A Smarter GLP-1 Strategy for Independent Pharmacy

Kate Helf (00:05):

Well, welcome everyone. We’re doing a little bit of a re-recording today. We had so many wonderful participants and a lot of great questions, and we just wanted to make sure that we were able to share the highest quality video back with you guys. So just a quick introduction again on myself. I’m Kate Helf, Vice President of Pharmacy Innovation. And today we’re going to be talking a bit about independent pharmacies and how they can really stay a part of the patient journey as GLP-1 access, different cash pay programs and manufacturer direct models continue to grow and expand. I think the question we really want to answer is relatively simple. It’s really how can pharmacies help patients access these medications without losing the prescription, but more importantly, without actually losing the patient relationship? We will address some of the questions that we had from the webinar toward the end.

(01:00):

Joining me today is Shelly Bailey, who has been working on different strategic opportunities for IPC and supporting, of course, in this initiative, really supporting and building manufacturer relationships that create new opportunities for independent pharmacies. So Shelly, thank you so much for being here today. And before we get started with the program, I wanted you to give us the short version of your pharmacy background and why this work is so impactful and important for you.

Shelley Bailey (01:29):

Absolutely. Kate, thanks for having me today. I guess my background in pharmacy is I was essentially, I guess, born to be in pharmacy. My grandparents owned a medicine shop pharmacy, so I started my pharmacy technology innovation career using microfilm and old PCS machines. So I’ve been in the community pharmacy setting my entire career. I previously owned a pharmacy in Portland, Oregon. We were an IPC member during that time. And so it’s been exciting to now be on the other side of the table offering and partnering with manufacturers to find ways to both help improve market access to individuals who need affordable drugs, but then also to bring programs to pharmacies that significantly improve the bottom line.

Kate Helf (02:19):

Well, we’re happy to have you in that perspective because we need that. So Shelley, you and I talk a lot about really direct to consumer and how it doesn’t have to actually mean cutting the pharmacy out of the equation. So maybe elaborate a little bit more on what that process maybe used to look like and then what does that process actually look like today?

Shelley Bailey (02:40):

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I would say that direct to consumer really started to explode during COVID, specifically when Pfizer started doing things in the vaccine space. And when those programs started to flourish and even online digital pharmacies before that, what we found as community pharmacy owners is that there were these types of partnerships that some of our patients would see online or some of the employer groups we work with, but they were never accessible to our pharmacy. It was always trying to bridge what a lower patient out-of-pocket might be for a consumer, but then somehow making sure the pharmacy is made whole and made whole plus to have some profitability. And that is something that lots of different mechanisms to do it have failed or have at least struggled. And so now it’s really exciting to me to be able to help bring solutions to independent pharmacy owners where they can very comfortably say, not only am I leaning into partnerships with manufacturers, but I’m leaning into these partnerships where I as a pharmacy owner are reimbursed rates that personally I haven’t seen in over 10 years on the good side of reimbursement and where the patient is paying the same low out-of-pocket costs.

(03:58):

So from my perspective up until very recently in programs like this, those types of direct programs were just not available for community pharmacies to lean into.

Kate Helf (04:11):

Which I think that’s a great point. So instead of really fighting where the market is going or pushing, I think we need to make independent pharmacy have a space in it. And as you said, those pathways really were not available before. So with that, that brings us to the goal here of the next slide, and that really talks about keeping the patient and ultimately protecting the margin at the same time. So Shelley, given the brief background that you just shared with us, what has IPC built to really help pharmacies really do that through this GLP-1 offering?

Shelley Bailey (04:49):

Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, in this new program, there’s always been cash cards, that’s something that pharmacies have been used to for 15 years. But again, it’s always been a struggle to make sure that the patient out-of-pocket is lower, but the pharmacy still receives a fair and reasonable profit. On the generic side, some sorts of cash programs still maybe work out and work out favorably enough for the consumer and for the pharmacy. But on brands, it’s where it gets difficult. Again, as I referenced before, there’s never really been a mechanism to true up that gap between what the patient pays and what the pharmacy needs in fair reimbursement. So under this new program, this is a network that IPC has where we can now make in partnership with over 140 different branded medications a solution where the pharmacy still bills within their traditional workflow, their regular workflow model, where the pharmacy adjudicates the transaction, the patient pays the lower out-of-pocket cost, and the pharmacy is reimbursed a margin that brings them considerably into the black.

