5 Pharmacy Cheat Codes for Better Business Decisions

Sometimes running a pharmacy feels like there are a million decisions being made every day.

Some are big. Some are small. And some of the best business decisions are the little things that don't necessarily require a new program, a new employee or a major investment.

We've been fortunate to talk with a lot of pharmacy owners and operators, and we've picked up some simple strategies along the way that can have a meaningful impact on the business.

Think of these as five pharmacy “cheat codes” worth looking at before you make your next business decision.

1. Look at your Humana EQUIPP report and work it.

A little effort can go a long way when it comes to optimizing your Humana payments.

Humana provides pharmacies with information about patients who have opportunities around adherence and other measures. For some pharmacies, addressing just a handful of these patients can have a meaningful impact on their bottom line.

The mistake is assuming the report is just another report.

It isn't. It's a to-do list.

Look at the patients identified. Establish a workflow for your team. Assign someone to own it. Follow up.

If you have the opportunity to improve the health outcome for your patient while also improving the economics of your pharmacy, that's a pretty good combination.

2. Don't go to Costco for drugs.

We all do it.

You see a great deal at Costco and think, “I'm going to save a ton of money buying this in bulk.”

Then six months later you're staring at half of it still sitting in your pantry.

The same thing can happen in your pharmacy.

It can be tempting to load up on a drug because the acquisition price is substantially lower than what you're seeing elsewhere. But a great acquisition price doesn't make a great business decision if the product sits on your shelf until it expires.

Before taking advantage of a big deal, understand your inventory velocity and cash flow.

How quickly do you actually use the product?

How much cash are you tying up?

What is the expiration date?

Saving 20% on something you don't use isn't saving 20%.

Sometimes the best deal is the product you don't have to carry.

3. Use your IVR and bag stuffers to do some of the marketing for you.

Marketing and sales aren't always a pharmacy's comfort zone.

But there are certain messages that are genuinely helpful to your customers and valuable to your business.

Flu shots. Open enrollment reminders. Medication synchronization. Vaccinations. New services. Refill reminders.

You don't necessarily need to have a salesperson standing at the counter pitching these things.

Use the tools you already have.

Your IVR, bag stuffers, text messaging and other customer touchpoints can create subtle reminders that reach people at the right time.

The key is to make the message useful.

If you're reminding a customer about something that benefits both them and your pharmacy, that's not being pushy. That's good communication.

4. Do you really still need to count by four?

There are some pharmacists and technicians who can count pills so fast that they could probably give a counting machine a run for its money.

But speed isn't the only consideration.

At some point, every pharmacy needs to ask whether investing in automation makes sense for the volume and staffing model of the business.

How much time are your pharmacists and technicians spending on repetitive counting?

What could they be doing instead?

What happens when you're short-staffed?

And what's the cost of that labor over time?

Automation doesn't call in sick.

It doesn't take PTO.

It doesn't quit.

It doesn't need a lunch break.

That doesn't mean every pharmacy needs a counting machine tomorrow. It means you should look at the numbers and determine when automation makes sense for your pharmacy.

Sometimes the best technology investment isn't about replacing people.

It's about allowing your people to spend more time doing the things that actually require people.

5. Make delivery work for you—not the other way around.

We hear this question all the time:

“How can pharmacies afford to deliver?”

It's a legitimate question.

Margins are already under pressure, so why take on the additional labor, vehicle and operational costs associated with delivery?

But we've heard something interesting from some of the pharmacies that do delivery particularly well.

Delivery doesn't necessarily have to be an operational burden.

It can actually be a tool for efficiency—if you put the right parameters around it.

For example, look at your delivery patients and see which ones can be enrolled in medication synchronization. If you can consolidate multiple prescriptions into one monthly delivery instead of making several trips, you've immediately improved the economics.

You're also not DoorDash.

You don't necessarily need to deliver every OTC or PRN item just because someone asks.

Establish reasonable parameters around what qualifies for delivery.

And look at your routes.

If your driver is crisscrossing town all day, you're probably leaving efficiency on the table. Group deliveries by geography and create routes that make sense.

Delivery can be a service that strengthens your relationship with the customer without becoming a service that drains your margin.

The Best “Cheat Codes” Usually Aren't Complicated

None of these ideas are revolutionary.

That's kind of the point.

Sometimes improving your pharmacy doesn't require adding another complicated program or chasing the newest trend.

It requires looking at the things you're already doing and asking:

“Is there a smarter way to do this?”

At Pharmacy Marketplace, that's how we think about purchasing intelligence as well.

The goal isn't to give pharmacy owners more things to manage.

It's to help them make better decisions with the information they already have—whether that's understanding purchasing opportunities, managing inventory, protecting contract economics or identifying where money may be getting left on the table.

Running a pharmacy is complicated enough.

If you can find a few simple ways to save time, protect cash flow and improve profitability, those small decisions can add up to a big difference.

Sometimes you don't need another program. You just need to play the game a little smarter.