The 340B Drug Pricing Program has played an essential role in supporting access to care by providing discounted prices on drugs for qualifying healthcare organizations. Interest in the program continues to grow. In a featured story published by ComputerTalk, “Attending to Detail: Tools for Being a 340B Pharmacy,” Hometown Pharmacy, an independent chain in Missouri, partnered with RxPreferred Benefits for 340B administration services, including customized reporting.
But their decision to participate in the 340B program wasn’t one made lightly. Blake Riley, Pharm.D. of Hometown Pharmacy has three retail pharmacies, an LTC pharmacy, and a DME location. Riley is the largest shareholder and manager of the Carrolton, MI location, which also happens to be his hometown. He spent a year researching the 340B program before he and Carroll County Memorial Hospital, where Riley is the vice president of the board of directors, decided to take the leap with hospital administrator Jeff Tindle.
But the farther we got into the process the more we understood that, for peace of mind, we did not want to do this ourselves.
Riley and Tindle briefly thought about administering the program in-house. However, they quickly realized how important it would be to partner with an experienced 340B administrator like RxPreferred Benefits. By partnering with RxPreferred, Hometown Pharmacy was able to build a successful 340B pharmacy from the following:
The process can be time-consuming without an experienced 340B program administrator. RxPreferred Benefits’ customized tools allow for real-time eligibility determination and proper dispensing of the 340B inventory.
We’re able to identify a patient who has a prescription from an eligible doctor and enroll him in 340B through RxPreferred at the counter.
Hometown Pharmacy and Carroll County Memorial Hospital have already seen how having an experienced 340B administrator benefits them in not only giving back to the community but also by reducing costs for some vital medications. In one last quote, Riley summarized the importance of having a clearly defined process.
They audit the program very frequently. If you’re not compliant, it can be very expensive. You could be sanctioned. You can get kicked out of the program
Read the original story, “Attending to Detail: Tools for Being a 340B Pharmacy”, by Will Lockwood published as a featured story in ComputerTalk’s September/October 2014 edition.
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