(06:01):

Now, of course, the name of this slide and the images we have on it, we’ve really leaned into GLP-1s because we know that that’s a really significant pain point for our stores right now. But again, there’s a whole basket of other medications that a lot of our pharmacies are able to help improve the member affordability and then also improve the pharmacy economics. So it’s this great opportunity to keep the patient in your pharmacy. Right now, when we were at the IdeaShare over the summer, a lot of pharmacies were expressing to us, look, I’m personally helping facilitate sending a patient to LillyDirect, or I’m using NovoDirect and I’m not making a margin that is favorable for me, or I’m sending them to compounders. I don’t compound myself, but I’m sending them to the guy I know down the road because I’m sending it that way. And again, this type of program now lets a pharmacy lean into it to at a minimum, keep those consumers at their pharmacy, but then also use it as a tool to bring in new patients as well.

Kate Helf (07:05):

So I think you just mentioned a couple of important points there. Pharmacies are familiar with cash cards, but I think it’s important to mention this is bigger than just another typical discount card opportunity. I think you also mentioned that in terms of bringing back prescriptions, of course, there’s an opportunity for margin potential to be increased. But I think really the most important piece here really of what I’m hearing from you is that we are keeping the pharmacy at the center of care. And that is really what IPC, our digital innovation suite here is really trying to accomplish. So with that said, Shelly, I want to talk a little bit more about the economics piece in the next slide here. And I know this really talks about several pathways and shows that margins can, of course, differ by pharmacy, which is important to note. And also general results will depend on acquisition costs, current manufacturer terms.

(08:02):

Again, just want to make sure those are all mentioned. But I think here’s the question a lot of owners are asking is if the patient is going to pay less, yet the pharmacy is ultimately getting paid better, how does that work? Who’s losing in this equation?

Shelley Bailey (08:17):

Yeah, absolutely. And the examples up here on the screen are really just illustrative. To your point, cost of goods factors into it, network rates, all those types of things. Exactly. But yeah, the who loses is something that is a question that comes up a lot when I’m talking to pharmacies because a lot of pharmacies are like, Shelly, at the rates you’re talking to me about, this just seems too good to be true. We’ve been filling these scripts for so long at such poor reimbursement. How the heck could this even be possible? And the way this is possible is just to step back a little bit, let’s just talk about how rebates in the funded space work. In the funded space, the pharmacy has a really aggressive network reimbursement rate that’s not favorable to them, but the payer is receiving a very significant bundled rebate from the manufacturer 180 days post-adjudication.

(09:09):

So it’s not like the payer’s paying the amount, the net that the pharmacy is being reimbursed. So in this type of model, our manufacturer partners want pharmacies to lean into the program because the manufacturer is able to basically just move the rebate that they were giving to entities in the funded space. They’re able to move that as a manufacturer-sponsored partnership to the independent pharmacy. And what that does is it certainly empowers the manufacturers to be able to have a little more leverage with PBMs because they have alternative channels that they can now move some of their inventory through, but it also really significantly empowers the pharmacies themselves to have these more strategic relationships and not rely as extensively as maybe they had in the past on PBM partnerships. And so I would say in this model that from the lens in which we’re viewing it, no one is losing.

(10:12):

The manufacturer is still paying less out as a manufacturer-sponsored program than they otherwise do as a bundled rebate to the PBM, and the pharmacy is making considerably more. Part of my interest in my career has always been policy, so I’ve always worked a lot on the drug policy side. And for the pharmacies that are involved in state or federal government affairs, this will probably resonate with you, there’s this term in the market now that we all talk about a lot, which is called point of sale rebates. West Virginia has a law on it. There’s some other states considering it. And basically that’s trying to do exactly this, make sure that the patient pays the lower amount, any amount that’s funded or sponsored by the manufacturer makes it right down at the point of sale. And I think while lots of states have passed laws on things like this, the how and the brass tacks of making it work have always been a struggle.

