Las Vegas
Like their peers in the HME industry, independent retail
pharmacies are looking for ways to shelter themselves from the
coming Medicare-reform storm, and many of them see HME as the
perfect umbrella, according to attendees at Cardinal Healthcare's
13th annual Retail Business Conference, which took place July
21-25.
Consequently, Cardinal is making HME a focal point of its
program for retail pharmacists. “There are so many reasons
why [HME] makes perfect sense for retail pharmacy today … the
demographics, the margins, the need for convenience for consumers
— and there are no more excuses for retailers not to [add
HME],” said Betty Butler, director of customer and business
development for Cardinal. “With our solutions that will meet
the challenges of limited space and lack of product knowledge, [and
achieve] effective marketing and reimbursements, any retailer can
succeed.”
Pharmacies' increased focus on HME is not a surprise to William
Popomaronis, director of pharmacy specialty services for the
Alexandria, Va.-based National Community Pharmacist Association,
which represents owners of nearly 24,000 pharmacies. “NCPA is
training a new generation of pharmacists on entry into the home
health care market,” he told HomeCare. In fact, the
association is sponsoring a convention Oct. 18-22 in Seattle that
will include courses designed to teach retail pharmacists the
basics of HME — from billing to BIPA.
In all, more than 1,650 pharmacies sent representatives to the
Cardinal event, and retail pharmacists were among the most
enthusiastic attendees at HME-related conferences, according to
Louis Feuer, president of Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based Dynamic
Seminars and Consulting. Close to 200 people showed up for a
conference Feuer taught about marketing home care products, despite
the fact that the conference overlapped the lunch hour.
“There is definitely an interest [among independent retail
pharmacists] in marketing HME products, and there is interest in
taking this one step further — or they wouldn't have been
there,” Feuer said. “The topic was the draw.”
One thing is sure, Feuer continued: “The [HME] dealer
needs to see there's going to be an expansion of home
care.”
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of the home medical equipment industry.
