Update on our store!

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Don't live in Florida and I have read many of your postings about your store and success. It has been a breath of fresh air in the ever shrinking independent pharmacy situation. However, 3 years at a 130k for 40 years times 3 lifetimes , I think is 15.6 million. I have seen alot of independents get bought out and I am probably missing something but I don't think you are anywhere close to that. This is just based on your postings here concerning size and volume but over the years but I have never seen any prices like that. Never. If you can get that, kudos to you and your partner.

ahhhh, i never said anything about selling for that amount. :)
 
Im thinking of starting a business where i will finance your project at a reasonable rate. Business plan in hand and a lot of motivation needed!! Anyone interested, PM me :) :)
 
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In your eyes. Walking away with more money than many of you will make in 10 lifetimes, it makes sense. If you have ever owned an independent, the time and effort it takes at some point will make no sense. That time is now.


Sorry, must have misunderstood. I knew there where to many zeros there. Can never be close to that.
 
Congratulations on your exit. I opened up a pharmacy earlier this year from complete scratch and I've been lucky enough to break even 6 months in. I'm now planning a second location for 2015. I wouldn't be caught dead standing at a retail store working my ass off for absolutely nothing in return (no offense, retail). Working for yourself is the only way to go... it's every man's calling. I feel great because I look at my business and I can appreciate every little detail. From breaking my back while installing base boards or delivering meds to a patient's home at 5 in the morning, I am proud to call the pharmacy my own. From an idea and vision to a paper application... from floor planning and inspections to licensing and the first prescription filled... seeing everything come to fruition is a true feeling and sense of accomplishment. Better than sex or the most satisfying meal I've ever had. I sleep like a baby because I know I had such a productive day at work. I'm a better person now to my friends, my parents, my girlfriend, even strangers. I can cold call clients and sell my business in 20 seconds, literally.

You get a lot more when you invest your own time and money into a business. Of course there are risks, but what a dull life if you stay within the confines of "safety." My second location will be the next chapter of adventure in my life.

Who dares, wins.

You are only breaking even and already planning another store for 2015?
 
Sorry, must have misunderstood. I knew there where to many zeros there. Can never be close to that.

sigh...

Im walking away and selling because ive already made what i had to make. Sorry. I was not clear :)
 
You are only breaking even and already planning another store for 2015?

I would say concentrate on the one store. Make that one as profitable as can be. Opening another one now is premature.
 
I would say concentrate on the one store. Make that one as profitable as can be. Opening another one now is premature.

I appreciate the advice. Just know this, the expansion isn't without due diligence.

You are only breaking even and already planning another store for 2015?

Exactly what it says.
 
I would say concentrate on the one store. Make that one as profitable as can be. Opening another one now is premature.

You should listen to Doctor M. It's a mistake to overextend yourself. You have no margin for error.
 
You should listen to Doctor M. It's a mistake to overextend yourself. You have no margin for error.

Agree, sounds like he and his partner both accumulated over 15 million in about 5 years. Quite amazing.
 
Agree, sounds like he and his partner both accumulated over 15 million in about 5 years. Quite amazing.

Although I do believe Doctor M at first overstated the value of his company he did back away from that in posts that followed. It is understandable given that he has become emotionally attached to the business. This should not take away from posts he has made over the last several years which demonstrate a profound understanding of the challenges one will face in this space. Once again it is not wise to open another pharmacy when one is presently only breaking even. I believe you should wait until the first pharmacy is turning a profit and you have large cash reserves.
 
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Although I do believe Doctor M at first overstated the value of his company he did back away from that in posts that followed. It is understandable given that he has become emotionally attached to the business. This should not take away from posts he has made over the last several years which demonstrate a profound understanding of the challenges one will face in this space. Once again it is not wise to open another pharmacy when one is presently only breaking even. I believe you should wait until the first pharmacy is turning a profit and you have large cash reserves.

I didnt overstate the value of my company. I stated im selling because ive made "X" amount. Im not attached thus why we are walking away. sigh...
 
Although I do believe Doctor M at first overstated the value of his company he did back away from that in posts that followed. It is understandable given that he has become emotionally attached to the business. This should not take away from posts he has made over the last several years which demonstrate a profound understanding of the challenges one will face in this space. Once again it is not wise to open another pharmacy when one is presently only breaking even. I believe you should wait until the first pharmacy is turning a profit and you have large cash reserves.

TMI. I'll keep you guys posted.

Exciting times, eh?
 
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I didnt overstate the value of my company. I stated im selling because ive made "X" amount. Im not attached thus why we are walking away. sigh...

I think you are being very modest here. In about 5 years since I have read your posts you and your partner have each made more than the other posters here can ever hope to earn in 3 or 4 lifetimes. In about 5 years! I remember the posts you had showing the inside of your store. The volume that you were able to do in such a small professional store is amazing. I am surprised that if you won't be the subject of an article in a professional business journal. It gives all the new pharmacists hope and a road map so that their professional career can also last a short period of time. Perhaps their wont be a large glut of unemployed pharmacists and some posters have said.
 