(11:06):

And so what I think in programs like this is it is exactly kind of solved for that piece. The patient pays the lower amount, the manufacturer’s sponsored amount comes through back to the pharmacy just as a traditional transaction. It’s adjudicated just like a funded claim would be adjudicated. The payment mechanism still goes through the PSAO and is reconciled by the 835 process. So the pharmacy doesn’t have to change their workflow at all. They’re not having to call manufacturers themselves to try to figure out how to do these things, and they’re just more immediately able to lean into some of these programs. And so for me, there’s always this adage when I started working in government affairs 20 years ago, if you’re not sitting at the table, you’re on the menu. And we know that pharmacies have struggled with being on the menu for a long time because of our provider status limitations and things, but leaning into programs like this really help us have more of a voice and a more strategic role sitting at the table as more direct to consumer or direct to employer programs start to flourish.

Kate Helf (12:18):

So we just talked a lot about obviously how this works and you being an operator really added a good way that pharmacies I know can really register too. So we talked about how it works, but how does a pharmacy actually get paid in this process, which is the most important question that a lot of these owners are wondering.

Shelley Bailey (12:38):

Yeah, absolutely. So I guess the elephant in the room, if I was here listening to the webinar today, I mean you’re busy at the pharmacy, maybe listening on your headset, it’s how much am I going to get paid? Exactly.That’s probably something you want to know when you’re listening to this webinar. Due to contractual limitations, obviously we can’t say the rates during this call, but you can reach out to the team to be able to start the process to get the rates. But I would say again, I haven’t seen consistently rates this agreeable to a pharmacy in over 10 to 13 years probably. But the way the money flows, again, is once a pharmacy is part of a program like this that we have at IPC, they are able to help the patient register to be able to access this program. But then once the patient’s registered, it’s exactly the same as any other script.

(13:29):

Script hits product dispense, you go ahead and bill it, you just bill it to this new program with the BIN PCN ID and group. Claim adjudicates, same as it does in any other workflow for a funded claim or cash claim, and the patient pays the amount that is set for the patient to pay and the remaining reimbursement, just like a funded claim, will come to the pharmacy within 30 days.

Kate Helf (13:53):

Got it. So it’s, I would say, pretty similar to what owners might be used to, but is there really a big difference in the process here based on your experience? To me, it sounds relatively similar.

Shelley Bailey (14:07):

No, it’s the same workflow process. A lot of pharmacies already help consumers enroll in manufacturer cards or things like that. That’s just part of the service that our members do. So I would say the only piece that maybe is a little different than being reactive when someone walks in your pharmacy and presents their insurance card is the workflow is more in alignment with how you might help someone sign up for a manufacturer sponsored card where you tell the consumer that there’s an opportunity available and then may help them enroll in the program. I mean, one thing I’ll pause just right here is to make sure to reference that this is not legal advice. There is not a world where we would suggest because these terms might be more beneficial to your pharmacy that you do anything different than always bill the primary payer if someone has coverage.

(15:00):

So again, I just wanted to say that because it would not be ethical to do anything like that and we don’t provide legal guidance here, but I did want to just make sure to express how it would work from a workflow perspective when you’re helping enroll someone in the program and then seeing the claim through the adjudication and dispense process.

Kate Helf (15:19):

Nope, that makes sense. And that’s a good disclaimer to have here. So then transitioning to the next slide, I want to make this a bit more practical. We’ve talked about the how, we’ve talked about the payment. We have a lot of pharmacies that have actually already signed up for this program, which is really exciting, but they’re probably looking for different ways to make it maybe a little bit more successful, focus on pull through. If an owner would like to find an opportunity tomorrow morning, where should they start?

Shelley Bailey (15:47):

Yeah, absolutely. So I would say if we could go ahead and advance to the next slide, it’ll help give a bit of a visual representation. So if I was a pharmacy that wanted to, after I’ve signed up and I know that I’m live and things like that, I would first just even look at my prior authorization queue, look at all the scripts in the prior authorization queue and check the list of drugs that we have on our program and see how long has that prior auth been sitting out there? Is it likely it’s going to get covered? If it’s unlikely that any of these meds are going to get covered, I think the first piece is to then let the patients know that these types of programs are accessible and that you could help them enroll in these programs. So that’s a very low hanging way to get started.

(16:31):

A more strategic. Go ahead.

