Your Top EQUIPP Questions, Answered

PQS Quality Corner Show Host Nick Dorich sits down with Davis Porcari, who leads the PQS customer support team, to answer the most frequently asked EQUIPP questions of 2026. The goal: help pharmacists and pharmacy technicians get more out of the platform and spend less time on administrative friction, more time on patient care. 

Transcript

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00:01:09:10 - 00:01:10:16

Voiceover

Welcome to the Pharmacy

00:01:10:19 - 00:01:19:23

Voiceover

Quality Solutions Quality Corner Show. Buckle up and put your thinking cap on. The Quality Corner show starts now.

00:01:20:00 - 00:01:47:22

Nick Dorich

Welcome everyone to the PQS Quality Corner Show. On today's episode we would like to help answer some of the biggest support questions we've received related to EQUIPP here in 2026. And we're going to do that to help pharmacists and pharmacy technicians better utilize the platform, understand why programs are structured the way they are, and ultimately to allow the pharmacists and technicians to spend more time working and coordinating with the patients to provide better patient care.

00:01:47:24 - 00:02:11:10

Nick Dorich

I'm your host for today's episode, Nick Dorich, and I'm happy to have on the show today, PQS colleague Davis Pocari, senior customer experience specialist. So Davis, he answers many of the support questions related to EQUIPP and EQUIPP Copilot. Davis, welcome to the show. And before we get into the questions for today. Can you let us know a little bit about what it is you do at PQS.

00:02:11:12 - 00:02:27:21

Davis Pocari

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for having me. As you mentioned, I do lead the customer support customer experience team here at PQS. So we field any and all incoming inquiries, questions or you know, tips, tricks, advice, whatever you might need. As far as the EQUIPP program goes.

00:02:27:23 - 00:02:33:18

Nick Dorich

Excellent. So Davis, as you've been new to our team, I'll ask you this question before we get into the real official questions.

00:02:33:18 - 00:02:41:11

Nick Dorich

But what have you learned in your experience working with pharmacies in 2026?

00:02:41:13 - 00:03:02:20

Davis Pocari

Quite a bit. I've worked on the PCP side. I've worked on the private payer side as well, just the mending of how all of the components of health care work together, and then on the front lines of the actual pharmacist providers, how their systems, their business operates and how they integrate all of their technology specifically with their patient care.

00:03:02:20 - 00:03:07:09

Davis Pocari

So it's been really eye opening, but also really exciting to see where that feels going.

00:03:07:11 - 00:03:19:17

Nick Dorich

Yeah, it is an item where this value based care, it's still relatively new to pharmacy, so still a lot of lessons being learned. But I think a lot of energy and motivation behind getting into these programs. So Davis, thank you for that.

00:03:19:17 - 00:03:42:18

Nick Dorich

And now we're going to jump into what our questions are. And you and I, we've compiled five items. And these are really the five most frequently asked questions that we've had of 2026. They're not in any particular order, but we're going to run through them and use this as a platform to help pharmacist pharmacy technicians, to help the pharmacy staff better understand how they can best utilize, EQUIPP and engage with the opportunities.

00:03:42:19 - 00:04:12:18

Nick Dorich

So with that, let's dive right into it. And Davis, first question that I have for you is one that has been very frequent here throughout the year. One of the items in EQUIPP is the Enhanced Services. Another is the My Programs. Through these different aspects of EQUIPP, pharmacies can earn dollars through some of the different payer programs. And the big question from pharmacies is how do they track what they've been paid and when they have been paid?

00:04:12:20 - 00:04:33:12

Davis Pocari

Yeah, that is a great question. And, you know, money isn't everything, but it is a thing. And it is very important to all the pharmacies here that we serve. Within EQUIPP, we'll update the status for each item and program as it is paid out. So if you belong to a PSAO, those payments will be sent directly to your PSAO first and then be disseminated out to yourself.

