Every year the business environment changes for community pharmacies. Patients expect new services and offerings, there are always new state and federal requirements to meet and the healthcare landscape is ever evolving.
2013 was no different. If anything, this year brought even more changes than usual for community pharmacists and how they run their businesses. The implementation of healthcare reform and the expansion of Medicare Part D preferred networks were just a couple of factors that had an effect on pharmacies in 2013. As a community pharmacy owner, you’re probably expecting some challenges in 2014 as a result of these major changes in 2013.
Sixty-four percent of your peers are anticipating a tougher business climate in 2014, according to respondents to Drug Topics’ 2014 Business Outlook Survey, an annual survey of more than 600 community pharmacists. Here are their top five anticipated challenges for the upcoming year. Do you agree?
1. Competition from mail-order pharmacies
Forced mail order has been a concern for community pharmacies for some time. Often patients get switched to mail order without their knowledge and it can lead to prescription errors and decreased adherence.
2. Healthcare reform
The implementation of healthcare reform has created many new requirements and changes for community pharmacies. Between fielding patients’ questions about how healthcare reform affects them to working toward performance-driven reimbursements, community pharmacies have a lot to keep up with heading into 2014.
3. Decrease in state Medicaid rates and MAC and FUL
Smaller reimbursements continue to be a concern for community pharmacies in 2014. As more states move to a managed care format to handle Medicaid, it can mean lower reimbursments for pharmacies when reimbursements shifts from a FUL to a MAC.
4. Preferred pharmacy networks for Medicare Part D
Losing access to patients is a big concern for community pharmacies in 2014 with the recent expansion of preferred pharmacy networks within Medicare Part D. Small community pharmacies are finding that they can’t afford to pay for inclusion into these preferred pharmacy networks.
5. PBM practices
Negative PBM practices that decrease patients’ access to the pharmacy of their choice continues to be a big concern for community pharmacies going into 2014.
To find out more about what other community pharmacists are expecting in 2014, check out the full article on Drug Topics.