Kate Helf (16:33):

Oh, I was just going to say too, and maybe patients who just suddenly stop filling from a local perspective too, that might be a great place to start as well.

Shelley Bailey (16:42):

Yeah, no, well, absolutely. So I think the prior auth, it’s just sitting there in your workflow. You can see all the prior auth rejections, so you have that. I think a more strategic way that I’m seeing in the data when I look at how our stores are leaning in their own unique ways is to data mine what your book of business had looked like, maybe like a third party dispense report or something and see all the transactions for GLP-1s that you’ve been currently doing and maybe go back a little ways, maybe you make that a six-month report or something so that you can look at who has had coverage, who has lost coverage, who fell out maybe of my refill management program or something and try to identify where those gaps were so that you could make your patients aware of these programs. So for example, for anyone in California listening, I was informed of this over the summer at the trade show, but Medi-Cal used to pay for GLP-1s but stopped in January of 2026.

(17:47):

So California stores were telling us, “Wow, Shelly, that’s a big group of people that we still serve the consumer for all their other medication. We just obviously can’t do GLP-1s for them anymore, so we’ve been helping them transfer out.” So we could help bring those back in. You could also run a report of medications you’ve transferred out and see in a transfer manifest how many you’ve transferred out. Talk to those consumers and say, “Would you like to continue at my local pharmacy?” I mean, one thing, especially in the GLP-1 space, is there’s so many changes related to dosing that are very real time that sometimes even if someone’s using a manufacturer direct mail order just can’t support in as timely of a fashion. So now if you can tell the consumer, “Hey, you pay the same out of pocket as you’re paying through an online digital pharmacy or a manufacturer sponsored hub or something, you can now come to me.” There’s a lot that just can resonate with that story to motivate the consumer to come in.

(18:49):

Another great population, you’re going to be sorry you asked, Kate, because I have so many things. Another great population, and this is very real time, are Medicare Bridge recipients. We know that Medicare Bridge is a great program for the recipients who are eligible, but there are very restrictive eligibility requirements on it. So for the individuals that may have been eligible for Medicare Bridge but were denied, that’s another big group of people that you could talk to about being able to access this program. During our live recording that we had, some pharmacies were saying, “Hey, I like the Medicare Bridge reimbursement rate. How is this program better?” I mean, I can say, I believe, because this is public with Medicare Bridge, is the reimbursement with Medicare Bridge is WAC plus $2. And I would just state here that our program is considerably better from the pharmacy perspective.

(19:51):

So if someone’s already leaning into Bridge, I think there’s even a lot more. But then there’s a lot more just passive marketing, putting signs up on your windows that say ask about GLP-1s or signage inside the store. And it may not have even been your customer, it might’ve been their wife or their parents. So just getting more visibility related to the fact that your pharmacy can do these things. I think a lot of our patients actually know that the independent retail business model is challenging, and I think a lot of our patients are thoughtful in how they work with our pharmacies. So I think a lot just don’t even simply ask us about things like this because they just assume my local mom and pop pharmacy probably can’t provide to me what these big online digital pharmacies can. And so now with this new program, and I don’t want to digress into another webinar that I know we have that we can make available, is we have a telehealth solution that if used in parallel, can help support the customers, maybe new ones who haven’t even been on a GLP-1, but have been cautious to ask their doctor because of maybe they’re embarrassed to talk about weight loss or something.

(21:07):

And so if you can also link telehealth to help provide a mechanism to support the needs of patients, there’s a lot of ways pharmacies can lean into this type of program to grow. And I will say, because sometimes pharmacies have so much going on, they’re really trying to look at, is this a buy-side program or is this a reimbursement program? Certainly want to be clear that at the current time, this is a reimbursement side program that we’re able to help pharmacies. I’d love to tell everyone here, we’ve cracked the nut on being able to help stores on the buy side with GLP-1s. But while those types of more strategic discussions continue to play out in the supply chain, at least being able to help on the reimbursement side means a lot. And again, we know that this isn’t going to change your bottom line on funded claims that you just have an aggressive rate and it’s terrible for you.

