Health Mart Annual Meeting aims to help level the playing field

ORLANDO, Fla. — “You have to be willing to do what your competition is not willing to do.” That was one of the key messages from motivational speaker and Olympic speed skier Vince Poscente, which also tied into the message Steve Courtman, president of Health Mart, and Tony Willoughby, Health Mart chief pharmacist, had for attendees at Tuesday morning’s Health Mart Annual Meeting.

“Reimbursement pressures, scale advantages, narrowing networks and technology integration continue to make it harder to compete,” said Courtman.

To help level that playing field, Health Mart has invested in programs designed to save their members time and money. “McKesson is very well positioned to continue driving value in generics. And we will continue to invest in Health Mart in all aspects of the business, including generics, to enable Health Marts to compete,” Courtman said. “Purchasing Advantage is another scale program from McKesson, which offers discounts on prescription vials, ADP payroll services, Pharmacist’s Letter, APhA membership, Staples, Sprint Cellular, and a whole host of other programs that we have.”

Courtman also talked about Health Mart’s investment in regional advertising. “Attracting patients, we look at this as very much a one-two punch,” he said. “You have to have access to those preferred networks first, then once you have access to those preferred networks you need to get the patients into the store, and that’s where we can help with the local marketing support program.  One of the key things is to give you the tools and support to market your pharmacy your way.”

Health Mart pharmacies have access to the Marketing Hub, Health Mart’s marketing portal designed to give owners the flexibility to promote their specific service offerings and distinct strengths, attract new patients and reinforce their value to existing patients. The Marketing Hub allows owners to easily access time-saving integrated campaigns, or select from more than 200 new traditional, digital and social media marketing tools.

“However, saving time and money alone is not going to level the playing field,  we still need to deliver quality patient care,” Courtman said.

Health Mart pharmacists excel at delivering patient care, most notably the kind of patient care that gets tracked in the Star ratings. Health Mart pharmacists have ensured that 85,000 patients are adherent to their cholesterol medications, and 97,000 patients are adherent to their blood-pressure medicines because of Health Mart pharmacists. “You are truly building healthier communities, and now we have the data to prove it,” Willoughby said. “There are a certain set of providers in this room who are in the top 20% of all pharmacies, not just independents. Almost a fourth of our Health Mart members are in the top 20% of at least one Star metric.”

“The industry is shifting to performance,” Courtman said. “It is vital that Health Mart pharmacies get credit for top 20% patient outcomes. Networks are being designed based upon this clinical performance. We intend to lead this transition from counting pills to clinical care.”

“Plans want to build against that network of pharmacies that help them improve those measures,” Willoughby added.

Out of that top 20%, the majority of those pharmacy owners employed medication therapy management (MTM) and medication synchronization as two tools to help them reach their performance goals.

For Health Mart pharmacists interested in implementing MTM and med synch programs in their own stores, but they’re not sure where to start, Health Mart announced a new program available to Health Mart owners that will knock down those barriers. Health Mart recently developed an exclusive program with Pharmacy Development Services (PDS) to help members improve patient outcomes and quality-measure performance, with a focus on behavioral coaching, medication synchronization and comprehensive medication reviews, as well as such intervention tools as refill reminders.

“Investing in a medication synchronization program can deliver 2.8 more refills per prescription, per patient, per year,” Courtman said.

Another one of the tools being piloted by Health Mart is the “My New Pharmacy Navigator” program. “This is a step-by-step guide for opening up a new store,” Courtman said. “There are two key components to this: if you haven’t opened up a store before and need to know the steps necessary associated with HR, marketing, licenses, and more, then it has the content. “For those owners who have opened up new stores and are multi-store owners, there is a customizable schedule to help you.”