Health Mart launches new products and services to enhance clinical performance and improve marketing
ORLANDO, Fla. — Tuesday morning’s Health Mart Annual Meeting provided franchisee members with an overview of recent investments in the franchise and McKesson’s plans to “help level the playing field” for independent pharmacies through new programs that improve patient outcomes and pharmacy efficiency, as well as more flexible and local marketing efforts.
“Health Mart is dedicated to help level the playing field for independent pharmacies while fueling their growth by giving our members solutions and support in two key areas: improving adherence and patient outcomes to gain access to networks, and attracting more patients to the stores with marketing and prescriber outreach. This is about giving Health Mart owners the flexibility to run their business their way, and to help them and their patients save time and money,” said Steve Courtman, president of Health Mart.
McKesson continues to provide Health Mart franchisees with programs that help independent pharmacies get credit for the quality care provided and maintain access to networks; flexible marketing support to attract patients into stores; flexible engagement so Health Mart pharmacies can run their businesses their way; and clinical services, pharmacy management and technology solutions to increase revenue and efficiencies.
According to Health Mart, it will continue to focus on enhancing clinical performance through a new coaching program with Pharmacy Development Services (PDS) and other clinical efforts, including:
Measuring and Understanding Clinical Performance: “One component of Health Mart’s overall pharmacy performance strategy, the ‘Know Your Number’ town hall meetings have focused on building understanding of what’s happening around value-based reimbursement, why the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s Five-Star Quality Ratings are important and how they are beginning to impact access,” Tony Willoughby, Health Mart’s chief pharmacist, told DSN. “This first round of nearly 100 town hall meetings also has touched on how Health Mart pharmacies can improve their stores’ performance to drive inclusion in limited pharmacy networks.” More town hall meetings are planned for the fall. Health Mart also has partnered with Pharmacy Quality Solutions (PQS) to provide franchisees access to the PQS EQuIPP pharmacy performance data so they can understand their current performance on medication-related Medicare Part D Star ratings measures. To help members then improve their quality-measure performance, Health Mart’s pharmacist-led training team has developed Health Mart University courses and other tools to help owners and staff implement activities that drive adherence, reduce medication risks and close medication gaps.
Improving Clinical Performance: Health Mart recently developed an exclusive program with 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.
Pharmacy Intervention Program: This award-winning program offers patients face-to-face behavioral coaching from a Health Mart pharmacist. Interventions focus on medication adherence and consistently drive an average increase of 1.5 incremental prescriptions per patient over 18 months.
Health Mart also added more flexibility to its Local Marketing Support program at McKesson ideaShare 2014 in an effort to make marketing efforts more local. Designed to help pharmacies attract new patients while retaining current customers, some of the initiatives include:
Local Marketing Support: According to Courtman, the franchise continues to invest in regional advertising and provide a strong marketing offering to support independent pharmacies. Health Mart pharmacies have access to the Marketing Hub, Health Mart’s comprehensive and easy-to-use marketing portal designed to give owners the flexibility to promote their specific service offerings and distinct strengths. The Marketing Hub allows owners to easily access time-saving integrated campaigns or select from a catalog of more than 200 new traditional, digital and social media marketing tools, including promotions; email templates; social media content; and “do it for me” TV, radio, community outreach and PR. Health Mart also recently launched:
- Vehicle wraps;
- Event rental kits;
- Promotional items;
- New campaigns focused on key pharmacy opportunities such as flu shot services; and
- More than 100 new flexible templates.
Your Pharmacy Online: Health Mart continues to expand Your Pharmacy Online, a consumer-facing customizable pharmacy website and mobile application that provides Health Mart patients with convenient, on-the-go prescription-management options. Your Pharmacy Online offers pharmacies a suite of services and cost-effective tools to support patient medication adherence and positive health outcomes while driving prescription refills. The newest features include:
- Pill reminders to help increase medication adherence;
- Multi-pharmacy website that allows pharmacies with multiple locations to create a central web page with links to affiliated stores;
- EnterpriseRx integration to improve workflow efficiency with refill requests going directly into the pharmacy system and provide patients additional real-time prescription information, such as refills remaining, prescription history, last refill date and drug name and dosage; and
- An updated mobile website has the same look and feel as the mobile app.
Other marketing initiatives included Health Mart’s sponsorship of the 2014 Health Mart Healthy Living Tour, a nationwide bus tour that will make stops at more than 130 Health Mart stores and communities across the United States. The mobile screening vehicle provides health education and free health screenings to help identify people at risk for a variety of health conditions. The bus was on-site and open for visitors to view at McKesson ideaShare.