Monitor Pharmacy sold to CVS, 7,000 customer files to be transferred

It is a well known fact that Rx prices, particularly generics, are going up .. some generic as much as 1000%.. It is also a know fact that PBM (Prescription Benefit Managers) are dragging their feet in updating their database for 30-60-90 days in paying pharmacies of these new higher prices …

From this article : He said about 7.5 percent of his business’ drug transactions are done at a loss. He breaks even on about 17 percent of transactions.  “You can have the best customer service in the world, but when you do a prescription and lose $300 on it, you can’t stay in business,” he said.

CVS Health is a PBM.. it is also the second largest PDP for Medicare Part D… you know the group of people ( seniors/disabled) that take a disproportionate number of prescriptions. So could the tactics of CVS’ PBM business… helping to making their competitors UNPROFITABLE and then they come in and buy the competitor out.  Isn’t that similar to what Standard Oil did.. that caused Congress to pass The Sherman Antitrust Act.. to prevent cannibalistic business practices and anti-competitive business behaviors by large companies ?

http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2015/06/monitor_pharmacy_closing_after.html

MONITOR TOWNSHIP, MI — For decades, Walter Hagen has picked up prescriptions, gifts and the newspaper from Monitor Pharmacy.

“I like the small town pharmacies,” he said. “They’re fast and friendly. I feel comfortable coming here.”

Come July, though, Hagen and thousands of other area customers won’t be picking up prescriptions from the nearly 50-year-old family-owned pharmacy.

After being approached by national chains for years, Michael and Tammy Bouckaert decided to sell the pharmacy side of their business to the new CVS Pharmacy being built a mile east at Midland Road and Euclid Avenue.

Pointing to stiff competition from several national pharmacy chains that now surround his business and changes to health insurance regulations that make it tough for independent pharmacies to turn a profit on prescription drugs, Michael Bouckaert said it was time to take the deal.

“I grew up here and the people who come in here everyday feel like my family,” he said. “It’s bittersweet, but at some point, we needed to make this business decision.”

Bouckaert declined to comment on terms of the deal.

While the pharmacy side of the business is slated to close July 10, the spirits and gifts section is to remain open. The store is going to be renamed “B’s,” after the owner’s last name. The store won’t sell over-the-counter drugs and health and beauty products anymore, but it’s going to expand its beer, wine and spirits, and boutique gifts selection.

On July 11, files from the estimated 7,000 pharmacy customers are to be transferred to the new CVS Pharmacy. If customers don’t change their preferred pharmacy with their healthcare providers, all prescriptions will automatically go to the new CVS, Bouckaert said.

A majority of the pharmacy’s employees have been hired to work at the new CVS, he added.

Business challenge

Within 2 miles of Monitor Pharmacy is the new CVS, a Rite Aid and a Walgreens pharmacy. Just a short distance north are pharmacies inside Kroger, Meijer and Kmart stores.

It’s tough to compete against the national chains, Bouckaert said, but the bigger challenge is the current state of healthcare.

He says his generic drug costs have skyrocketed as high as 30 percent in the past year. Healthcare regulations have barred him from price matching national chain drug prices. And insurance reimbursements, in some cases, are causing him to lose money or break even on drug transactions.

“Absorbing the drug costs has been one of our biggest issue,” Bouckaert said.

He said about 7.5 percent of his business’ drug transactions are done at a loss. He breaks even on about 17 percent of transactions.

The trend is being experienced by the nearly 23,000 independent pharmacies across the nation, said Kevin Schweers, a spokesman for the National Community Pharmacists Association.

“Insurance reimbursements is an enormous problem for community pharmacies,” he said. “The costs for some of these drugs can go up 1,000 percent overnight, but the payment they receive from the drug insurance plan stays at the same rate.”

According to a January 2015 survey by the association asking members to address their biggest concerns, drug-reimbursement was at the top of the list, Schweers said.

Pharmacies can appeal reimbursement decisions to the insurance company, but it’s rare to see a retroactive reimbursement, Schweer said.

That’s another reason why Bouckaert has decided to sell his pharmacy business. He has written several appeals over the past few years on top of filing a growing pile of regulatory paperwork.

“Sometimes I feel like a highly qualified secretary buried in paperwork,” he said.

History

Monitor Pharmacy was opened by Bouckaert’s parents Don and Jean Bouckaert in 1966. At the turn of the millennium, Don Bouckaert handed the business over to his son.

Don Bouckaert died in October 2004 and his wife died a few months later.

“Everyone knew my parents and they knew everyone who came into the store,” Michael Bouckaert said. “From the very beginning, this place was focused on customer service.”

It’s always been located at the same corner, but started in a smaller building before expanding in 1977 into the larger facility it operates out of today.

The business has always offered gifts and wine, beer and spirits, in addition to its pharmacy, but in 2005, it expanded its boutique business, offering jewelry and clothing.

“It’s always very friendly in here and very fast,” said Lorna Dietlein, who has done business at the pharmacy for at least 15 years. “It’s sad to see it go.”

Industry trends

Randy Tomke worked at Monitor Pharmacy as a high school student in the 1970s and now owns Maplewood Pharmacy, a business that’s in its 27^th year on Johnson Street on Bay City’s East Side.

He says retirement feels closer every day as his business deals with the same issues as Monitor and the thousands of other independents across the country.

“It’s the state of health care,” Tomke said. “Things have gotten worse in the last couple of years, especially everything going on with reimbursements and the huge increases in prices.”

He says customer service has been the lifeblood of independent pharmacies for decades, but healthcare regulations have made it nearly impossible to stay in business.

“You can have the best customer service in the world, but when you do a prescription and lose $300 on it, you can’t stay in business,” he said.

There were nearly 25,000 independent pharmacies in 2000, according to the NCPA. That number has dropped steadily by about 2,000 pharmacies over the past decade.

As customers were checking out on Tuesday at Monitor Pharmacy, news of its closing was the topic of conversation. Some talked about how they had been coming to the business for years. Others asked where they need to go next.

The teller assured them most of their employees are heading to the CVS that’s a month away from opening and that the same smiling faces will be there to take care of them.

Filed under: General Problems