data analytics and comprehensive security measures. Join them to learn more and take your compliance strategy to the next level.
InfiniTrak is a leading provider of DSCSA compliance SaaS solutions, designed to optimize the pharmaceutical supply chain through advanced tracking and tracing technology. Their platform ensures seamless compliance, enhanced security, and operational efficiency for stakeholders at all levels. For more information contact Mark Tate at mark@infinitrak.us or call 540-323-3604.
In today’s fiercely competitive market, independent pharmacies face an ongoing battle to stand out and thrive amidst larger chain competitors. Yet, within every community, these pharmacies possess a unique asset that sets them apart—their brand. Far more than just a logo or a name, your pharmacy brand embodies the essence of your business, reflecting your values, services, and commitment to patient care. As an independent pharmacy owner, recognizing and harnessing the power of your brand can be the key to success in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
At the heart of building a strong brand lies the understanding that your pharmacy is more than just a place where medications are dispensed—it’s a trusted healthcare destination where patients feel valued, understood, and cared for. By adopting key marketing tactics employed by popular consumer brands, independent pharmacy owners can amplify their brand recognition, foster loyalty, and create lasting connections with their communities.
Pacience Edwards, PharmD, manager of compliance at Outcomes, discussed how technological solutions can aid pharmacies during a session at the Outcomes 2024 SYNC National Conference in Orlando, Florida.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the health care landscape both directly and indirectly in many ways. Al- though the public health crisis led to a significant amount of burnout among health care workers and put more pressure on an already overburdened system, the increased utilization of telehealth services was seen by many as a positive outcome.
Due to a lack of access brought on by COVID-19, telehealth services in the US increased by 154% during the early phases of the pandemic and then eventually stabilized at levels 38 times higher compared to those in 2019.1 This has led to many benefits for both patients and providers, such as improving access to care and reducing resources used in health care facilities.
In this pre-recorded webinar, please join Jessica Swicegood and Cole Page from GeriMed to learn more about their program ComboMed™.
ComboMed™ has garnered prominence from independents nationwide for the enhanced revenue ($3-$4 more per script, zero DIR fees) it brings to retail independents servicing LTC. From the traditional SNF setting, to ALF, Group Home, Psychiatric, Correctional, ICF-IDD, Hospice, and the fastest-growing segment in LTC—Medical at Home, odds are you’re likely servicing LTC already and don’t know it. Or if you do know it, you’re not receiving the benefits of this program on your Med D LTC claims.
Click here to watch.
In this pre-recorded webinar, please join Peter Kreckel R.Ph. Professor Pete’s family has suffered from hearing loss for many generations. This presentation covers earwax accumulation, tinnitus, voiced and unvoiced letters, the McGurk effect, and the six types of hearing aids that are FDA approved. Professor Pete also covers the screening questions necessary to help patients see if they are candidates to purchase hearing aids without consulting an audiologist.
PharmCon freeCE is a leading provider of professional continuing education, and PTCB recognized training resources for Pharmacy Technicians and specialty certificates for pharmacists. The company is a long-time leader in the professional education space, with more live CE offerings than any other provider in the industry in addition to a robust home study library. The team prides itself in the practical nature of programming, designed to be immediately used in contemporary pharmacy practice. Learn more at freeCE.com
Medical billing is… complicated. Making even the slightest mistake on a claim can lead to a delayed payment or, worse, an outright rejection. That’s why EnlivenHealth approached their medical billing team with the question “What are the most common medical billing errors, and how can we help pharmacists avoid them?” The answers are in this free webinar.
Join EnlivenHealth’s medical billing experts for a one-hour journey through the five most common medical billing mistakes that pharmacists make — and learn how to avoid making them!
Expiring inventory is a fact of life in any pharmacy, but you may be leaving money on the shelf if you aren’t taking certain steps to effectively manage your inventory. These 10 tips will help you minimize the number of products that go out of date and ensure you can get the most credit possible from the products that do expire on your shelves.
