Thrifty White Pharmacy is improving patient outcomes through new diabetes pilot

PLYMOUTH, Minn. — Thrifty White Pharmacy is making a significant difference in patient lives through its new diabetes care program, which places recipients into a medsync program replete with comprehensive medication therapy management sessions, patient disease management goal setting and follow through. Thrifty White also offers a compliance packaging service, HealthyPack Rx, that helps organize and manage a patient's medication.



"The diabetes program allows us to connect with that diabetes patient on a deeper level," Ben Shanahan, regional sales manager, Thrifty White Pharmacy, told Drug Store News. "Ultimately the goal is to improve the total health outcome of that patient," he said. "Where our sweet spot is, [it's] improving and/or increasing the adherence to medications, ensuring they're on the right medication and layering what's important to [the patient] from a goal standpoint, so working with them and their care team to align on the two or three goals they've identified that will really engage them to improve their care of diabetes."



Thrifty White recently introduced the dedicated diabetes pilot across 20 markets with plans to roll out the program to all stores  in October. As part of that meeting, Thrifty White will be doing a deep dive into the diabetes disease state in an effort to cch and manage patients with diabetes. "The overall feedback has been positive," Shanahan said. The program has successfully intervened in the diabetes care of these patients, many of whom were navigating their care on their own.



The Thrifty White Pharmacy diabetes care program follows diabetes management guidelines set forth by Minnesota Community Measurements, which is comparable to CMS' STAR ratings, Shanahan said.

Suggesting the incorporation of such recommendations as a statin therapy into the diabetes care program and other measures have made a difference, Shanahan added. "It wasn't the primary end-point, but we did see a reduction in A1C [of participants], similar to what you would see when you get somebody under control on their medications," he added.



With the early successes of the program, Thrifty White has attracted the attention of local employers. "The [outreach] focus early on had been just with our provider partners," Shanahan said. "As we start to see some of that [positive outcome] uptake within our communities, we have had employers engage with us to talk about how pharmacy can play a role in a role in [helping to] manage the healthcare cost."



This program success, and others like it, also is beginning to attract the attention of commercial payers, added Jeremy Faulks, director specialty pharmacy, Thrifty White Pharmacy. "The commercial markets are starting to understand the value of pharmacy a little better, [and now] commerical plan designs are starting to pay for more MTM-type services," he said. "We're positioning our pharmacists, leveraging their critical skills, to practice at the top of their license [and] attack that area as it continues to open up and the industry moves in that direction."