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By Kyle McCormick, PharmD
Pharmacy management systems are not built for the simplicity of the cost-plus model. The dynamics of the pharmacy market have driven software vendors to optimize insurance billing over creating relationship management platforms — the core of pharmacy care.
Of the dispensing systems out there, PioneerRx definitely has some of the best tools for patient management. Pharmacy software needs to balance patient management and pharmacy workflow. However, the optimal flow of a cost-plus pharmacy still has some major differences from that of a traditional insurance model. Here are some of the ways Blueberry Pharmacy uses PioneerRx to operate a cost-plus pharmacy.
- Setting price schedules — PioneerRx makes it pretty easy to set cost-plus pricing, whether using acquisition cost, NADAC, or other common “cost” markers. Within the price schedules our non-member price structure looks as follows:
2. Attaching member/non-member third parties — We link these price schedules to patients via third party assignments. If a patient is a member, we attach the “Member” third party to their profile as “Primary”. This helps keep track of who our members are as well as ensures patients’ prices are calculated correctly.
3. Assigning categories — One of the perks of membership at Blueberry Pharmacy is 15% off all OTCs, gifts, and supplements. We enable easy tracking of who gets this benefit, along with easy tabulation of the discount at point-of-sale, through the use of Categories. Within the category settings, we turn on a ‘15% off’ trigger that once the patient is selected at the point-of-sale, automatically applies the discount.
There are many other ways we’ve used PioneerRx to complement and enhance our workflow, from enabling better patient relationship management to metrics reporting. We look forward to sharing more tips in the near future.
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