The Medicare Open Enrollment period is a critical time for patients and pharmacists alike. As more Baby Boomers become eligible for Medicare, the beneficiary population is expected to increase from over 65 million beneficiaries today (as of March 2023) to over 80 million beneficiaries by 2030. Now more than ever, pharmacists must take an active role during Open Enrollment by offering services that help patients understand their plan options. Equipping yourself with the right knowledge could mean a tremendous amount of money saved for both your pharmacy and patients. As you plan to help your patients with navigating their options for the coming year, here are a few things to know:
AAP Preferred Partner – Mirco Merchant Systems
Micro Merchant Systems is a pharmacy technology company that has been providing exceptional management solutions to the Independent Pharmacy Market for 30 years. Thousands of pharmacies throughout the U.S trust their PrimeRx™ system to manage their Retail, Long-Term Care, Specialty, Compounding, 340B, Mail order, Physician’s office, Hospital & Health System Outpatient, and Hub Service Pharmacy technology needs.
Micro Merchant Systems Windows-based PrimeRx™ Pharmacy Management System serves as a local or hosted platform for their innovative solution offerings. At Micro Merchant Systems, they offer products, services, APPs, APIs, and vendor interfaces to keep the pharmacy running at the peak of performance.
For more information, please email Micro Merchant Systems at sales@micromerchantsystems.com or call (866) 495-3999 to set up a PrimeRx™ Demo. Visit online at www.micromerchantsystems.com.
As you know, there has much information and talk about LTC Pharmacy at Home. The need for better pharmacy care for people who are homebound or need assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) is a reality with the increasing elderly population. According to projections in a new report from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), the aging of the baby boom generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) could fuel a 75 percent increase in the number of Americans ages 65 and older requiring nursing home care, to about 2.3 million in 2030 from 1.3 million in 2010. New facilities are not being built today to accommodate people with institutional needs.
Those numbers stress the need to find new ways to administer care and pharmacy services to aging adults with medical conditions and impairments limiting their ability to care for themselves. Long term care (LTC) pharmacy at home is a new way for LTC pharmacies to care for people needing institutional care but who desire to stay in their home or are financially unable to be admitted into a facility.
Many of these people are participating in a home and community-based waiver (HCBS) program from their state where Medicaid pays for institutional care in their home, or they are homebound and need assistance with two or more ADLs (activities of daily living) or IADLs (instrumental activities of daily living).
While the definition of pharmacy services required to be provided to people qualifying for LTC pharmacy services, a new coalition and others in the industry are providing clarity on these needed services. The independent community LTC Pharmacy, whether in closed door pharmacy or in a combination pharmacy (retail and LTC), is the best solution in providing pharmacy care to these patients and to assist in decreasing hospitalizations and emergency department visits. We know that people who do not take their medications correctly – too much, too little, wrong time, wrong dose – frequently have complications that result in ER visits and hospitalizations. A new coalition, the Alliance for LTC Pharmacy at Home is developing strategies to define, promote and get these services paid by insurers (https://www.pharmacyathome.org/).
Your patients rely on you to dispense the right medication for their unique needs. The same level of care should be taken when it comes to your pharmacy’s financial health. We’ll explore strategic and effective ways to diversify your pharmacy’s revenue and ensure long-term success. So, grab your pad and pen, and get ready to lay a foundation for financial well-being for your pharmacy.
Diversification is important for several reasons. First and foremost, it helps protect your pharmacy against economic downturns and changes in the industry. By diversifying your revenue streams, you’ll be less reliant on any one source of income, which can help you weather any storms that come your way. Additionally, diversification can help you attract new customers and build loyalty with existing ones. By offering a wider range of products and services, you’ll be better able to meet the needs of your customers and keep them coming back to your pharmacy. Read More >>
A late-2021 analysis by Deloitte about “the future of the pharmacy” includes what may seem to be an obvious observation, but one that still warrants repeating: “Most people don’t realize that pharmacists can perform a range of complex clinical functions around therapy optimization, not just dispense pills.”
The analysis reaches the conclusion that, while the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for pharmacists to increase their role in providing hands-on patient care, there was no proportionate reduction in the time required to dispense medications. In fact, the article notes, dispensing demands have only increased, as reduced reimbursement and dispensing fees, along with increased direct and indirect renumeration (DIR) fees have caused many pharmacies to actively look to increase prescription volume.
Click here now to watch this webinar from AAP’s Preferred Partner, Enlivenhealth.
What do you need to consider when buying a pharmacy? Here is a guide to buying an independent pharmacy.