In your eyes. Walking away with more money than many of you will make in 10 lifetimes, it makes sense.

I think this is the statement that raised quite a few eye brows.

Its not all that often you hear of a pharmacist opening an independent and selling it roughly 5 years later for the value of 10 pharmacists' lifetimes (or 3 or 4). It was early in my career, but I remember when the big chains began aggressively buying the small independents in the area and speaking with many of the owners who had sold out and none had the dream scenario as mentioned above.

Your story is pretty amazing. I hope many realize this is quite an extradorinary accomplishment for ANY venture and definitely not the norm.

Congrats on your success!
 
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Love your story DoctorM. quite a nice business! http://www.lifecare-rx.com/index.php

As a side note, I recently purchased a beach house in NW Florida. I'm growing interested in pursuing my Florida Pharmacy license. Do you (or anyone reading this)happen to know of a good Florida Pharmacy Law review? I'd like to get it just in case I get the urge in 10 years or so to move their permanently :) thanks!
 
So, Lifecare has been opened for 8 months or so. We are up to 85-100 scripts daily on average. On monday of this past week we filled 227 rx's due in part to an ALF acct. We expect to be doing around 1100 rx's weekly at our 1 year anniversary. I will keep updates monthly!

In or around 2014, he entered into an agreement with the owners and operators of Lifecare Compounding Pharmacy to receive kickbacks for each prescription he wrote and directed to Lifecare for filling. Later, the principals of Lifecare introduced Baldizzi to the principals of Centurion Compounding, a marketing firm, and these parties entered into another kickback relationship whereby Baldizzi agreed to become a Centurion “in-network” doctor and write prescriptions for compounded creams marketed by Centurion and filled at Lifecare. In exchange, the principals of Lifecare and Centurion jointly paid Baldizzi a kickback of each paid claim

Guess you couldn't make it against the chains so you tried cheating but then you even stunk too much at cheating and got caught. GG
 
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He always came across as an ass. There always sees to be a strong association btwn BMW drivers and being asshats
 
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Wait what happened? lol

Allegedly participated in a conspiracy to defraud Medicare and Tricare out of... well... out of about 10 times what many of us would make in our lifetimes.

LMAO
 
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In short, don't get involved in kick back schemes. CMS can ban you from being a provider for them and if that occurs, no one will hire you.
 
Looking at his posts from several years ago makes you really wonder if 90% of them were fantasy. The extremely rapid growth and profit from a little hole in the wall store never made sense to me. If they were doing anywhere near that well you would think one of the partners would have some ethics and not do what they did. My guess is volume was never that much and c2 scripts were much higher than stated which would make the rapid rx growth more believable. All horse do-do to me. Never made sense.
 
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You never know. Anyways, I did expand by acquiring a pharmacy in California back in '14 and recently opened another one. More and more of my time is going to ventures outside of pharmacy, as Trump in office takes away a lot of my confidence on reimbursement, aside from the war with PBMs and red tape with insurance.
 
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"$2,298,180.48 due to Express Scripts pursuant to the terms of the Agreement". Seriously is this really a lot of money for a small little pharmacy? Not with the huge rapid growth they showed and huge profits that seemed to jump weekly. Pennies only pennies for a dynamic independent store. Besides they may be innocent.
 
"$2,298,180.48 due to Express Scripts pursuant to the terms of the Agreement". Seriously is this really a lot of money for a small little pharmacy? Not with the huge rapid growth they showed and huge profits that seemed to jump weekly. Pennies only pennies for a dynamic independent store. Besides they may be innocent.

You could literally buy my store about 10 times for that amount. LOL
 
You could literally buy my store about 10 times for that amount. LOL

Sounds like you are not billing insurance companies like Express Scripts correctly. Perhaps hiring a consultant from say ummm Fla. may help you to achieve more dynamic growth and profits.
 
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so he got caught for fraud? seems typical of independent pharmacy owners to do shady things.
 
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so he got caught for fraud? seems typical of independent pharmacy owners to do shady things.


"Hmmm, I'm being confronted with an anecdote.
I'd better make an assumption about an entire portion of a profession based on this."

Congrats on your diploma from the Jenny McCarthy College of Logic.
 
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so he got caught for fraud? seems typical of independent pharmacy owners to do shady things.
They have to, to survive in today's climate against CVS
 
"Hmmm, I'm being confronted with an anecdote.
I'd better make an assumption about an entire portion of a profession based on this."

Congrats on your diploma from the Jenny McCarthy College of Logic.
So do you mail out that diploma? Or is it something that has to be printed out? Also, what letters can be added to the end of my name if I were to also get this diploma?
 
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Wow! DoctorM was one of THOSE pharmacists. That's despicable. They sullied our profession in the name of greed. I have no respect for those types and I'd like to see federal sentences handed down

Yeah I'm still around. I sold my first store ( just traditional dispensing no compounding) for a very handsome profit in 2015 and I bought a small, low volume store in 2016 for a very good price.

