Walchirk emphasizes embracing change in rapidly expanding community pharmacy industry
ORLANDO, Fla. – Addressing 3,000 independent pharmacy attendees representing more than 1,000 pharmacies at the McKesson ideaShare 2014, Mark Walchirk, president of McKesson’s U.S. pharmaceutical unit outlined the myriad of opportunities open to community pharmacy today, and how McKesson is investing in its independent pharmacy offerings to help those independents realize every one of those opportunities.
“The pace of change right now in healthcare is as rapid as I’ve experienced in over 25 years,” Walchirk said. “With all that change, it creates both challenges and opportunities,” he said. “We feel very confident that to succeed, McKesson and independent pharmacies have to engage, adapt and take action.”
There are a number of growth factors driving that pace of change, Walchirk said, including the healthcare reform that’s bringing more covered patients into stores; an aging population; growth in specialty and generics; new drug launches; and adherence opportunities. “Adherence opportunities is something I have a personal passion around,” Walchirk said, noting that between 20% and 30% of prescriptions are never filled and half of all prescriptions are not adhered to. “If you can improve adherence by 10%, 20%, 30% in this country, what a huge opportunity that is for growth in prescription pharmaceuticals, and frankly what a huge opportunity that is for the health of our country, to ensure that they take the medications as they’re supposed to based on the therapy.”
But there are challenges, too, Walchirk noted. Challenges such as the growth in preferred networks, reimbursement pressures, a consolidating marketplace and the intense competition for patients.
Walchirk outlined a plan to focus on three key areas to promote independent pharmacy’s success: increase access to those preferred networks, increase traffic in the stores, and drive efficiencies and expand the business opportunities.
Take preferred networks, for example. “Going forward, that’s going to become more and more focused around shifting to performance based networks,” he said. “What will happen in these limited preferred networks is, those stores that perform at a high clinical level associated with Star ratings, or some other metrics in the future, will be able to be part of that network, and perhaps, those stores that are at the bottom of the performance scale will be left out of the network. Quite frankly, that, I believe, is a huge opportunity for independent pharmacy. Because, let’s be honest, it’s difficult for an independent pharmacy owner to compete on a purely cost basis. But it’s not difficult for an independent pharmacy to compete as it relates to the relationship you have with your patients and the opportunity to improve clinical outcomes.”
To help independent pharmacy get there, McKesson has formed initiatives like its “Know your Number” campaign where pharmacies are encouraged to know their Star ratings through EQuIPP, an online information management platform that helps pharmacists measure and understand clinical performance. McKesson also has held 100 town hall meetings across the country to inform independents of their Star ratings. “It’s absolutely critical that you understand this crucial part of reimbursement and how it will impact your business going forward,” Walchirk said
There are also a number of tools available through McKesson to help increase foot traffic at the stores, including Health Mart’s regional advertising suite and the physician outreach program. “These are specific tools that we have to increase foot traffic in your store,” Walchirk said.
McKesson also is making strides to improve efficiency across its generic business. “I will assure you that we’re very focused on making sure we have a complete portfolio, that we’re very competitive on our generic pricing and that we continue to drive sourcing benefits, building scale in our generic purchasing, so that we can help bring that scale and better pricing to all of you.”
Following Walchirk on the stage was Elizabeth Estes, chief idea officer at Ebus Innovation, to speak to ideaShare attendees about good innovation. There are three kinds of innovation, she noted, including disruptive innovation that creates a market where before there were none (e.g., digital medicine), sustaining innovation that augments an existing market (e.g., Google and Novartis’ commitment to develop the contact lens blood-glucose meter) and everyday innovation (e.g., the kind of innovation independent pharmacies employ everyday).
As an example, Bretton and Stay Walberg of Jamestown Pharmacy invested in McKesson’s medication packaging solution and then marketed that solution to their community as a complimentary convenience program. That convenience program, branded Care-Fill, netted the community pharmacy 600 new patients and increased their prescription count by 57%.
Finally, McKesson’s Frank Starn, president of global sourcing, and Steve Courtman, president of Health Mart, welcomed Hashim Zaibak of Hayat Pharmacy to the stage as the 2014 recipient of McKesson’s Pharmacy of the Year award.