00:04:33:12 - 00:04:51:19

Davis Pocari

With the exception of programs such as Humana, that will go directly to you. Now, if you are an independent pharmacy, or don't belong to a PSAO, that will be sent via PQS directly to you, and you can search for those big payments. Or again, get on your platform and see when and where those payments may have been sent.

00:04:51:21 - 00:04:52:15

Nick Dorich

Yes, exactly.

00:04:52:16 - 00:05:23:15

Nick Dorich

And one item that I'll note some of the programs here and the payments, they'll be coming from PQS, others will be coming directly from the health plan or the pair that has those opportunities that will either be specified in EQUIPP or on the display, or in the provider agreement that you have with those groups. So if you're not able to check that's an item where if you don't see that readily available for your pharmacy team, you can also directly reach out to our support team and will either answer that question for you, or get you connected, or direct you to that provider, and how that part and how that should be handled to move forward with it.

00:05:23:15 - 00:05:47:12

Nick Dorich

So, Davis, I think we're good on that first question. And looking at it, we're excited about it because that sort of updated financial tracking, that is something that's new for 2026. So it makes it a lot more straightforward for pharmacies to understand the program. Now, speaking of 2026 updates, there is also a new type of enhanced service or a new type of enhanced service payment for pharmacies that is new for 2026.

00:05:47:12 - 00:06:01:01

Nick Dorich

And that is the on time fill bonus or OTF. Davis, can you explain what is that OTF bonus where pharmacies are going to see it? And then are there any actionable steps that they need to take in order to receive these bonuses?

00:06:01:03 - 00:06:07:24

Davis Pocari

Yeah, absolutely. And this the OTF bonus itself has gotten a lot of traction pretty immediately. A lot of excitement around this.

00:06:08:02 - 00:06:28:05

Davis Pocari

As far as the pharmacies go, it does stand for the On Time Fill bonus. What our program will do is track when your next fill is due for the eligible patients. It will chronologically keep that in order. Let you know when that expires, and prompt you to complete a check in with the patient before you actually make that fill to earn additional dollars above and beyond what you're used to.

00:06:28:11 - 00:06:35:24

Davis Pocari

So it is an additional incentive just to make sure you're getting those fills on time, whether that's a 30 day or 90 day medication.

00:06:36:01 - 00:06:59:22

Nick Dorich

Thanks, Davis. So breaking it down really into the actionable step that that that comes here with the OTF bonus. The documentation for the check ins is a required item for payment. So when it comes to those documentation and those check ins, how frequently should the pharmacies be looking for those to be updated and where in EQUIPP can they be finding those check ins?

00:06:59:24 - 00:07:20:06

Davis Pocari

Yeah. So you can it's actually very user friendly, very easy, not even a whole form to complete. So you can go into your Enhanced Services tab. It will pull up who's due for an on time feel bonus when you can attest to it, so to speak. You literally click one box Mark has done. That's when you speak with the patient before you make the actual fill.

00:07:20:11 - 00:07:35:24

Davis Pocari

That's when you start to earn your dollars, and it's as easy as that as far as timing as things go. With that, we do update our data the end of day Friday each week. So we would just go ahead and recommend to check log in at least 2 or 3 times a week if you can, if not at least one time a week.

00:07:36:00 - 00:07:40:19

Davis Pocari

Be on that Friday to have your data refreshed and see who may be eligible for the following week.

00:07:40:21 - 00:07:55:08

Nick Dorich

Yeah, absolutely. And that's really important item. Checking it routinely. It doesn't necessarily need to be the same pharmacy team member that checks it the same time every week, but on a regular and routine basis. Patients, the other item that I will add here, patients could be new opportunities.

00:07:55:08 - 00:08:15:24

Nick Dorich

It could be a patient that newly started filling at your pharmacy, or patient that has been recently diagnosed with a, you know, one of these disease states, or they may be diagnosed with hypertension, they may be new to taking blood pressure medications. So these are really great ideas into why and when the pharmacy should be checking this information, should become a routine practice.

