Best wholesaler for independent pharmacy

[Drugstore]

Hi all,

I am starting my own independent pharmacy in north Carolina and I am confused to choose wholesaler for my pharmacy. There are so many in market like McKesson, abc, API, smith drugs etc. can anyone from the forums can throw the lights as which one is the best that would be great!!

Thanks,
Drugstore

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[MountainPharmD]

I've done a ton of research on this. I think Healthmart with McKesson is the best. I would talk with other Healtmart pharmacy owners in your state and see what buying group they are part of.

Managing your drug acquisition cost is the key to profitability. Wholesaler terms can be negotiated.

 

[MountainPharmD]

I'm very lucky in that I have a successful independent owner as a business partner. I wouldn't think of doing this all on my own.

If you do not have a mentor or experienced owner to advise you I would recommend contacting http://independentrxconsulting.com/ I've spoke with them several times and would have used their services had I not had a experienced owner as a partner. They are use Healthmart and McKessaon. Here's a brief description:

Essentially we help you become a pharmacy owner, everything from assisting with finding a pharmacy to buy, analyzing potential pharmacies, determining opportunity for improving the pharmacy, providing a location analysis, assisting with a business plan and pro forma, assisting with obtaining financing, negotiating with wholesalers, marketing the transition and transferring contracts and licenses.

As we discussed we own 10 pharmacies and have actually sold, bought or started 18 pharmacies in the past 2 years. Our consulting business is just delivering you our processes and knowledge.

 

[kvl1027]

Be careful using Healthmart or any other franchise. Margins are going to be thin enough without you forking over some of your margin for some "signage". You don't need a franchise to be successful. Every wholesaler has their ups and downs. I use Cardinal and overall I'm happy with them, but Mckesson all the big ones have their ups and downs.

I do recommend joining an independent buyers group like API(AAP).

 

[zetia25]

How about Cardinal Health?

They have strong support systems such as inventory management "CIM". It helped me cut down my inventory more than half. $380k to $168k after 3 months.

Mckesson has better price, but not specialized to independent stores.

 

[MountainPharmD]

How about Cardinal Health?

They have strong support systems such as inventory management "CIM". It helped me cut down my inventory more than half. $380k to $168k after 3 months.

Mckesson has better price, but not specialized to independent stores.

McKesson is completely specialized to independents via the Health Mart franchise. The franchise fee is only $250 a month. They've rolled out some awesome new tools for independents this year.

Health Mart®, a community franchise of more than 3,100 independently owned pharmacies across all 50 states, today announced the launch of its new Local Marketing Support program designed to make it easier for Health Mart owners to grow their business by attracting new patients and driving new revenue. The Local Marketing Support program provides matching funds and comprehensive marketing tools and campaigns, letting Health Mart owners increase awareness of their store and community care offerings.

Health Mart also recently launched the Your Pharmacy Online℠ mobile application, the newest component of McKesson’s Your Pharmacy Online consumer-facing pharmacy website. The mobile app provides Health Mart patients with convenient, on-the-go prescription management options, including submitting refill requests, receiving refill reminders or receive a notification when a prescription is ready for pick up.

Health Mart®, a community franchise of more than 3,000 independently owned pharmacies across all 50 states, announced today that it will offer its member pharmacies access to EQuIPP™, an online information management platform that makes pharmacy performance data available to health plans and community pharmacy organizations. Once the platform is made available to Health Mart stores, they will be able to review their unique performance data, compare them to a benchmark, and then identify areas for improvement in patient care and clinical outcomes.

EQuIPP™ is provided by Pharmacy Quality Solutions (PQS), a joint venture of the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) and CECity. PQA-endorsed measures are used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in the Medicare Part D Star Ratings Program, a performance metric system used to rate prescription drug plan performance. Of the fifteen metrics included in a Part D Star Rating, five core pharmacy metrics are triple weighted and can influence nearly half of a drug plan’s total composite score, making it critical that payors partner with high-performing pharmacies.