NCPA Releases Annual Digest on Pharmacy Industry

ORLANDO, Fla. (October 16, 2017)—The 2017 NCPA Digest, sponsored by Cardinal Health, was unveiled today at the National Community Pharmacists Association’s Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida. The annual benchmarking survey finds that independent community pharmacies continue to strengthen and expand the scope of services they offer patients while absorbing lower reimbursements for dispensing prescription drugs.

For eight decades the annual NCPA Digest has served as an important barometer for independent community pharmacy owners to quantifiably measure themselves as the pharmacy marketplace gets more competitive.

“Independent community pharmacies remain indispensable for patients, especially in underserved communities, according to the latest NCPA Digest,” said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey, Pharmacist, MBA. “This occurs because of the quality of services, which are growing as pharmacists find new ways to drive better health outcomes for their patients, and through civic engagement in their communities.”

The NCPA Digest found independent community pharmacies offer a variety of services: 86 percent offer medication therapy management; 74 percent provide immunizations; 61 percent perform blood pressure monitoring; and 52 percent furnish durable medical goods. From a philanthropic standpoint, nearly 69 percent of all independent community pharmacy owners donated to at least five local organizations in 2016.

According to Steve Lawrence, senior vice president of Retail Independent Sales at Cardinal Health, “As the 2017 NCPA Digest indicates, in the evolving health care landscape, pharmacists will continue to offer more clinical services to serve their patients. We’ll see independent pharmacies leading the way in offering the services and care patients need to stay adherent to their medications and remain healthy.”

Highlights from the NCPA Digest covering the 2016 independent community pharmacy marketplace include:

• The estimated number of independent community pharmacies is 22,041, down slightly from last year‘s total of 22,160.
• Community pharmacies represent 36 percent of the retail pharmacy marketplace.
• Eighty-one percent of community pharmacies serve population areas of 50,000 or less.
• More than 200,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) individuals are employed by these pharmacies, bolstering state and local economies and tax revenue.
• Prescription volume decreased from 60,493 prescriptions annually in 2016 to 59,746 in 2017, likely due in part to 90-day refill requirements, patients being steered to PBM-owned mail order pharmacies, and exclusionary pharmacy network arrangements.
• Generic drugs comprise 84 percent of all prescriptions dispensed.
• Fifty-two percent of total prescriptions are covered by the Medicare Part D and Medicaid programs.
• Ninety percent of community pharmacies are offering some type of medication adherence program.
• Below-cost reimbursements, exacerbated by DIR fees in Medicare Part D, contribute to gross margins falling by 5 percent over the past five years.

Visit ncpanet.org for more information.