Most Profitable Pharmacy Services to Offer

So, you’re ready to expand your pharmacy’s offerings and add some patient services. Where do you begin?

Kurt Proctor, PhD, RPh, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at NCPA, notes that while there are a lot of different ways to diversify, not every option is right for every pharmacy.

“It’s important for pharmacists to make sure they’re remaining relevant to where healthcare is going,” he says. “It’s not just about the economics of dispensing, but it’s also that the payer community overall is changing. So they need to make sure they’re doing the things the marketplace is valuing.”

The 2018 NCPA Digest offers insight into the many steps independent community pharmacists are taking to help define the future of pharmacy practice and improve their return on investment.

• The top three patient care services offered by pharmacies are medication therapy management (79%), compounding (60%), and durable medical goods (53%).

• The No. 1 disease state management service is immunizations, offered by 70% of pharmacies. Blood pressure monitoring (57%), diabetes training (35%), smoking cessation (24%), and asthma management (16%) round out the top five services in this category.

• Eighty-eight percent of pharmacies have deployed a comprehensive medication adherence program, with 93% reporting that they synchronize all meds to a single monthly pick-up date.

• Seventy-one percent of pharmacies offer delivery services-most within six hours-and three-quarters of them do it for free.

• Forty-five percent of pharmacists provide long-term care services to their patients, including seniors in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, hospice, and home- based care. Specialty services range from nutrition assessment and support to intravenous therapy, durable medical equipment, ostomy, and pain management.

• Forty-four percent of pharmacies dispense specialty medications, including rheumatoid arthritis (87%), HIV (58%), and MS (46%) meds. 

Proctor, who is also president of the NCPA Innovation Center, says diversification has become an important part of the organization’s education program. Pharmacists who are interested in learning more can access the Diversified Revenue Opportunities section of the NCPA website for more information and inspiration.