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Efficiency and health equity can align powerfully

Efficiency and health equity can align powerfully

With growing disparities in health outcomes, health care leaders know that it’s important to continue working toward new solutions to improve health equity. But amid ongoing cost pressures and continued labor shortages, addressing health equity can get lost along the way. So, how do we ensure health equity remains a central priority for pharmacy retailers?

It’s time for retail pharmacies to embrace automation

It’s time for retail pharmacies to embrace automation

Automation isn’t new, but it is time to think about it in a new way: as an important opportunity to transform pharmacists’ work, attract more talent and make retail pharmacy businesses viable for the long term. While some industries are just beginning to explore automation, pharmacies have been using it since the 1960s. Automation and

What do consumers want from their pharmacy experience

What do consumers want from their pharmacy experience

After three years of the pandemic, consumers are returning to health care. But they are not returning to the same health care landscape, nor are they behaving in the same manner. The pent-up post-pandemic demand for health care services has created longer wait times at traditional point-of-care locations like primary care offices, pushing consumers to

How retail pharmacies can play a role in the discount card market

How retail pharmacies can play a role in the discount card market

Prescription drug discount cards are a fast-growing market. The growing complexity of insurance plans and a system of pharmaceutical discounts and rebates that is not visible to the patient have widened the discrepancy between the cost of drugs and what patients actually pay. Additionally, the price a patient pays can vary widely across insurance plans,

Value-based care an oppportunity for Rx

Value-based care an oppportunity for Rx

In recent years, the health care industry in the U.S. has accelerated its shift from fee-for-service toward value-based care (VBC) models, focused on holistic, long-term outcomes for patients and lower costs for the system. This shift was spearheaded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) through legislation enacted between 2008 and 2019, notably by

How to approach retail media networks

How to approach retail media networks

Retail media networks (RMNs) represent a clear opportunity for pharmacy retailers. RMNs are advertising businesses set up by a retailer that allow CPGs to buy advertising space that reaches in-market buyers. CPGs get the benefit of first-party consumer data. Retailers get a new revenue stream. The market is growing, and is estimated to reach $50

Amazon’s One Medical purchase threatens pharmacies

Amazon’s One Medical purchase threatens pharmacies

Since Amazon Pharmacy launched in November 2020, the prescription drug home-delivery service has led with a primarily online offering. Its value propositions — technology-based customer support, transparent pricing, fast shipping and an app-based interface — are compelling, but without connections to the broader health care ecosystem, organic growth has been challenging. That’s about to change.

Why retail pharmacy operators need to prioritize ESG

Why retail pharmacy operators need to prioritize ESG

During the pandemic, pharmacies supported the health and well-being of their communities. They cemented their role as core health service providers. By ensuring access to community health care, they proved their value to governments, other businesses and the public. The reward for success is always increased expectations. Today, pharmacies’ local initiatives are no longer enough.

Boosting health equity is good for business and society

Boosting health equity is good for business and society

Structural and systemic inequities have long contributed to ongoing health disparities, especially within minority communities in the United States. However, the pandemic and social unrest of the past few years have magnified the issues. For example, Latino and Black people were hospitalized with COVID-19 at a rate 2.8 times higher than white people, according to

Talent is scarce; recruiting it requires adaptation

Talent is scarce; recruiting it requires adaptation

If talent acquisition and retention isn’t a top-five topic for your executive team, it should be. The reason is straightforward: The U.S. labor market has undergone significant changes, resulting in fewer available workers and more open jobs — 10.9 million — than at any time since that statistic has been measured. As if that weren’t

Drug chains can ward off new digital Rx players

Drug chains can ward off new digital Rx players

The U.S. prescription drug market has reached half a trillion dollars, much of it dominated by large pharmacy service providers. But with a pie this big, it’s little wonder that new players are looking to horn in on the action — in particular “digital native” start-ups that give customers the direct consumer-centric relationship and flexible

Customers have changed, and so must retail pharmacy

Customers have changed, and so must retail pharmacy

The COVID-19 crisis has undoubtedly changed customer behavior, from how people pay to what they buy. But how has the pandemic specifically affected pharmacy customers? Kearney’s pharmacy customer survey from early fall 2020 reveals that COVID-era customers have new ways of shopping, evolving preferences for obtaining prescriptions and increased expectations of their pharmacies. As the

Rx can be a trailblazer for the post-pandemic world

Rx can be a trailblazer for the post-pandemic world

The COVID-19 crisis will eventually move past its peak and everyday life will phase into a new normal. When it does, it’s unlikely that customers or businesses will go back to their pre-pandemic ways. As “essential” businesses, retail pharmacies were some of the first to experience and respond to new changes in customer behaviors and

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