(22:06):

We know it doesn’t change that, but if I was a pharmacy owner, I would look at what does the book of business look like for all GLP-1s at my store right now? And again, no, on the funded side, I have limited ability to improve on that right now, but as I bring in new prescriptions for these GLP-1s or other drugs in the program, can I help balance the scales a little bit? So the aggressive funded rate, I have limited ability to do anything about as a store owner, but if I’m bringing in more strategically some of these new transactions, can I help make it more of a wash or more into the black a little bit? None of us run our stores on how one single claim reimburses or a therapeutic class of claims. It’s across the entire book, right? That’s what builds whether you have profitability or not.

(23:03):

And so I think this is a tool in the toolbox to be able to help improve profitability to an extent. There’s lots of other levers that the team at IPC helps support, whether that’s front end type of solutions in the supplement space, whether that’s telehealth, whether that’s clinical services. And then I look at this solution is, again, helping round it out so that at the end of a quarter, when you look at what your profitability looks like, that this is a meaningful driver to that.

Kate Helf (23:33):

Absolutely. And I think you hit on some really important and key points there, but also comprehensively, IPC is really trying to build an ecosystem to support these pharmacies in various channels. And I think it’s really important to consider though, as you said, the whole portfolio of the patient when you’re thinking about some of these value added solutions. So transitioning here to the last slide, it’s really important to me when it comes to talking about any type of a program that a pharmacy is going to be offering, that the staff feels well-informed and that the staff can identify some good patients to maybe have the conversation with. So Shelly, if I’m one of the pharmacy owners or a pharmacy team member listening at the counter, what are some phrases that I should be listening for?

Shelley Bailey (24:21):

Yeah, absolutely. So kind of stepping one step back, how do I let my staff know about the program so that they can also help support pulling that through? So A, just educating your staff about how the program works so that they understand the patient out of pocket, they understand potentially what the reimbursement looks like. I was always a very transparent owner because I wanted everyone to know what our economics looked like so we could work together as a team. But I think some of the keywords as you’re training your pharmacy clerks and pharmacy technicians to look for is patients that have come to check in to see if a medication has been covered or their prior auths been approved and you have to send them away. Again, I think those are a group of patients. Again, the individuals on the front end, they know what’s going on.

(25:08):

They know what’s going on in the community. They know who’s getting a compound, they know who’s going online. So it’s also just leaning into if someone says, “Hey, my mail order pharmacy hasn’t been able to get me my medication or my dose changed and my mail order pharmacy couldn’t get it for me,” those are the types I think of trigger words or simply someone who’s even looking OTC at things or says that I’m looking to lose some weight. We all have very different relationships with our customers. Some of our pharmacies have very sticky and very personal conversations with consumers. So there’s also just going to be consumers that are looking for support in the weight management arena and they’re actively asking their pharmacist what they can do. And so I think, again, prior auths, denials, issues with mail order, I think are keywords. But one thing that I also like even here at IPC is we’ve listened to our stores to pivot and be able to help support.

(26:14):

So what I also look forward to is hearing from stores who have listened to this webinar and who have signed up and all the different ways that they may have leaned into this program even differently than what I expressed today. My thoughts are kind of one former pharmacy owner’s thoughts. It’s how do we learn from everyone and be better together? For those that do physician detailing, it sounds kind of counterintuitive, but a lot of our compounders are now detailing their local physicians that they can also support these branded medications. And so we have stores that are members of their chamber of commerce and are always looking to tell people in their community they’re the trusted resource that everyone goes to. And obviously I think GLP-1s at this point is such a term that everyone knows. It’s kind of like Kleenex, right? Universal. It’s everywhere. Yeah.

(27:10):

No one says, “Give me a Kirkland brand tissue.” Everyone says, “Give me some Kleenex.” And I think GLP-1s now are that common and that known and both from a benefit side, but also from an expense side that I think there’s a really interesting opportunity here for stores to really be that strategic partner in their communities in a way that, again, improves affordability for the consumer, but also improves profitability for the pharmacy. Well,

Kate Helf (27:39):

I think those are some great suggestions here. One call out caveat, of course, I do want to mention is this really shouldn’t be, of course, a replacement for folks that have the insurance. It’s covered already. So I do want to make sure you talk a little bit about that piece, Stelly, because that’s definitely some questions we’ve gotten in the past.

