This showed up on the Indiana Pharmacists Alliance FaceBook page today
Telepharmacy was a topic of conversation at the January State Board of Pharmacy meeting. A presentation was given by an Indiana pharmacist who is interested in bringing this to Indiana. Please comment and let us know how your thoughts on this.
Does this fall under the same type of concept that when the BOP’s increase the Tech/RPh ratio .. so that RPH’s can have more time to interact with pts and help them manage their disease states ?
Most of the RPH’s that I have talked to.. a increase in Tech/Rph ratio means that any third Rph’s overlap hours.. gets decreased or eliminated all together and may get a increase in tech hours… but you can almost be assured that the reduced expenses of the third Rph will be greater than the costs of adding techs !
Unless you haven’t noticed ..the typical chain drug store is now your modern day “convenience store”.. in fact today’s typical chain store is larger than the chain grocery store that I worked for ..just out of high school…
If such a concept is approved.. could we see the chain store industry … keeping a RPH on duty for 40-50 hrs/wk and then keep the Rx dept open as a “Telepharmacy”.. staffed with a couple of techs being tele-supervised by RPH’s at one of the chain’s remaining 24 hrs store ?
The last I saw… NCPA stated that >50% of the successful independent pharmacies are in towns < 20 K… I know that there is no collusion going on between the chains drug stores and the PBM industries.. restricted networks is all about profits — I mean saving patients money … and besides collusion is illegal.. and we know that none of the major chain store chains would violate any laws in the search of increasing profits.. We know this.. because each one that gets hit with a multi-million fine does so without admitting any wrong doing.
Imagine this… a chain store goes into a small town.. where there 18 K sq ft store would not show a profit… buy out a small indy pharmacy… shove in a Telepharmacy configuration… hire a tech or two.. and all of a sudden… this area.. has a “pharmacy” that is now part of the multitude of restrictive networks and the chains turns a low/ marginally profitable independent pharmacy into a Telepharmacy that contributes to their bottom line.
There are a number of “plants” where some of the large chain stores … are .. putting in pharmacies for the employees of the plant.. imagine how much more profitable these Rx depts could be. if they could be ran by techs.. and a RPH sitting in front of some computer screen… hundreds of miles away.
The number of places where a Telepharmacy could be placed.. is quite extensive… large physician practices, rural grocery stores.. all you would need is a few 100 sqft and internet/VOIP service. Throw in auto refill from a highly automated central pharmacy.. and these Telepharmacies may need no more than one tech on premises most of the time.
And what if a pt doesn’t like the system… well.. being under ACA/Obamacare and all the chains working under the same restrictive network protocol & reimbursement… pts will just have to learn to adjust.
Filed under: General Problems
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