00:08:16:01 - 00:08:37:20

Nick Dorich

All right Davis, next question I have for you is going to be related not to adherence, but actually some health care tests that pharmacies can do. So it's something that we're really excited about. And this is where pharmacy teams can be documenting blood pressure readings in EQUIPP. So we've been getting questions about this from pharmacies. And where do we find our blood pressure reading opportunities.

00:08:37:20 - 00:08:40:18

Nick Dorich

And how do we document them in EQUIPP.

00:08:40:20 - 00:08:55:15

Davis Pocari

Yeah. So kind of similar to your last questions we're going to go back to that EHS, the enhanced services tab. This is a program that's been continuing from last year with real time data that you can upload these stats when and if you need to, and you have until the end of the year to complete.

00:08:55:15 - 00:09:13:14

Davis Pocari

So it is documented within our EQUIPP program, so you're able to easily access that information and see it. And furthermore it is very useful. It's shared with the provider and health plan as it is uploaded. So we've seen very positive feedback on that. And it kind of takes a step or two out of the process to make it a little bit easier for the provider.

00:09:13:16 - 00:09:34:21

Nick Dorich

Yeah, it's a great opportunity. These blood pressure readings will note that it has to be documented either by a pharmacist or a certified pharmacy technician for that intervention, so not any or every member of the staff can go through to complete those. But when you're looking at the documentation, it will identify what are those credentials for the individual to be completing those

00:09:35:02 - 00:09:37:11

Nick Dorich

and how that's going to be checked and how that's going to be available.

00:09:37:11 - 00:09:52:23

Nick Dorich

Davis I think we also have a blood pressure guide or playbook that's available in our EQUIPP resources. Anything else that you would call out as it relates to our EQUIPP support and resources where pharmacies can check if they're looking for more information or if they have questions about implementing this kind of program.

00:09:53:00 - 00:10:01:03

Davis Pocari

Yeah, absolutely. And it's something that we're actually very proud of here at PQS .At the top left corner, there's a couple of different options for support functionality.

00:10:01:03 - 00:10:32:13

Davis Pocari

We have our own integrated knowledge base. So we continuously add to this. It's been kind of our running playbook both internally and externally as far as details within each program, time frames, any and all questions that you may have are typically outlined in there, as well as a newer resource. As of this year, we have EQUIPP Academy: interactive videos, a couple of different quizzes, things of that nature that can keep you on your toes, and that's more of a learn at your own pace type free resource for users of EQUIPP, so you're able to go ahead and bookmark that.

00:10:32:15 - 00:10:42:19

Davis Pocari

Get into it. Whether it's the weekend, have a quick search or again, you can just reach out to myself or my team via that same support button directly chat with us and we're always happy to help.

00:10:42:21 - 00:10:49:18

Nick Dorich

Great. Fantastic. All right, next question. And we already touched on this one a little bit with the blood pressure readings and some of those screenings.

00:10:49:18 - 00:11:15:02

Nick Dorich

But it's often a question that we have. Does a pharmacist need to be completing the work in EQUIPP? This could be for the enhanced services. It could be for the longitudinal adherence monitoring program, could be for the blood pressure screenings. It could be related to the hey the general outlier review. So Davis, do we have specific recommendations or are there specific requirements on where a pharmacist versus a pharmacy technician needs to be involved with these activities in EQUIPP?

00:11:15:04 - 00:11:30:19

Davis Pocari

Yeah, that is a great question. Overall answer is yes with a couple of different caveats. So of course a registered pharmacy technician is eligible to get into the account, monitor the workload depending on what you're actually documenting. So for certified

00:11:30:19 - 00:11:31:24

Davis Pocari

Pharmacy techs,

00:11:32:01 - 00:11:44:22

Davis Pocari

they can complete any of the HEDIS measures or gaps. As far as the Longitudinal Adherence Monitoring Program, pharmacists should ideally do the clinical work through, but it depends on your internal workload and your flow and how that goes.

