The Value of Good Neighbor Pharmacy Today and Tomorrow

Drug Topics®: So to start, can you give us a brief overview of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy (GNP) network and the work you engage in with independent community pharmacies?

Brian Nightengale: We've designed the GNP platform to address 4 key needs and areas for our customers.

Number 1 is to protect their business operations and their profitability in today's really challenging environment. A lot of that has to do with reimbursement, contracting with the PBMs, and payers. We advocate strongly in our contracting for appropriate and adequate reimbursement to compensate the pharmacist for the care that they provide in their communities.

Number 2 is we deliver solutions and expertise that help to attract new patients and new consumers to these independent pharmacies, and also to help them retain the ones that they have. We all know that consumer and patient expectations are continuously evolving. And we make sure that our solutions evolve as well, so that we can continue to enable our member stores to engage with their consumers, new and old, in the way that those consumers want to be engaged.

Number 3 is we offer support and solutions to help them expand their business, expand their services beyond the traditional retail dispense. There are a lot of examples of that: pet medications is a perfect example where we've expanded. We helped them grow into clinical services that generate different streams of revenue and income and better solutions and service for their patients.

Fourth, which is also critically important, is we advocate on their behalf at state legislatures, and certainly in Washington DC, for needed reforms and change in terms of reimbursement and payment reform and also expanded pharmacists scope of practice. So really, when we look at all of the services and offerings under the GNP platform, every one of them are aligned with 1 of those 4 key objectives.