NCPA 2024 Wrap-up: Pharmacy Takeaways and Tips

Join PQS for a mini-roundtable discussion about the 2024 NCPA Annual Convention and a recap of our interactions with pharmacists on the show floor about EQUIPP Enhanced Services.  The NCPA event was held the last weekend in October in Columbus, OH.

David Simoneaux, Sr. Communications Specialist, interviews Nick Dorich, Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts and Mital Patel, Quality Programs Engagement Specialist about their experiences with NCPA attendees and the pharmacist responses about using EQUIPP.

Chapters

• 0:50 Introduction
• 2:28 Why did PQS Attend?
• 3:57 What Were Attendees Interested in Talking About?
• 5:14 How are Pharmacies Responding to Enhance Services
• 7:40 What Pharmacists Want to See in EQUIPP in the Future
• 10:05 Tips from Pharmacists on Using EQUIPP
• 13:14 How to Contact EQUIPP with Questions
• 15:16 Closing

Transcript

00:00:02:00 - 00:00:24:13

Mital Patel

Everybody came by with lots of different questions. I would say one of the most common questions was, how do I get my team engaged in EQUIPP itself, and how can we utilize the platform to our best ability? So educating their teams on how they could complete the enhance services opportunities for their teams and how they can get every single person in the pharmacy itself involved was really exciting.

00:00:24:15 - 00:00:41:02

Mital Patel

We were able to teach how technicians can complete opportunities, how pharmacists can complete opportunities, and how they can also work simultaneously, to get those done and, you know, assess their patients as best as they could.

00:00:41:04 - 00:00:51:09

Voiceover

Welcome to the Pharmacy Quality Solutions Quality Corner Show. Buckle up and put your thinking cap on. The Quality Corner Show starts now.

00:00:51:11 - 00:01:21:16

David Simoneaux

Hello quality Corner show listeners, welcome to the PQS podcast where we focus on medication use, quality improvement and how we utilize how we can utilize pharmacists to improve patient health outcomes. My name is David Simoneaux. I am the senior communications specialist at PQS by Innovaccer, and I'm taking over hosting duties today so we can flip the script and interview Nick Dorich, who was our usual host who just happened to attend NCPA with another PQS teammate, Mital Patel.

00:01:21:18 - 00:01:42:19

David Simoneaux

This was last week. The event was also held in Columbus, Ohio. We're going to handle this as a mini roundtable, and I'll ask some questions to our team that attended, and we can talk about the excitement and buzz from NCPA Annual. So first, I'd like to do a quick background check with Nick and Mital, about your roles and PQS.

00:01:42:21 - 00:01:44:16

David Simoneaux

Nick, I'll let you start.

00:01:44:18 - 00:02:02:04

Nick Dorich

Yeah. Thanks, David. And it's, it's weird being on this side of the podcast interview, but, my name is if you haven't listened to the podcast before, Nick Dortch, I'm the associate director of pharmacy accounts at PQS. I am a pharmacist by background, and my role at PQS, I oversee our team that works with all of our pharmacy clients.

00:02:02:04 - 00:02:10:14

Nick Dorich

That includes the many chain pharmacies as well as the independent pharmacies, which is what we're going to be focusing on for the purposes of today's podcast.

00:02:10:16 - 00:02:13:01

David Simoneaux

Awesome. And Mital, I'll let you go ahead.

00:02:13:03 - 00:02:26:17

Mital Patel

Sure. My name is Mital Patel. I am a quality programs engagement specialist here at PQS. I focus on how we can get pharmacists engaged in using our EQUIPP platform, and how they can best generate revenue for their pharmacies.

00:02:26:19 - 00:02:43:15

David Simoneaux

Great. Thank you both. Hey, we will begin now. And, for our first question, like, I know why we, why PQS attended NCPA Annual, but can you tell us, Nick, why PQS was attending, the conference this year?

00:02:43:17 - 00:03:11:11

Nick Dorich

Yeah, absolutely. So, the National Community Pharmacists Association or NCPA, their annual convention, it is the biggest, kind of broad aspect or broad consideration meeting for independent pharmacy owners. There are, you know, the wholesaler trade shows that are specific to each wholesaler and the pharmacies that they're working with., but NCPA goes across that industry of independent pharmacy and how they can be supporting their business, how they can be supporting the care that they provide in their local communities.

00:03:11:11 - 00:03:34:19

Nick Dorich

So this was a conference that, in the past, PQS has attended, but we hadn't attended in a few years. Obviously, there were a couple of years where the event did not happen physically because of Covid. But this was something that were as we at PQS, we're thinking about how we engage with pharmacies when we engage with pharmacies and the importance of that independent pharmacy engagement.