Shelley Bailey (27:57):

Yeah. And again, I think that goes to, is this a buy-side support or is this sell side support? And again, as previously referenced, it would not be ethical to inform someone who otherwise has a covered benefit where their out of patient expense is lower than these types of programs to lean into something like that. That’s certainly not guidance that we’re giving. We’re not here to give legal guidance, but we’re certainly not here to give guidance like that. So identifying these patient opportunity groups are, again, patients who otherwise would not have had coverage that they would benefit from for these medications. And so I think that’s really important, especially as we continue to build new partnerships in this space for new drugs and other novel things, we want to make sure that our pharmacy partners are good actors in the supply chain for these types of programs.

Kate Helf (28:55):

Yeah. And as we’re coming up toward the end of time here, one question I do want to make sure I ask is in terms of looking at this program and looking at some KPIs to actually measure success and how well the program is actually performing for the pharmacy. As I mentioned earlier, we have a couple folks that have been on for maybe a month or two now. How should they be looking at this program and measuring overall success?

Shelley Bailey (29:19):

Yeah, that’s a weighted question there, but thank you for asking. I mean, one thing that is interesting about independent pharmacy owners is they’re all, by definition, independent. So first off, the type of KPIs that might be of great interest to one store could be very different from another. So I think looking at the list of drugs that are on the programs that our manufacturer sponsors can support is kind of step one. So we have some pharmacies that are heavy in urology, so some of these urology drugs have been of great benefit to them and the patients they serve, others In the diabetes space. So there’s unique flare that each kind of pharmacy can lean into on it. So I would say once you pick how you strategically want to lean into the program, again, a lot of people, it’s because of the GLP-1s and the multitude of GLP-1s they’re currently filling.

(30:21):

Again, I would do a dispense report to look at how many scripts am I filling? What is the profitability as a bundle across all payers on whatever therapeutic class I’m looking at? Then decide how I’m going to strategically lean in. And once I’ve decided that, if I was deciding GLP-1s, for example, then lean into some of these things that we’ve discussed today or other great ideas that you and your staff have. Let a couple months go by, let a quarter go by, rerun that same type of report. And so the KPIs I would be looking for, clearly script count’s one of them, but I think for most of the people here on the call today would be what does the profitability look like? Our goal is that you’ve better balanced what the economics of your book of the therapeutic class that you have an interest in has changed.

Kate Helf (31:18):

I think those are great, great KPIs to think about. And again, as pharmacies become more involved in the program, maybe some of those things will change, but those are some, I think, great initial areas that they can focus in. So we’ve reached the end here of the webinar, and as we mentioned, this was rerecorded. There were a couple questions that came up that we do want to make sure that we can address. The first one was, is this program free? And essentially, yes, it is for primary membership of course, and those that are affiliated through the IPC network. So that is a really solid benefit of being a part of IPC. One of the next questions I saw too was, Shelly, is this in pill form? I got a couple questions come through the chat about the form in which this comes in.

Shelley Bailey (32:11):

Yeah, so I would say the easier answer is probably to just say what GLP-1s, because I think that was GLP-1 related, aren’t covered. And so right as of today’s recording, Mounjaro is not part of the program, nor is Zepbound Pen. So the lower WAC Zepbound QuickPen is part of the program, but the Zepbound Pen is not part of the program nor the Mounjaro, but the orals, so the Fundeo and the Wegovys, those are all eligible through this program.

Kate Helf (32:44):

Perfect. And then I know we did get some questions about TrumpRx as well in terms of the differences in pharmacy reimbursement. Do you want to just share a little bit about that piece as well?

Shelley Bailey (32:55):

Yeah, absolutely. I know we had it on a previous slide and I suppose I didn’t lean into it when I was speaking, but one of the benefits about this program is not only does it have the manufacturer sponsored piece that we’ve been discussing today, there is the kind of cash piece that I would say is akin to how some of the things on TrumpRx are working. But one of the really special parts of this program is for stores that enroll through IPC, it gives them improved lift on the margin associated or the adjudicated claim amount with TrumpRx. One of the challenges I think with the TrumpRx launch was we have a lot of pharmacies, political opinions aside, some pharmacies are in red states that really wanted to lean into TrumpRx, but once they started adjudicating branded transactions, realized that the economics weren’t as favorable as they might have wanted.

