148 - Grit, Determination, and Entrepreneurship: A Pharmacist’s Career Path to Starting an Independent Pharmacy

HelixTalk - Rosalind Franklin University's College of Pharmacy Podcast

Sean P. Kane, PharmD, BCPS

Health & Fitness, Medications, Rosalindfranklin, Rfums, Pharmacy, Pharmd, Pharmacist, Medicine, Drugs

5 • 644 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we interview Hetal Patel, PharmD and RFUMS COP Alumni, regarding her career path that eventually led her to open Lebanon Family Pharmacy in TN in 2021. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of starting a new independent pharmacy and what the future of independent pharmacy looks like.

Key Concepts

Starting a new, independent pharmacy requires substantial planning 8 to 12 months before the pharmacy’s doors even open. New pharmacy owners need to consider a variety of factors such as location, type of building, a business plan with financial analysis, a variety of building and pharmacy inspections, paperwork and government approvals, and so much more.
PSAOs (pharmacy services administrative organizations) can be helpful, especially for new pharmacy owners, to serve as a liaison between the pharmacy and PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers) to negotiate reimbursement contracts. As owners gain more experience, there may be financial advantages to not using PSAOs and negotiating with PBMs directly.
Companies like “Health Mart” have a franchise-like model to provide products, services, documentation, policies and procedures, and more to independent pharmacies. These companies reduce the workload associated with running a pharmacy so that the pharmacy owners can focus their time and attention on the business itself and providing exceptional customer service.
There are a number of challenges to independent pharmacies – some of these challenges involve PBMs (DIR fees and MAC pricing) as well as unrestricted dispensaries in primary care clinics.

References

Lebanon Family Pharmacy. https://lebanonfamilypharmacy.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Helix Talk, an educational podcast for healthcare students and providers covering real-life clinical pearls, professional pharmacy topics, and drug therapy discussions.
0:11.0	This podcast is provided by pharmacists and faculty members at Rosal Franklin University College of Pharmacy.
0:17.0	This podcast contains general information for educational purposes only. This is not professional
0:22.4	advice and should not be used in lieu of obtaining advice from a qualified health care provider.
0:27.2	And now on to the show. Welcome to Helix Talk 148. I'm your co-host Dr. Kane. And I'm Dr. Patel.
0:37.3	And the title of today's episode is Grit, Determination, and Entrepreneurship,
0:41.3	A Pharmacist's Career Path to Starting an Independent Pharmacy.
0:45.3	We're going to ask for drum rolls because we're really excited in this episode to interview Dr. Hato Patel,
0:52.3	our very own COP alumnus, regarding her career path that eventually
0:57.7	let her to open an independent pharmacy named Lebanon Family Pharmacy in Tennessee in back in 2021.
1:05.1	We're going to discuss the challenges and the opportunities of starting this independent pharmacy business
1:10.2	and what's the future
1:12.0	of independent pharmacy looks like. Thank you so much for taking the time, Dr. Patel, to join us
1:17.6	today. Thank you, Dr. Kathy Patel and Dr. Sean Kane for inviting me for this episode. I am
1:24.3	really excited to talk to you guys about my experience today. Just a little bit of
1:29.6	background on myself, I graduated from University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2009, with a bachelor's in
1:37.1	biochemistry and cellular molecular biology. And then after that, I worked for Cigna Health Spring in Nashville for a few years as a prior authorization specialist as a pharmacy technician.
1:49.7	And then I also worked for a long-term care pharmacy in California for a year in a closed door at LCC pharmacy as an inventory specialist.
1:59.6	And then after that, in 2014, I started
2:03.5	RFEMS College of Pharmacy and graduated in 2018. So Dr. Patel, it sounds like you had some pharmacy
2:10.3	experience before you came to pharmacy school, which I'm sure served you well in pharmacy school.
2:15.1	And then at some point, as we mentioned, you ended up creating your own
	...

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