Giving pharmacists solutions to enhance patient outcomes

ORLANDO, Fla. — Recognizing the important role that community pharmacy plays, McKesson has long focused on providing solutions to help pharmacists improve patient adherence and enhance patient outcomes as evidenced by programs and solutions offered through McKesson Patient Relationship Solutions (MPRS). However, the growing understanding of pharmacists’ impact on adherence and its importance in today’s evolving healthcare landscape has validated pharmacy based solutions as McKesson bolsters its portfolio of tools.

“We realized many years ago the need to have a business within McKesson that focused on driving patient adherence and enabling the effective use of the medications as they are prescribed by physicians,” Derek Rago, VP and GM of MPRS, told Drug Store News. “When I fast-forward to where we are as a business today, our vision is still to drive, lead and deliver comprehensive adherence solutions.”

Today, MPRS implements award-winning programs designed to reach patients and drive acquisition and adherence via such solutions as co-pay savings and sample programs, behavioral-based patient engagement, print and digital communications, contact center support and outreach, and pharmacy-based patient-support programs.

As part of the ongoing effort, McKesson built out its Sponsored Clinical Services Network, a patient support network that provides member pharmacies exclusive access to a suite of patient-centric offerings. This includes the flagship Pharmacy Intervention Program, which expands patient access to one-on-one behavioral coaching from retail pharmacists. This manufacturer-sponsored program initially kicked off with a focus on diabetes and has since broadened to include COPD, pain management and cardiovascular disease, among other conditions. But not only has the focus broadened, so has the network. Today, the network is comprised of about 3,600 pharmacies, both chains and independents — and it is growing.

“I think the true value proposition, and what is resonating so significantly now as you watch the expectations of pharmacists change, is that this is actually a way for them to support positive behavior change in patients,” said Stacey Irving, VP of Sponsored Clinical Services.

What is especially exciting, said Irving, is that the Pharmacy Intervention Program was able to put into practice what was once a nascent concept and drive results that truly translate into what is happening today within health care.

“There is no doubt in anyone’s mind now that pharmacy can have a meaningful impact on adherence. It is now about how do we apply it in the marketplace so that we impact a broader base of patients?” Irving said.

In fact, a look at the results speaks volumes about the program’s success to date. According to Irving, for our diabetes portfolio of programs, patients who received face-to-face behavioral coaching showed an average of 1.5 to 2 incremental refills with adherence increasing approximately 30%.  Even more impressive, our studies showed sustained adherence impact for these patients through the 18 month mark, demonstrating true health behavior change.

Inspired by the success of its pharmacy-based adherence programs and taking a page from its eCoupon strategy for physicians, MPRS has now developed LoyaltyScript@Retail. Expected to be available to pharmacies in the fall, LoyaltyScript@Retail from MPRS will provide pharmacists with easy, in-store access via an online portal to co-pay savings offers for a growing list of brands.

“Like the Pharmacy Intervention Program, it really leverages our deep pharmacy relationships and technologies; specifically, our McKesson Connect platform, which is the platform that many of our pharmacy partners utilize to purchase their products,” Rago said. “We integrated that technology and that platform to stay within their workflow to create an opportunity for our pharmacists to see if there’s a coupon available for that patient at the point when they are going to dispense the medication.”

How it works: McKesson uploads a coupon, and then the pharmacist can access the portal, select the brand, print the coupon and then adjudicate the coupon as they would if a patient had come in with a physical co-pay card.

“We are really excited about it. It continues to feed into our strategy of having clear channel optimization and leveraging our pharmacy partners and providing value to the pharmacy and, of course, value to the patients,” Rago said.

Added Irving: “As pharmacy tries to address adherence barriers, there’s no doubt that financial barriers exist whether it’s the primary abandonment of the first time they ever hear of the cost or over time. So, I think it is a great opportunity to leverage the pharmacy and their staff to recognize those moments and to be able to do something above and beyond for their patient.”