(33:53):

And so it put some of those stores in a bad spot where maybe they really did want to lean into the program, but the economics were not as favorable as they had anticipated. And so one of the great things about this program is it does extend the same network rate to the eligible manufacturers on TrumpRx. That’s something that’s important for me to express because I think that when you watch the news, I do believe there’s going to be more and more programs that come through that funnel. So I think it’s an important piece for pharmacies to consider and be a part of. I guess the other piece is that it will give pharmacies visibility on TrumpRx, which we have reason to believe that pharmacies that aren’t part of some of these networks ultimately won’t be listed. So I think that there’s a lot of pharmacies who would want that visibility.

(34:46):

And so if they participate in this program, they will be able to access that.

Kate Helf (34:52):

Awesome. And that is a big, big benefit for our pharmacy network here. So to close this out, I just want to make sure that I reference that in terms of being involved in registration, we will share that QR code here up on the screen to go ahead and register for the program. It typically is going to take about 10 business days or so to be from start to finish of enrollment. So just know to expect that timeline. And then again, I want to call out this does go beyond GLP-1 prescriptions. There’s about 130 plus other branded medications that the pharmacy has access to, and I think it’s really important that you take a look at the full list versus just focusing on the GLP-1 side. So I think that really concludes our webinar here for today. Really appreciate the patience as we went through the re-recording.

(35:48):

I do want to call out too that this is just one, and as Shelly alluded to, one of the programs that IPC is working on. Please go to ipcrx.com and check out the website to learn more about some of the great things that we’re doing across the company. We are really trying to make a solidified effort to support independent pharmacy in so many facets. So if this is one of the first times you’re hearing about us or would like to learn more, please, we’d love to have more engagement with you and we have some other teams that I know would love to as well. So Shelly, thank you so much for being here today and sharing your wisdom on a lot of these topics here. Is there anything else you want to add as we’re closing out the webinar?

Shelley Bailey (36:32):

Oh, thank you for asking. I would say just to reinforce that there’s low risk to try. From what I’ve seen in looking at claims, watching the process of pharmacies enrolling, hearing from pharmacies their interests, I would say to the extent you have an interest in this, make sure to sign up for the initial information, but also see it all the way through. So make sure that you’ve went through the contracting process so that you can go live and then test and see it for yourself. I think that’s the piece that when I observe how things are going is just making sure that pharmacies see it all the way through. And then again, with your own skills and abilities at your staff, lean into it the way that you see fit, reach out to IPC for support and operational guides for support related to that. And then again, bringing feedback in so that we can help make sure that as our teams are helping to educate our members that we’re all better together.

Kate Helf (37:31):

Shelly, one of the final questions that we got in the webinar is that this program is in partnership with GoodRx, and there have been a lot of questions that come along with that. So can you maybe elaborate a little bit more on why this partnership, why now, and how we really feel that this is a good partnership for independent pharmacies?

Shelley Bailey (37:56):

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for asking the question. I mean, so this is a custom network that IPC has the contract with, so stores that are IPC members that are able to join can benefit from this custom partnership. But I would say that related to GoodRx and the why is they were the strategic partner that had the greatest opportunity for our member stores. There are some other manufacturer sponsored programs that maybe roll out in different ways. And obviously our team continues to look at partnerships in ways that we can bring more to our members, but for seamless claims adjudication and processing and patient out-of-pocket and leaning into as many manufacturer partners as possible, it made sense for us to bring and partner with a custom network for IPC that could, again, bring the biggest bottom line to the pharmacy. And that was both on rates as well as on the myriad of manufacturer partners and specific drugs that could be brought through this direct-to-consumer channel.

(39:04):

Direct-to-consumer, there’s a lot of discussion about it, both with employers and also just with consumers on the internet and things. And it’s really important for IPC that we’re leaning into the partners who can bring as much of that opportunity to our stores as possible.

Kate Helf (39:22):

I think that makes sense, and we need to find a way to really play in that space, and they offered an opportunity that we could obviously take advantage.

Shelley Bailey (39:31):

Absolutely.

Kate Helf (39:33):

Wonderful. Thank you, Shelley. Thank you everyone.

Shelley Bailey (39:37):

Thank you for having me today.