Northwind Pharmaceuticals recently completed several analysis projects for employer groups looking to implement an onsite/nearsite clinic as well as groups that already offered employees access to an employer sponsored clinic but did not currently dispense from the clinic. Offering drugs in the clinic through physician dispensing is a legal and highly effective mechanism for getting patients the medications they need in the most efficient way possible. The potential savings to self-funded employers offering dispensed medications through an onsite clinic are significant:
- For generic pharmaceuticals, our analysis revealed that employers could recognize savings of 50-60% from the cost of employees having their prescriptions filled at a retail pharmacy.
- The size of the target formulary was 100 medications in each of the cases.
- In addition to recognizing direct savings, the employers were able to eliminate patient co-pays for medications dispensed at the clinic. This added another 10%-12% in overall savings.
- For the groups in this study, the annual savings totaled over $250,000 for the 100 generic medications in the formulary.
How is this possible? There are three key reasons:
- Wholesale buying of prescription medications
- Elimination of the retail pharmacy margin
- Elimination of the PBM contract arrangement with the retail pharmacy (reimbursement contract and dispensing fees)
In addition, physician dispensing from an employer sponsored onsite clinic provides other benefits:
- Improved patient compliance by ensuring that the patient actually fills his/her prescription
- Faster access to care which improves productivity by getting the patient back to work more quickly.
- Reductions in call-backs and other time inefficiencies associated with coordinating with an offsite pharmacy.
- Increased employee satisfaction due to easy access to care and the elimination of co-pays.
The growing trend toward employer-sponsored health and onsite clinics confirms that the benefit to employers and employees is significant with the implementation of an onsite clinic. The impact of physician dispensing within the onsite clinic only enhances the overall value proposition of this compelling employee benefit.
