Expert Discusses Survey Results Finding That Pharmacists Are Concerned About

At the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) 2022 Total Store Expo, Pharmacy Times spoke with Danny Sanchez, senior vice president and general manager of EnlivenHealth, to learn more about a recent survey which found that pharmacists are very concerned about losing Medicare-eligible patients when they switch Medicare plans. Sanchez said that although pharmacists can play a role in educating patients about Medicare plan options, staffing problems can limit their ability to do so.

Q: A survey from EnlivenHealth found that the majority of retail pharmacists worry about losing Medicare-eligible patients when they change plans. Why does this loss happen?

Danny Sanchez: Yeah, so every year Medicare patients are eligible for open enrollment, right? So, this is a period of the year where patients can go out and pick new plans, so it does give the opportunity for plans to go and take patients from other plans. And so, the danger there is that if you’re a retail pharmacy and you have your patient population, and they move into a plan that you don’t serve, you lose those patients, right? So that’s a risk. And now, we recently did a survey and the survey called out to us that, you know, one-third of patients, on average, at a retail pharmacy are Medicare patients. So, it’s a substantial number of patients that [pharmacies] are at risk of losing or moving to a different pharmacy.

Q: What potential financial impact does that have on retail pharmacies?

Danny Sanchez: Yeah, it is, it is a material impact to a retail pharmacy. You know, [number] one, these patients are what we call poly-med patients, and most of them are taking many medications, right? So, prescription rich patients, even though they’re one-third of the population of patients going into that pharmacy, now they comprise a large portion of that profit and loss for that pharmacy, right? So, the impact is if you lose these patients, how do you backfill these patients? Right?

And, you know, there’s also a patient satisfaction perspective here. If you lose a patient, the patient goes to another pharmacy, and all of a sudden now they don’t have their trusted pharmacist. And, as you know, pharmacists are the second most trusted health care professionals. You know, you lose access to that professional who knows your background, who knows your health profile.

Q: In addition to that financial impact, changing plans can impact patients’ care with their pharmacist. Can you discuss how this impacts patients?

Danny Sanchez: Yeah, totally. I think sometimes it’s underestimated, the role that pharmacists play, and now a broader role, right? It’s kind of as pharmacy evolves into this next gen, more of a care environment. You know, pharmacists help not just with dispensing medications, they help talk to a patient about their medications, how they should be taking their medications, if they feel like a prescription is not properly prescribed for a patient, they intervene, they reach out to their doctor, so knowing your patient is a big deal, right? So, if a patient moves off to another pharmacy, all of a sudden you have to rebuild that relationship from zero. And that’s not good for either the…