00:03:34:22 - 00:03:52:13

Nick Dorich

This became a must attend conference for us for 2024. So we made it back to NCPA. And, as we talk about today and, and kind of going through the results and the feedback that we received, it was a time it was time effort very well spent. We had a lot of great feedback. We had a warm welcome from the independent pharmacy, team members.

00:03:52:17 - 00:03:57:12

Nick Dorich

And, we're going to be excited to be going back to NCPA in 2025 as well.

00:03:57:14 - 00:04:17:11

David Simoneaux

That's good to hear. Thank you. Nick. So, Mital, I'm going to, pose the next question to you. Maybe you could give me a breakdown of the folks or the attendees that you saw, that went by the PQS booth, and then, maybe you could tell us, you know, what were they most interested to talk about?

00:04:17:13 - 00:04:39:20

Mital Patel

Sure. So we actually had a wide range of attendees that came to our booth. We had everybody from technicians to pharmacists themselves, pharmacy managers, owners and even students, which was very exciting because we were able to engage them in how they can utilize the EQUIPP in their pharmacy as well. So that was very exciting for us. Everybody came by with lots of different questions.

00:04:39:21 - 00:04:59:10

Mital Patel

I would say one of the most common questions was, how do I get my team engaged in EQUIPP itself, and how can we utilize the platform to our best ability? So educating their teams on how they could complete the enhance services opportunities for their teams and how they can get every single person in the pharmacy itself involved was really exciting.

00:04:59:12 - 00:05:14:13

Mital Patel

We were able to teach how technicians can complete opportunities, how pharmacists can complete opportunities, and how they can also work simultaneously, to get those done and, you know, assist their patients as best as they could.

00:05:14:15 - 00:05:28:21

David Simoneaux

Great. That's good to hear. Which kind of rolls into our next question about services, you know. Nick, actually, I'm going to ask both of you guys this question, but, Nick, I'll let you start, you know, how are pharmacies responding to enhance services?

00:05:28:23 - 00:05:47:15

Nick Dorich

The first thing that I would note, David, and this was I bring it up first because I think it's what we at PQS are excited about, what myself as a pharmacist are excited about. But we heard loud and clear from team members and from some pharmacy owners that, hey, these enhance services or these ways to generate revenue through EQUIPP that they're keeping us in the black.

00:05:47:16 - 00:06:13:01

Nick Dorich

These are truly revenue generating services. There ways that pharmacist and pharmacy team members can expand to services are offering in their community, but they are positive for cash flow. You know, for the pharmacies as well. It is pharmacy. It is a health care business. That is a reality of it. But when we can marry up that the pharmacy teams are caring for the patient, doing the right thing, for the patient, doing the right thing for the community, and it's something where the pharmacy can add to that bottom line and keep them in the black,

00:06:13:05 - 00:06:30:11

Nick Dorich

You know, towards the end of the year, I think to me that's perhaps the most exciting item. And I think as we go forward, we're going to be, you know, bringing on and hoping to bring on more of those pharmacies to just share their testimonials or share how they're doing these services. How they're providing them and then how they're actually beginning to promote them.

00:06:30:11 - 00:06:46:05

Nick Dorich

Because that's the other thing. In some cases, these are new services for the patients in the community. So, you know, when you talk to patient Joe about, we need to do an adherence check for you, or, hey, can we take your blood pressure or can we take your hemoglobin A1c, they may say no the first time around because it is something that's new.

00:06:46:06 - 00:07:02:01

Nick Dorich

They haven't heard that from their pharmacist before. Maybe. Some pharmacies, they have heard it before. But for the patients, this is something where they're beginning to expect new services from their pharmacy, from their pharmacy staff members, and that we really love to hear. But Mital, I think that's the key takeaway that I had, from some of the conversations.

00:07:02:01 - 00:07:04:10

Nick Dorich

How about from, you know, from yourself?

00:07:04:12 - 00:07:21:19

Mital Patel

Sure. Nick, I think you're spot on. I would really say it's just a win win for everybody. WIn for the pharmacy that they're able to generate some extra revenue with the services that they're providing. And it's a win for our patients, too. We think about how often patients visit pharmacies versus how often they actually visit their doctor's offices,

00:07:21:21 - 00:07:40:06

Mital Patel

and we see them almost every single month. So why not take advantage of that and be able to provide them services that we can at a pharmacy level? They're able to go ahead and take advantage of having their hemoglobin A1c, like you said, Nick, or having their blood pressure taken or even just having adherence check ins. So it is a win win all around for our team.