00:11:44:22 - 00:11:46:05

Davis Pocari

But the short answer is yes.

00:11:46:05 - 00:11:46:24

Davis Pocari

Pharmacy techs,

00:11:46:24 - 00:11:52:04

Davis Pocari

for the most part, can go ahead and complete some of these opportunities at the pharmacist discretion.

00:11:52:06 - 00:12:05:20

Nick Dorich

Yeah, absolutely. I know when we've met with pharmacists or pharmacy teams, either at trade shows or just through some of our EQUIPP demos, that these are items were for a lot of the pharmacies. They may have technicians doing 80% or more of the work and the outreach.

00:12:05:20 - 00:12:26:17

Nick Dorich

Now, again, there's going to be items where if a patient has a question because they're experiencing side effects, that's something we're obviously a pharmacist should be having that conversation, same as it would be if that patient was at the counter. So many pharmacists and maybe many pharmacies will have their own protocol or training when it comes to those items and how they would handle that in the day in and day out.

00:12:26:21 - 00:12:49:20

Nick Dorich

Just pointing out that for the blood pressure reading specifically, it does need to be a certified pharmacy technician as that is defined from the Pharmacy Technician certification border PTCB. So that is one requirement or restriction to have to have that part set and how that how that is set up. All right, Davis, I'll move us to our next question.

00:12:49:20 - 00:13:11:07

Nick Dorich

And I think this is question actually, this is question number five. And this is an item that is somewhat of a new opportunity that we've seen in EQUIPP the last two years, or I guess more accurately the last year and a half. But these are formulary adherence outliers. So this is a new topic. And that's not a quality measure like we see from that is not a CMS star rating measure.

00:13:11:07 - 00:13:24:10

Nick Dorich

But these are opportunities that we do see in EQUIPP where pharmacies can earn dollars for these programs. So Davis what are these formulary adherence outliers and what are pharmacy staff supposed to do with those opportunities.

00:13:24:12 - 00:13:32:14

Davis Pocari

Yeah, and that's a great question. And you know, first and foremost, outliers are not a negative thing. They're not a ding or a penalty to you by any means.

00:13:32:14 - 00:13:56:07

Davis Pocari

They're more of a roadmap or a guideline to adherence for specific patients. So once you are once a patient has filled two times, they will become adherent to that medication. If they miss a fill or anything of that nature, they will go to the outlier status. We do track these just to make sure that the pharmacists know which patients to focus a little bit more on, make sure that they get that fill in and they can become adherent on the retroactive perspective of it.

00:13:56:07 - 00:14:11:24

Davis Pocari

You can look at last year's information, the data from last year. So you may have become an outlier and make sure that you're focusing on them coming into the new year to make sure that they 1, are adherent off the bat. And 2, they stay adherent for this year to make sure that your scores are up overall.

00:14:11:24 - 00:14:16:12

Davis Pocari

And of course the patient's care is completely taken care of.

00:14:16:14 - 00:14:32:10

Nick Dorich

Great. Yeah, it's a really key item here. I think many pharmacy staff members are used to having conversations with patients about a medication being formulary on a formulary medication, or when those prompts may be coming through to get where, that they may not be able to get that medication to spend.

00:14:32:10 - 00:14:50:20

Nick Dorich

So this is another way for the pharmacy staff to have that information available. And with that information to review that utilization with the patient and with the prescriber, if it is applicable. That may not always be applicable for every patient that's there, but it does open up a conversation, and we encourage pharmacy staff to take a look at that.

00:14:50:20 - 00:15:11:02

Nick Dorich

And again, when it is appropriate with the patient and given their medication goals, their health care goes overall that they can be acting upon those opportunities. So Davis, that's our review of the five questions. Top, top five. Again, no particular order, but we are going to throw in a bonus question here as it goes to our FAQ today.

