It's an exciting time for oncology practices as they enter the new business model of In-Office Dispensing, which is fast becoming a top trend for community practices. In-Office Dispensing lets practices enhance patient care by offering faster, more convenient in-house pharmacy services for oral medications; it also opens up an additional revenue stream for practices. However, it can take time and ingenuity to build your program into a fully oiled machine that delivers to its maximum potential.
Here are our three pillars to success in developing a truly optimized In-Office Dispensing program:
Achieve Operational Excellence
To drive a successful In-Office Dispensing program, your practice will need to develop an efficient, synergistic workflow. It can be difficult to know where to start without outside help. Consulting services, like those offered by the McKesson Specialty Health In-Office Dispensing Optimization team, can help your practice identify opportunities for improvement. The optimization team has identified a few areas in which there are often opportunity to improve:
- A single-ordering and a billing platform for your oral oncolytics
- Seamless integration of practice technology
- Intelligent reporting that prompts your staff to manage refills and follow up on medication and symptom management
The McKesson Specialty Health In-Office Dispensing Optimization team has found that focusing in these areas can reduce the administrative burden by as much as two to three hours per week for front office and clinical staff.
Maximize Provider Engagement
Everyone in your practice—from physicians and nurses to administrative and support staff—needs to be engaged from the start so you can realize the program's full potential. A successful In-Office Dispensing program depends on that team engagement, with everyone in sync and on board with providing and promoting this service. The relationship between pharmacy and physician is key to your success, so it should feel seamless.
Practices with an In-Office Dispensing program also need a marketing platform that is positioned to help both providers and patients. The focus should be on marketing the clinical value of the In-Office Dispensing services to the entire practice staff as well as to patients. That value includes faster time to treatment for patients as well as enhanced clinical tracking of adverse events, compliance, and treatment responses—all of which can enhance patient outcomes.
Know Your Numbers
Access to data and analytics is one of the first steps to helping your practice maximize In-Office Dispensing program performance.
Even if you have access, it's not always easy to know what to do with that data. Pharmacy consulting services, like those offered through McKesson Specialty Health's In-Office Dispensing program, take a comprehensive, consultative approach to helping practices track progress, optimize workflow, and identify opportunities for growth in prescriber engagement, prescription fills, and profitability. McKesson offers In-Office Dispensing practices a granular level of detail with Quarterly Business Reviews that include benchmarking and process improvement advice to help you maximize cash flow.
Your pharmacy services administration organization (PSAO) can help you with services like claim processing, payments, and managing deductibles. McKesson's PSAO provides expert contracting assistance for third-party payers and PBMs, in addition to consolidated reimbursements with daily electronic funds transfers (EFTs), electronic claims reports, and reconciliation assistance to help practices avoid delays in cash flow.
Once you have these tools and synergies in place, your In-Office Dispensing program will begin to fully realize its potential as an active revenue stream for your business—and an invaluable source of convenience and satisfaction for your patients.
Related: In-office Dispensing is Better Value