Whether buying your first business or tenth, acquiring an independent pharmacy presents unique challenges. Similar to any retail business, you’ll be performing your due diligence evaluating:
But when you buy an independent pharmacy, there are more dimensions to understand about each of these elements. They involve additional evaluation, regulation, legal, and financial guidance to determine what may or may not be a good buy for you. Below is a guide to some things to consider as you make your plans. Read More >>
Your patients are the lifeblood of your business. With an increased number of pharmacy alternatives popping up these days — including mail order pharmacies and online pharmacies — how can you ensure your patients stay your patients?
Did you know you can create a customer retention strategy through Medicare plan consultations that keeps your current customers engaged and happy? You can, and we’ll get to that shortly.
Before we understand how you can improve patient retention, however, let’s first look at what patient retention is and how you calculate your patient retention rate. Read More.
Starting a new pharmacy can seem like a daunting task, and it certainly is one. However, the road to opening a pharmacy that runs successfully from day one means making the right decisions long before the doors are opened. This article is meant to help independent pharmacists navigate the process of establishing a new pharmacy more easily and successfully.
There’s a well-known adage (often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, though there seems to be no evidence that he ever actually said it) that goes, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” When starting a new pharmacy, this is especially true. Therefore, the first thing to do is write out a business plan that includes the following items:
It’s back. Americans who thought they had successfully put COVID-19 in the rearview mirror are slowly coming to realize that the virus is not quite done with them. As of mid-July the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 7-day moving average of 124,000 daily new cases – a 15.7 percent increase over the prior week.
The surge in new cases, driven primarily by the Omicron BA.5 variant, has fueled discussion about reimposing mask mandates, and the possibility of additional booster shots. This, despite evidence the latest variant is more resistant to existing vaccines than previous strains. Read More.
Thirty years ago, pharmacies were just realizing the opportunities available to them in the long-term care space. At that time, long-term care pharmacy and pharmacists were servicing residents living in nursing homes (SNF) and that was the end of the story. In 2022, the healthcare spectrum has changed. Everyone is looking for a way to decrease healthcare costs and provide better care. Adverse drug reactions account for many hospital admissions – according to a recent meta-analysis, one in ten hospital admissions are for elderly patients.1 This makes pharmacists—more specifically, long-term care pharmacists— part of the solution for both costs and care; especially as the definition of appropriate long-term patients and services continue to be defined. Long-term care pharmacies can be a closed-door pharmacy servicing only long-term care residents or a long-term care pharmacy can be in a “combo” pharmacy where both retail and long-term care pharmacy are being offered under a retail license.
As you know, long-term care pharmacies provide services above and beyond what is delivered at the counter of a typical retail pharmacy for a walk-in patient. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has specific requirements for pharmacies servicing Medicare Part D beneficiaries in long term care facilities2. LTC pharmacies must have the capacity to provide specific drugs in units of use packaging, bingo cards, cassettes, unit dose or other special packaging commonly required by LTC facilities. They must also have services available twenty-four hours, seven days a week for emergency calls. These are but a couple of the services needed to take care of patients in a long-term care setting. Many pharmacies have added other services such as medication reconciliation, medication management, medication regimen reviews (MRRs), etc., in addition to the ones specified by CMS. Read More.
Expiring drug products are a problem in every pharmacy. But out-of-date pharmaceuticals don’t have to be an unmanageable business expense. The right business partner can turn expired medications into cash.
Medication returns vendors, more formally known as reverse distribution or reverse logistics providers, manage between 3.5% and 4% of all pharmaceutical sales, according to a 2018 estimate from the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) Research Foundation. That’s more than 120 million units annually, worth more than $13 billion, based on 2016 pharmaceutical product sales of $450 billion.
“Return Solutions comes to the pharmacy quarterly and goes through our entire stock to pull everything that is expired or set to expire in the next few months,” said Lisa Stahlman, RPh, pharmacy manager at the WellSpan Pharmacy in Dallastown, Pennsylvania. “A few weeks later, we get a check. I’m sure there are plenty of pharmacies that don’t use a returns company, but it’s so much more time-efficient and cost-efficient than trying to keep up with return policies and requirements for every manufacturer on your own.” Read More.