00:15:11:02 - 00:15:34:15

Nick Dorich

And we touched on this a little bit. But I want to kind of finish with this as our question. And it might be the most important item, you know, with new information in EQUIPP and with some of the new program and new program opportunities, how frequently should pharmacy team members be checking their EQUIPP dashboard? And when they log into EQUIPP, what's the first thing that they should be going to do each time?

00:15:34:17 - 00:15:57:09

Davis Pocari

Yeah, that's a great question. The last thing that we want is for the user to seem overwhelmed, to have too much information at their hands. We've done a great job here at PK's to make sure that everything is very user friendly, very organized in a chronological way. So to your first question, we advise that you get into the program minimum two, maybe three times a week just to check in on things, skim through and make sure everything looks good.

00:15:57:11 - 00:16:22:12

Davis Pocari

And when you are there looking at your opportunity status, you can start with your My programs to see where you're at with your specific payor programs and the enhanced services opportunities. Within the enhanced services opportunities they will be organized in a chronological way by Who which opportunity may be expiring first before others. So you can prioritize that to make sure that if you're on a tight deadline, you can go ahead and get that patient in and get that fill completed with a check and completed.

00:16:22:12 - 00:16:34:05

Davis Pocari

And they organize that in a very visually appealing and user friendly way. So you can essentially go down that checklist and make sure that you've done everything that you need to do, depending on the time frame.

00:16:34:07 - 00:16:54:13

Nick Dorich

Great answer. Great recommendation for that Davis. So with that, that does wrap up our questions here. And we just we really appreciate Davis walking us through. We appreciate you and the support team engaging with the pharmacies I think that's one of the items that we really enjoy is getting feedback from pharmacies, getting questions asked.

00:16:54:13 - 00:17:09:17

Nick Dorich

So before we do wrap up, Davis, if there are folks that are looking to get more information or, you know, where can they find our support, how do they how do they get in contact with you? Or where do they find that support when they are looking at EQUIPP or their EQUIPP Copilot.

00:17:09:19 - 00:17:16:20

Davis Pocari

Yeah. So the easiest way if you're just going to jump into an email, it is just support@pharmacyquality.com.

00:17:16:22 - 00:17:36:21

Davis Pocari

If you're already interfacing with the web app or copilot, there is a there's an option at the top left to gain support. And again we mentioned earlier there's knowledge base, customer agents, things of that nature. You can just ping a member of our team. And that will open up a chat box directly interfacing with myself or members of our team.

00:17:36:23 - 00:17:53:06

Nick Dorich

Excellent, Davis. Thank you again here for the time. This was a great conversation today, and I hope our pharmacists and our pharmacy technicians have been taking great notes based on the feedback, and that they're going to be able to utilize our guides or playbooks, our EQUIPP support and our knowledge base. But with that, we're going to thank you.

00:17:53:07 - 00:18:08:06

Nick Dorich

Davis, for joining the Quality Corner Show. We're glad to have you on the team, and we hope to have you back here soon on the show. For our listeners, we appreciate you continuing to tune in, and we want to thank you for joining us today, and we hope you join us for the next episode of the Quality Corner Show.

00:18:08:07 - 00:18:19:06

Nick Dorich

Before we go, we have one final message from the team.

00:18:19:08 - 00:18:42:08

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The Pharmacy Quality Solutions Quality Corner Show has a request for you. Our goal is to spread the word about how quality measurement can help improve health outcomes. And we need your help in sharing this podcast with friends and colleagues in the health care industry. We also want you to provide feedback, ask us questions, and suggest health topics you'd like to see covered.

00:18:42:10 - 00:19:01:21

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If you are a health expert and you want to contribute to the show or even talk on the show, please contact us. You can email info@pharmacyquality.com. Let us know what is on your mind, what we can address so that you are fully informed. We want you to be able to provide the best care for your patients and members.

00:19:01:21 - 00:19:05:00

Voiceover

And we wish all of you listeners out there well.

00:19:05:02 - 00:19:06:11

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