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© Copyright 2000 Rogers Media. The following article first appeared in the March 2001 edition of
BENEFITS CANADA magazine.
Pharmacists are talking. Are you listening?
Pharmacists can make a difference to the bottom line of your drug plan.
By Ruth Hanley
What a concept--pharmacists and insurers working together to develop solutions to their common problems.
Representatives from pharmacy and third-party payers came together at a forum in December, convened by several
pharmacy associations, to do some "creative complaining." Sounds like it should have been standing room
only--yet I'm told that some third-party invitees didn't show up.
Did the no-shows think that everything is so hunky-dorey in the drug delivery system that nothing needs to
be improved? If so, I've got news for them.
There are problems galore: like drug plans that don't publicize changes they make to their plan, either to
their employees/clients or to the pharmacies who have to deal with the fallout from those changes. Like
drug plan cards that don't follow a standardized format (imagine what would happen if every credit card and
every debit card from every bank and trust company had its own system--no more simple swipe and sign!).
Maybe the no-shows thought: "Who cares? Someone should tell those pharmacists to stop complaining." Well,
consider this: Quebec pharmacists are so fed up with their provincial government, they recently said they
would no longer deal with administrative problems caused by the provincial drug plan. So they stopped
"complaining." But imagine the volume of calls the drug plan is getting from its clients!
But solving administrative problems is the least of it--by attending forums like this one, you get to
connect with people who can make a big difference to the health of both your employees and your bottom
line. An initiative by Toronto pharmacists for the Municipality of Metro Toronto, for example, saved the
city's drug plan $200,000 in one year even though "employer support for the program . . . was minimal,"
according to the final report. The report also estimated that a mandatory trial prescription system could
have increased the savings by another 80%.
Pharmacists are implementing programs to help people control their blood pressure, their diabetes, their
asthma--reducing the risk that the employee will need time off work and more complex drugs later because of
complications from these problems. Wouldn't you rather have pharmacists spend their time on initiatives
like this, rather than scratching their heads over the latest indecipherable error message from the
insurer's database?
Consider this: In a survey by Pharmacy Post last year, 80% of pharmacists said their workload had
increased over the past three years because of third-party claims processing, and 66% of those said the
level of care they can provide to patients with private plans has suffered as a result.
Co-operation means a win-win solution for everyone. So for those of you who attended the
seminar--congratulations on your foresight. And for those of you who didn't show up--what are you waiting
for?
Ruth Hanley is managing editor of Pharmacy Practice. Its sister publication, Pharmacy
Post, is producing Solutions in Drug Plan Management, to be distributed with next month's issue
of BENEFITS CANADA.
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