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?
When a patient needs a medication for a minor ailment, what’s their first step? Usually, the process is anything but user-friendly. Just getting a prescription for pink eye might involve multiple touchpoints across several locations—scheduling through a doctor’s office, seeing a physician, and finally speaking to a pharmacist after obtaining a script. The experience is
In the past few years, “vertical integration” has been a hot topic for leaders in all health care businesses, from pharmacies to insurers to hospitals. Health care parent companies, including pharmacies like Walgreens Boots Alliance and CVS Health, payors like UnitedHealth Group, Cigna and Humana, and even retailers like Amazon, are racing to build a
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
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
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,
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
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
We are more than two years into COVID, and the health care industry still has an “edge of your seat” feel — even as the crisis wanes, there’s an uncertainty about what will happen next. This rings especially true for retail pharmacies, which experienced pandemic highs and lows. American consumers applauded as pharmacies elevated the
There is a gap in our nation’s health care system. Pharmacies need to act now if they want to prove they are the right ones to fill it. One of the long-standing gaps in the American health care system is a lack of accessible, efficient and cost-effective services for individuals in need of a routine
Today’s retail pharmacies face increasing pressure from all fronts. Governments are aiming to reduce health care costs, and public sentiment is pushing the industry toward a value-based model. The use of high-cost specialty drugs is increasing dispensing complexity and shifting channel volume — at a time when disruptors like Amazon are poised to impact pricing.
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
Pharmacies have long been the front door to the country’s health care system. People choose their favorite pharmacy and make stopping by a habit. They drop in to pick up monthly prescriptions, ask the pharmacist for advice and, of course, snag retail items in the process. But can pharmacies hold on to this coveted position?
In today’s retail landscape filled with intense competition and discouraging news about store closures and challenging sales figures, Global Market Development Center (GMDC)|Retail Tomorrow is focused on designing new strategies for retailers and suppliers to navigate a path forward to evolve and thrive. Even during one of the industry’s most uncertain times, brick-and-mortar still has