I'm interested in pursuing other pharmacies in 2017.
 
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Wow! DoctorM was one of THOSE pharmacists. That's despicable. They sullied our profession in the name of greed. I have no respect for those types and I'd like to see federal sentences handed down

Yeah I'm still around. I sold my first store ( just traditional dispensing no compounding) for a very handsome profit in 2015 and I bought a small, low volume store in 2016 for a very good price.

I'm interested in pursuing other pharmacies in 2017.

I hope he's in prison for a good 5+ years...they need to send a clear and strong message to these people committing fraud.
 
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I think you are being very modest here. In about 5 years since I have read your posts you and your partner have each made more than the other posters here can ever hope to earn in 3 or 4 lifetimes. In about 5 years! I remember the posts you had showing the inside of your store. The volume that you were able to do in such a small professional store is amazing. I am surprised that if you won't be the subject of an article in a professional business journal. It gives all the new pharmacists hope and a road map so that their professional career can also last a short period of time. Perhaps their wont be a large glut of unemployed pharmacists and some posters have said.

Lesson to be learned....there are 2 sides to every story, and if something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't true.

On the other hand, at least you don't have to do PCQ calls in prison.

Good point, WVUPharm! It's always best to keep a positive frame of mind!

"$2,298,180.48 due to Express Scripts pursuant to the terms of the Agreement". Seriously is this really a lot of money for a small little pharmacy? Not with the huge rapid growth they showed and huge profits that seemed to jump weekly. Pennies only pennies for a dynamic independent store. Besides they may be innocent.

Um, assuming he is guilty, then there is little reason to believe anything he posted here concerning his store's profits (he certainly wasn't being honest about how he was getting those extraordinary profits!) Of course, legally he is considered innocent until proven guilty....reality is it is *very* hard for an independent pharmacy to survive, so we can ask ourselves, what are the chances that someone who is the 1 in a million that can successfully open an independent pharmacy, will also be the one who is unlucky enough to get arrested on completely false charges?
 
Most likely he knew he needed to get out of the business because he was worried about getting caught.

Saw the indictment online...its not going to be pretty.
 
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Wow! DoctorM was one of THOSE pharmacists. That's despicable. They sullied our profession in the name of greed. I have no respect for those types and I'd like to see federal sentences handed down

Yeah I'm still around. I sold my first store ( just traditional dispensing no compounding) for a very handsome profit in 2015 and I bought a small, low volume store in 2016 for a very good price.

I'm interested in pursuing other pharmacies in 2017.

SO HAPPY to see you back. I went to the NCPA ownership workshop because of you and MountainPharmD. I loved it.
 
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SDN makes me pull my hair out each time I visit it. Dr. M is most likely going to prison.
 
SDN makes me pull my hair out each time I visit it. Dr. M is most likely going to prison.

Sad, but probably true. Maybe when Dr. M gets out of prison, he can come back and caution people about how it is so not worth it. I have never understood how someone gets involved in fraud like this, and think they aren't going to get caught. It must be a combination of extreme impulsiveness (caring only about the moment) and extreme ego (thinking they are too smart to get caught.)
 
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Sad, but probably true. Maybe when Dr. M gets out of prison, he can come back and caution people about how it is so not worth it. I have never understood how someone gets involved in fraud like this, and think they aren't going to get caught. It must be a combination of extreme impulsiveness (caring only about the moment) and extreme ego (thinking they are too smart to get caught.)

Actually from what I read the Express Scripts charge was dismissed because the business was an LLC and they were unable to prove charges against the owners vs the LLC. I think Express scripts could refile but don't know if they did. God Bless LLC's I guess. Proves the old saying innocent until proven guilty. Not sure about any other charges. So perhaps the former owners are alive and well and living large in a nice sunny climate. Me, I am off to work to count pills with a little tin knife. Guess they were smarter than me.
 
Actually from what I read the Express Scripts charge was dismissed because the business was an LLC and they were unable to prove charges against the owners vs the LLC. I think Express scripts could refile but don't know if they did. God Bless LLC's I guess. Proves the old saying innocent until proven guilty. Not sure about any other charges. So perhaps the former owners are alive and well and living large in a nice sunny climate. Me, I am off to work to count pills with a little tin knife. Guess they were smarter than me.

LLC does not shield you from criminal charges like fraud against medicare and stuff. While Express Scripts may have dropped their charges....the federal government probably did not.
 
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LLC does not shield you from criminal charges like fraud against medicare and stuff. While Express Scripts may have dropped their charges....the federal government probably did not.

Unknown whether Express refilled or not. Don't know if feds filed charges or not. But if you google LLC in Fla with one of the "alleged" bad hombres name a bunch of LLC listings come up. Seems to be alive and well.
 
Unknown whether Express refilled or not. Don't know if feds filed charges or not. But if you google LLC in Fla with one of the "alleged" bad hombres name a bunch of LLC listings come up. Seems to be alive and well.

The federal government did file charges...it was stated in the article. As far as all the people involved...I don't think they filed against everyone.
 
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