Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/1013207
Chain Drugstore Daily Monday, August 27, 2018 3 4 Protecting Retail Pharmacy Profitability By Lari Harding, Vice President, Product Strategy & Marketing, Inmar Retail pharmacy is increasingly challeng- ing. Between the pressure created by DIR (2018 DIR is running at 1.45 percent of total sales), narrow networks and the growth of Medicare/Medicaid, margins are shrinking to the point where many businesses are moving toward a break- even proposition. In order to ensure their profitability in today's complex marketplace, pharma- cies must take a holistic approach to busi- ness operations – focusing concurrently on improving patient outcomes while maximizing return on investment. While there's no magic formula for achieving this two-fold goal, there are steps that pharmacies can take to measurably improve their financial outlook. Connect purchasing and pricing with reimbursement. Purchasing, pric- ing and reimbursement are critically interrelated and pharmacies need to know when their practices are impact- ing reimbursements. To understand how and when that's happening, pharmacy managers need to have a reliable source for industry-wide benchmarking. Thoroughly understanding the relation- ship between Average Wholesale Price, gross and net acquisition costs and reimbursement will better inform both purchasing and pricing decisions that maximize the differential between costs and returns. Establish a rigorous audit defense. Identify commonly audited items and be especially diligent regarding items recouped. Dispensing and prescribing SOPs should be finely tuned. Incorrect Days Supply and Overbilled Quantity are top reasons for audit recoupments in 2018. Be cognizant of which payers have unique product-specific requirements. Strong procedures should yield audit recovery rates over 95 percent. Find a prescription discount card that works for you, and for your patients. With more than 40 percent of Americans on high- deductible health plans, pharma- cists can expect to see more patients that are unsure about meeting their deductibles using prescription drug discount cards. Retail pharmacies need a cash discount card option that provides great price points for patients while maintaining acceptable profit margins. Inmar's new MyRxCard by LifeInCheck prescription drug dis- count card program does both. Because MyRxCard is an independently con- sumer-marketed program, it will never be confused with usual and customary pric- ing. Leverage serialization to your advantage. While the Drug Supply Chain Security Act created regulatory obliga- tions, there are profitability benefits coming out of it. Inmar is working to help pharmacies leverage serialization to their business advantage. We're invest- ing in systems that will extract real value from the new infrastructure by ensuring exact credit for Rx returns and employing track and trace capabilities to reduce shrinkage and loss. In fact, drug recalls and mar- ket withdrawals have increased 30 percent over the last three years. While regulatory compliance will always be important, focusing of the best processes for inventory tracking and return credits will improve your prof- itability. Talk to Inmar. Inmar has been inno- vating across the pharmacy industry for more than 35 years, and we're continu- ing to aggressively develop data-driven solutions that help retail pharmacies effectively manage disruption to lower costs, improve visibility and protect profitability. But to make sure that our solutions align with your needs, we want to know your business priorities and goals. We want to understand your vision and share our vision with you. Let's talk. Visit Inmar at booth #106. Focus on Your Customers, Not Your Card Reader Stands By Jeff Ditges, President, Source Communications For businesses of all sizes, boosting sales, improving service and increasing operational efficiency is necessary to sur- vive in a competitive marketplace. To excel, it's more important than ever to have a frictionless experience at check- out. The UnderStand™ line of card read- er stands are the most durable, secure, versatile, and easiest to use stands avail- able today. They were designed in con- junction with national retailers and phar- macies to help streamline your business and increase sales. Tired of seeing ugly card stands clut- tering your counter? We UnderStand. At only three inches tall, The UnderStand Mini uses a no-fail friction hinge for tilt- ing. It's strong, functional, sleek, sexy, wall or counter mountable and includes a no holes needed option. The Original UnderStand was designed to provide security for your readers while providing the best tilting mecha- nism and effort- less 355-degree rotation for ease of use by your customers and employees. It has built-in swivel flexibility so that it can be mounted on a wall, counter or pole. The patented constant-friction hinge provides maintenance-free tilting enhancing your customer's in-store expe- rience. The UnderStand Plus is a sleek, ver- satile, PCI DSS compliant card reader stand that fits all the major card readers. We offer several locking options for maximum security. It helps protect your equipment from compro- mise with a unique tamp- er-proof design. Locks can be included with your purchase or added at a later date. Part of the advanced security of the stand lies in the design of the concealed mounting hard- ware. Thieves can't remove a card reader from a counter if they can't see how it's attached. Our patented, made in the USA, strong, secure credit card reader stands will fit your needs and your budget while helping you be PCI compliant. Visit Source Communications at booth #3702. How Chiles Define Taste By Mark Miller, Chef and Culinary Anthropologist, often called the founder of modern southwestern cuisine. He also serves as a member of expert chef 's panel for Green Chile Foods, along with Kevin Towles and Roberto Santibanez. Chiles are definitely one of the most important ingredients in my cooking and – not coincidentally – in many of the world's cuisines. I would argue their importance is not because they have a hot or spicy chem- ical taste, but because they create critical spaces in the process of tasting. These "spaces" allow us to enhance our percep- tion of different foods and flavors. Tasting is a very complex process that involves both our bodies and our minds. The body provides information, but the brain needs to organize and inter- pret that information. When we taste food or beverages, we are using not only the chemical receptors in our taste buds, but the neural receptors in our mouth that per- ceive both texture and temperature, our olfactory system and our memory. The sum of all these informational systems into a single perception is called taste. Chiles provide an important path of information during eating – one that is independent of the primary flavors: sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Chiles create breaks in the flow of the primary tastes. Contrary to popular belief, these chile spaces do not block other flavors, but rather they help us perceive them better. Chile "spaces" break up and redefine the input of taste stimuli into smaller packets of organized information, so they actually help us define taste in a similar manner as negative space in art, for example, which allows us to better appre- ciate the forms in a painting. While chiles are not flavors, or one of the primary tastes, they contrast and define the actual flavors, so we can more easily taste them. Chiles are important not because they are tasty but because they help us taste and define other flavors. Almost every culture has adapted to some sort of spice or seasoning that acts like a chile would: strong, spicy and ini- tially not easy to enjoy, such as saffron, mustard, black pepper, wasabi, horserad- ish and thyme. All enhance the taste of foods – they create a contrast. They do not change or hide the food. They embel- lish, enrich and enlighten it. Why are chiles the most commonly used spice in the world today? Why do almost all cuisines embrace them when they are introduced? The answer is because they improve the cuisine's creative possi- bilities, and extend its expressive range. In defining taste, chiles define what we eat, and who we are. Chiles activate the sense of being in this world – of being alive. Chiles are truly the spice of life. For more information, go to www.green chilefoods.com, call 952.666.2993 or email sales@greenchilefoods.com.