Independent Pharmacist Salary

[PistonFan531]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

I graduate in May 2014 and I am planning on owning an independent pharmacy in the mero Detroit area very shortly after graduation. I plan to cover all of the shifts; therefore, I will be the only pharmacist working there. I plan to work 50-55 hours a week. Does anyone have a rough estimate as to how much money I will make given the above situations if I fill approximately 300 scripts a day? Or 200 a day? Or even 100 a day? Also, in general, what is the pay like at an independent as opposed to a chain?

 

[BidingMyTime]

I graduate in May 2014 and I am planning on owning an independent pharmacy in the mero Detroit area very shortly after graduation. I plan to cover all of the shifts; therefore, I will be the only pharmacist working there. I plan to work 50-55 hours a week. Does anyone have a rough estimate as to how much money I will make given the above situations if I fill approximately 300 scripts a day? Or 200 a day? Or even 100 a day? Also, in general, what is the pay like at an independent as opposed to a chain?

There are so many different variables, nobody can really predict how well you would do. More important than the number of RX's, is the % of cash paying patients/private insurance patients/public aid patients. For example, If MI is anything like IL, the state *at best* pays their Medicaid bills 6 - 8 months after receiving them. If you have a high percentage of Medicaid payments, this delay in payment is greatly going to effect your business. If you are getting an established business, this may not matter as much, if you are just starting out, it is a lot more money you are going to have to have in reserves to carry you through.

Seriously, before you invest in an independent pharmacy, you need to hire a specialist to look at the area & tell you what your expected revenue is. If you are not already a member, I would join NCPA, they have a lot of resources for students looking to get into independent pharmacy ownership.

 

[FlavyFlav]

Wouldn't there be much more to consider than just answering a question on how much you would make for 100 scripts?

I mean, questions of the top of my head you would need to research:

1. What exactly are you selling and what are the costs associated with those goods?

2. Is there compounding or any other added services that are provided? Prices?

3. Are you handling private insurance, medicare, medicaid or is it mostly cash pay?

4. What is the overhead of the store?

I worked at a couple of independents during my rotations. One of them was a basic pharmacy run like a chain. They sold a large amount of pain medication and would not generally accept medicaid as this lowers your reimbursement drastically. They had a fairly sizable staff and did other things like small order compounding and deliveries. The overhead was smaller and allowed for a larger margin.

The other was a a compounding pharmacy with a large amount of volume that included sterile and non-sterile preparations. They cleared a large amount of money but also carried a large amount of overhead.

Without getting into numbers, these two stores were completely different operations that sold completely different products and had completely different costs associated with their bottom lines. So, in summary, I think people will need more information.

 

[Ackj]

If you're the owner, it's up to you. Probably not a good idea to take home a large portion of the revenue for the first several years, though. Pay yourself whatever you can live off of, and reinvest the rest of the money back into the store to grow the business.

 

[Doctor M]

It all depends on you and your mix of payers. Medicaid pays weekly in florida. To the post above, if medicaid pays 6-8 months after, which i think may be incorrect, you would be out of business in no time. A small independent with 200 rx's daily filling very little cash and a mix of 85% generics and 15% brands nay bring in around 120k-180k, working by himself Mon-Friday and taking all the profits as income. Most of us reinvest the profits. Again, it all depends on many factors. if you dont fill many narcs, you are looking to avg $10-12 a script. So having a good mix of legend (85%) to narcs (15%) is a good mix. I find that Medicaid usually pays cost plus a dispensing fee. Very little margin. The different Medicare payers play an important part in you making money. It is a lottery and just depends on the type of meds you fill. We compound, do LTC and retail. We have a mix. The numbers work fine with that mix.

 

[BidingMyTime]

It all depends on you and your mix of payers. Medicaid pays weekly in florida. To the post above, if medicaid pays 6-8 months after, which i think may be incorrect, you would be out of business in no time.

You obviously don't live in Illinois, and you are right pharmacies & nursing homes are going out of business because of the late payments. Many doctors limit the number of public aid patients they take, and many doctors (especially specialists) refuse Medicaid patients. It is a major problem. This article is dated from 4 years ago, but the situation in Illinois has not improved. It's good to know that Florida is better, and hopefully for the OP, MI is too.

http://thesouthern.com/news/local/p...cle_2ac18751-2aa8-577a-b9e7-58e1c3aec603.html

"J. Michael Patton, executive director of the IPA said Illinois pharmacists are suffering from financial maladies worse than other states with the slowest Medicaid payments in the nation. Patton said the national average reimbursement for Medicaid is around 30 days, but Illinois was 130 days behind at one point. However, a recent short-term borrowing plan has allowed Medicaid to catch up to about 80 to 90 days."

 

[Doctor M]

You obviously don't live in Illinois, and you are right pharmacies & nursing homes are going out of business because of the late payments. Many doctors limit the number of public aid patients they take, and many doctors (especially specialists) refuse Medicaid patients. It is a major problem. This article is dated from 4 years ago, but the situation in Illinois has not improved. It's good to know that Florida is better, and hopefully for the OP, MI is too.

http://thesouthern.com/news/local/p...cle_2ac18751-2aa8-577a-b9e7-58e1c3aec603.html

"J. Michael Patton, executive director of the IPA said Illinois pharmacists are suffering from financial maladies worse than other states with the slowest Medicaid payments in the nation. Patton said the national average reimbursement for Medicaid is around 30 days, but Illinois was 130 days behind at one point. However, a recent short-term borrowing plan has allowed Medicaid to catch up to about 80 to 90 days."

That totally sucks. Dont know how any pharmacy could stay in business.