00:07:40:08 - 00:07:55:20

David Simoneaux

Great. Thank you. Mital. Okay, Nick, next question is for you. So after gathering responses from pharmacies at this event, what do you think independent pharmacies would like to see, in the future In EQUIPP?

00:07:55:21 - 00:08:14:10

Nick Dorich

Great question here, David. And some of the we talked with many of our pharmacy partners at this event about, and I'll note kind of a couple of a couple of very clear items. One, we had a lot of pharmacies noticing on our on the, the backdrop at our booth that we were talking about these primary care services.

00:08:14:10 - 00:08:36:15

Nick Dorich

So we're talking about the blood pressures. We're talking about the hemoglobin A1cs, even things like health risk assessments or social determinants of health. Some of those items were pharmacy. Just saying. Wait, can we can we do that or can we do that yet? And how do we get more of those opportunities. So it is one item there where we heard from pharmacies that, you know, it's they're going to pick up and start providing these services.

00:08:36:15 - 00:08:54:15

Nick Dorich

That's very much intentional for what they would like to be doing. But scaling for them makes a big difference. So the more health plans that are allowing pharmacists or that are paying pharmacies to provide these services, the more that these items are really going to be catching on. So that was a big part and I would say not just within Medicare, but also beyond Medicare.

00:08:54:15 - 00:09:23:04

Nick Dorich

So whether you're a health care plan that's not yet engaged or involved with it, come on board. We've already got pharmacies we're working through for these items. But even if you're not a Medicare plan, whether you're a commercial or a Medicaid plan, pharmacies are able to provide these services, and they provide value for the patients. The other item that I would note, that was a very consistent message that we heard from pharmacies is that, when they are looking into EQUIPP that they want these items to be very, very clear on, you know, what they need to do when they need to do it.

00:09:23:09 - 00:09:43:08

Nick Dorich

And then what is that reimbursement looking like? So that's another item that we've had more of those opportunities available in EQUIPP, and making it more clear and EQUIPP over the last couple of years. And we've had some already some early conversations internally here at PQS about how we can draw more attention easily to the financial aspects of the programs.

00:09:43:10 - 00:10:05:06

Nick Dorich

Because that does drive activity by the pharmacy teams into if they know they can provide these patient care services and they can generate revenue, that's going to catch their attention, whether it's a pharmacy owner, a pharmacy manager, or a pharmacy technician. So, you know, those are the parts, I think, that were really clear for us, and we're going to look forward to, you know, implementing or making some of these items more visible in EQUIPP for 2025.

00:10:05:08 - 00:10:30:19

David Simoneaux

Yeah, we definitely want the pharmacists to see those dollars available. So, yeah, I like that thought process. So, one more question for you guys. I know Mital, that, you and Nick, you know, you were out there on the floor talking to NCPA attendees. Any suggestions or tips about using EQUIPP that they might have, offered you guys?

00:10:30:21 - 00:10:34:12

David Simoneaux

Again, more ways to improve the platform as well. So.

00:10:34:14 - 00:10:56:01

Mital Patel

Sure. Nick, I can go ahead and start off, if that's okay. Yeah. We had a lot of feedback from fabulous technicians. These guys were all stars for their pharmacies. They were able to schedule appointments with their patients, letting them know. Hey, looks like we got an alert in EQUIPP that you might be due for, blood pressure reading or an A1c rating or just an adherence check.

00:10:56:01 - 00:11:14:20

Mital Patel

And can you spend five more minutes at the pharmacy with us? And that really helped preparing the patient to know, okay, I'm going to be spending just a little bit of extra time with the pharmacy, but it is a health benefit for me, and it was able to provide the pharmacists themselves with, hey, you know, Mr. Smith is going to be coming in today.

00:11:14:22 - 00:11:32:08

Mital Patel

Let me prepare myself so I can have their testing ready, whatever discussions we need to have ready. So definitely having the technicians involved in how they can prepare the conversations for when they actually occur at the pharmacy was a great feedback that we received from a lot of technicians.

00:11:32:10 - 00:11:54:07

Nick Dorich

Yeah, I'll add to that. And there's Mital, there's a commonly used phrase prior planning prevents poor performance. And you touched on that a little bit with how the technicians or how some pharmacy team members were telling us how their technicians are involved with those services. But I think that's the overarching, you know, item that we need to consider when we're talking about quality improvement programs, which that's what we're talking about with these EQUIPP programs.

