Patients navigating their wellness journeys face a challenging road. The administrative burdens of specialty medication's prescribing and approval processes create unnecessary and frustrating hurdles for both healthcare providers (HCPs) and patients.
For these physicians and their patients, a non-commercial pharmacy (NCP) can transform how patients start and stay on their medication. While their purpose has primarily been supporting “free good” pharmaceutical programs, NCPs offer much more value. They serve as a virtual holding area for a prescription that is sent to a dispensing pharmacy once benefit verifications, prior authorizations, copay programs and other fulfillment needs are completed.
Simplifying Prescribing with NCPs: A Solution for Physicians
Today, nearly all doctors are e-prescribing medication, but when they want to order a specialty medication, they typically have to go to a website, download a form, fill it out, and fax it to a hub. Even though the hub is designed to help alleviate the burden of paperwork, information is often missing or handwriting is illegible, becoming an administrative nightmare. The truth is, doctors simply can’t keep up with all the products, websites, and forms. Even the different hub systems are becoming overwhelming for HCPs.
The NCP is a pharmacy that can accept e-prescriptions, so the provider simply needs to prescribe the medication to the NCP. ConnectiveRx routinely works with pharmaceutical manufacturers to set up patient support programs using the NCP as the intake channel for enrollment into hub services. The NCP makes the starting process simple, automated, and seamless so the remainder of the patient support services can be put to work.
Streamlined Workflow for Specialty Medications
For example, primary care physicians (PCPs) treating asthma patients who have found little relief from inhalers and other therapies are able to prescribe a biologic directly to Careform Pharmacy, ConnectiveRx's non-commercial pharmacy, and would act as the manufacturer’s partner pharmacy. Now, rather than exiting the patient’s EHR and manually filling out a patient enrollment form, the physician selects Careform to receive the prescription for the drug, just like they would any retail or specialty pharmacy at the point of prescribing.
Similarly, specialists prescribing other specialty medications, such as a self-injector product to treat osteoporosis, are able to do so via the NCP, never having to leave their existing workflow.
Providers don’t need to enter the patient data because it's already in the EHR, and the relevant information is automatically transferred to the prescription. In-workflow EHR prescribing can give patients access to the medication days or even weeks faster. The time providers would normally have spent dealing with authorizations can now be used where it belongs: with their patients.
Client Satisfaction and Future Opportunities with NCPs
Ultimately, making the enrollment channel faster and easier for patients to get access to these potentially life-saving therapies is just one of many successful strategies for increasing the likelihood that patients receive their first dose and improving adherence. Client feedback is overwhelmingly positive, and many are evaluating other products to move over to the NCP intake platform because of the value it provides in simplifying the patient’s entire medication journey.
To learn more about non-commercial pharmacies and Careform Pharmacy powered by ConnectiveRx, check out our recent panel discussion to hear pharma companies and pharmacy strategists explore using NCPs to improve referral rates among HCPs.
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