McKesson kicks off ideaShare 2014 with new pharmacy tools and programs
ORLANDO, Fla. — This year’s McKesson ideaShare 2014 kicked off with a bang as thousands of community pharmacy leaders flocked to Orlando, Fla., to participate in the annual event and seize the opportunities to grow in today’s changing healthcare landscape.
This year’s event attracted nearly 5,000 attendees, Mark Walchirk, president of McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical, told attendees during Monday’s Opening General Session. More than 1,000 pharmacies are represented, and more than 300 first-time attendees and over 600 exhibitors have arrived for the event.
The four-day conference brings together pharmacy owners and experts from around the country to interact, learn and inspire in an effort to support independent pharmacy and improve patient health. Attendees can access new pharmacy solutions, more than 30 accredited continuing education courses and networking events all focused on helping pharmacy owners seize opportunities to grow in today’s changing healthcare environment.
“We continue to see transformation in the market driven by the emphasis on positive patient outcomes, continued growth of preferred networks and a focus on retail pharmacies’ ability to impact Star ratings. McKesson has made significant investments to provide our customers with new programs and clinical services to help them better serve their patients, as well as grow and sustain their pharmacy business,” stated Mark Walchirk, president of McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical. “Community pharmacies play a critically important role in their patients’ journey toward better health, and McKesson ideaShare is one way we demonstrate our long-term commitment to being a strong and trusted business partner to community pharmacy.”
Highlights of this year’s ideaShare event include:
Clinical Care Tools to Improve Pharmacy Performance
The healthcare landscape is increasingly shifting toward a outcomes-based model, and for pharmacists that means they can impact quality measures. To help pharmacies, McKesson has developed several tools and solutions, including:
Adherence Performance Reporting: McKesson launched its new Adherence Performance Reporting solution, offered by McKesson Pharmacy Systems and Automation. Based on a pharmacy’s own pharmacy-management system data, the Adherence Performance Reporting solution provides the pharmacy with an adherence rating similar to the CMS Star ratings provided to health plans. The rating will help pharmacies better understand their adherence performance, as well as provide succinct, actionable ways for a pharmacy to improve their performance, such as a report on target patients who should be included in adherence outreach.
Measuring and Understanding Clinical Performance: McKesson offers pharmacies access to EQuIPP, an online information management platform that makes pharmacy performance data available.
Pharmacy Intervention Program: Offered through McKesson’s Sponsored Clinical Services Network, this program offers patients face-to-face behavioral coaching from a pharmacist. Interventions, sponsored by pharmaceutical manufacturers, focus on medication adherence and consistently drive an average increase of 1.5 incremental prescriptions per patient over 18 months.
LoyaltyScript@Retail: Introduced at McKesson ideaShare and available to pharmacies in the fall, LoyaltyScript@Retail from McKesson Patient Relationship Solutions is a timely, convenient way to provide patient savings and enhanced care via an online portal to co-pay savings offers for a growing list of brands.
Pharmaserv pharmacy-management system: McKesson Pharmacy Systems and Automation also is launching the largest release of its Pharmaserv pharmacy-management system in four years, with significant improvements, including:
- Enhanced appearance and functionality;
- New adherence program solutions;
- Improved support for the McKesson Generics Rebate Program; and
- Simplified billing and accounts receivable.
Parata PASSport to Adherence Program: Partnering with McKesson, Parata is offering a special promotional package for McKesson ideaShare attendees to support launches of a medication-adherence program with the purchase of a Parata PASS 208 packager. This medication management packaging solution organizes medications in a strip by date and time to help ensure meds are taken at the right time, every time.
Investing in the Future of Community Pharmacy
Understanding the importance of independent pharmacy, McKesson is clearly investing in the future and developing solutions to help pharmacies succeed.
“Just as we’re investing in operational excellence inside McKesson, we’re also investing in independent pharmacy. We believe that independent pharmacy is crucial to the continued success of McKesson. Independent pharmacy overall is a very big piece of McKesson,” Walchirk told attendees during Monday’s general session.
Such solutions include:
McKesson Reimbursement Advantage: In response to the changing market and the industry’s increased concentration on CMS Star ratings, AccessHealth has integrated pharmacy clinical performance data into the McKesson Reimbursement Advantage program. The new Pharmacy Performance Summary will allow MRA customers the opportunity to review their unique performance data, compare it to a benchmark and then identify areas for improvement. Other enhancements and improvements to the MRA program include access to EQuIPP data, Mirixa platform reporting and generic dispense rate/generic efficiency rate data.
McKesson OneStop Generics: McKesson’s OneStop Generics program delivers the power of sophisticated pricing tools and deep sourcing expertise with outstanding business solutions, which provides significant advantage to customers for selection, pricing and availability. Designed with the needs of the customer in mind, the program offers numerous opportunities to maximize consistency and profitability. The McKesson OneStop Generics team is offering two special promotions for customers attending the meeting.
McKesson Connect Community: The McKesson Connect Community is a fast-growing area within the McKesson Connect ordering website that lets pharmacists and owners connect with their peers. Through a virtual ideaShare environment within McKesson Connect Community, members can exchange best practices year-round. More than 1,500 members have joined since McKesson ideaShare 2013, nearly doubling membership over the past year.
Physician Outreach Program: To help pharmacists build relationships with healthcare professionals in their community, McKesson’s Physician Outreach Program provides physician-specific data on more than 1.5 million prescribers and includes other revenue stream opportunities, including 340B entities, nursing homes and home health agency locations. The data helps identify high-opportunity prescribers and determines the best mix of services to offer to successfully market their pharmacy and attract new patients. The tool also helps pharmacists save time by providing access to prescriber information including DEA and NPI numbers. This year, McKesson