00:11:54:13 - 00:12:12:23

Nick Dorich

You know, for a pharmacy team, this cannot be an afterthought. This needs to be something that is top of mind. And as we heard from many pharmacy team members, these services are what's keeping them profitable and it's revenue generating. So, you know, from that consideration it can't be an afterthought. It needs to be top of mind. You need to have a quality champion.

00:12:13:00 - 00:12:43:21

Nick Dorich

Whether that's the pharmacy owner, whether that's the manager, a staff pharmacist, your lead technician. But somebody needs to be playing quarterback, or point guard, depending on which sports metaphor you want to use. Somebody needs to be helping to drive that work. And then the other aspect of it, Mital, so you mentioned scheduling, right? That's another important aspect where if you're looking ahead and, you know, continuously reviewing your EQUIPP information, you may be seeing or identifying, hey, we've got Patient Joe that's, you know, coming into the pharmacy for their flu shot or they're coming to for their medication.

00:12:43:24 - 00:13:13:18

Nick Dorich

Well, let's check in EQUIPP. Does Joe have an A1c that we can take. Does Joe have a blood pressure reading that we can take and get paid for? So coordinating some of those services so that when the patient comes in, they're not just picking up their medication, they're getting kind of their whole health workup from their pharmacy team where you're able to check off multiple boxes at once and again, in a way that the prior, in this case, the prior planning is going to ensure high level of performance as it relates to these opportunities and EQUIPP.

00:13:13:20 - 00:13:31:04

David Simoneaux

Great. Thanks, Nick. And me. So I'm going to throw this back to you. So for folks that didn't attend or folks that did attend, and they still want to know how to get back in touch with PQS with the questions they might have about EQUIPP, what's the best avenue for them to do that?

00:13:31:06 - 00:13:44:05

Mital Patel

Sure. So if you're able to log into your EQUIPP platform right on the top left hand screen, you're going to see a little support button. When you click on there, you can submit a support ticket to us, or you can reach out to us at support dot pharmacy quality.com.

00:13:44:05 - 00:14:04:17

Nick Dorich

One other item before we go to I forgot this, but I want to make sure we mentioned it as far as like best practices or tips. One of the items that we heard loud and clear from pharmacies, we even had at one point, two pharmacists that were at the booth speak with myself and Mital. One of them said they weren't aware with this feature, and the other pharmacist stopped their conversation with me to say, hey, you got to sign up for this.

00:14:04:19 - 00:14:21:21

Nick Dorich

The text reminders. So, you know, if you're a pharmacy that has opportunities around enhanced services, there is a way that you can sign up for text reminders and that every Friday, if your pharmacy does have new opportunities, you'll get a text notification. So even if you're not checking it on your own, you're getting a message.

00:14:21:21 - 00:14:40:17

Nick Dorich

Just say go in, check out this. And we've we at PQS have seen a much higher level of engagement from those pharmacies. Because if they're getting that reminder, they're going and checking, they're doing the work, which is fantastic. So make sure if you're listening to this, podcast, if you haven't already, or if a member of your pharmacy team hasn't already, sign up for those text reminders.

00:14:40:20 - 00:14:43:21

Nick Dorich

Make sure to go and do this right when you finish listening.

00:14:43:23 - 00:15:08:00

David Simoneaux

That is a great tip. Thank you. Nick. Thank you Mital as well. I will also add that you can also get your questions answered on EQUIPP by just emailing us support@pharmacyquality.com or by visiting support.pharmacyquality.com and visiting our Knowledge Base, which has answers to a lot of questions that you can type in and find out as well.

00:15:08:05 - 00:15:13:24

David Simoneaux

I think that covers it for our questions. Nick, did you want to wrap things up?

00:15:14:01 - 00:15:32:16

Nick Dorich

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, as we're approaching here at the end of the year, we're really excited to continue offering and working through these programs and services with community pharmacies. So it's a busy time of the year with a lot of things going on, but a lot of opportunity to engage with, EQUIPP and provide a more holistic, a more comprehensive approach to patient care.

00:15:32:16 - 00:15:40:20

Nick Dorich

So, make sure if your pharmacy team isn't engaging with EQUIPP today, you contact us, find that right person to be your pharmacy champion and then go from there.

00:15:40:22 - 00:15:58:20

David Simoneaux

Yeah. Thank you, Nick and Mital, again, for your time today. I think this was pretty fun and a different way to do the podcast. And, we might do this again in the future. We'll see. But that does indeed wrap up this episode of the Quality Corner Show. So we hope you enjoyed it and we hope you listen to our next episode.

00:15:58:22 - 00:16:20:11

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00:16:20:13 - 00:16:40:02

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00:16:40:04 - 00:16:42:16

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