Why Mail-Order Pharmacies Are Changing The Way We Do Meds

Mom and pop drug and pharmacy stores have been closing down across the country for some time now. A lot of people get nostalgic about these stores as some of these stores have been around for decades. People get attached easily, and it gets hard to let go, but such is the way of the life. Here comes the CVSs, the Walgreens, Wal-Marts, and so on.

First came large pharmacies stores that came out with chains across the country as just mentioned. Though mom and pop stores were wiped out, one good thing that came out of it was increased employment opportunities for women. A Harvard study claims that though males still dominate the industry with larger pay scales, the condition of women has overall improved.

Who – Mail Order Companies

After these large online retail chains of pharmacies came the dot com boom and with it came the mail order pharmacies. This led to large-scale pharmacy automation, which along with tension packaging paved the way for an industry revolution.

How – Cost Effectiveness

They are moving fast with the development of technology in the field of pharmacy creating flexible, scalable, automation equipment and systems for central fill as well as mail order. They are also making strides in the field of hospital and retail. So how is it helping shape the future of the pharmacy industry?

Mail order pharmacy scenario is changing quickly due to all these advancements being made in various fields. The cost of labor has been reduced making meds cheaper than ever before. This has resulted in reduced man power, less salary, and wages and ultimately the cost of medicines that is now available to a wider range of the population.

Technological advancements have made it possible for the pharmacy world to operate with greater accuracy leading to better decisions and increased accuracy.

These pharmacies have been able to reduce their losses considerably by reducing the amount of dead stock and loss in stock due to expiry which is very common in the medicine field. Mail order technology has resulted in minimization of expired inventory resulting in savings. This has also enabled to keep your inventory and products up to date and always in stock. The whole process is much smoother and transparent thanks to the advent of technology.

Business

Mail order pharmacy is a $60 billion industry and the competition is stiff. It is also one of the fastest growing retail businesses in the US which are why the competition is so fierce. According to a report by Novartis Pharmacy, mail order business was growing at double the rate of normal pharmacy business in the 90s. The whole process is so cost effective that even preferred insurance companies are willing to work with them more than the traditional mom and pop drug and chemist stores.

Insurance companies are now riding the success of mail order pharmacy business. The success of mail order business can be measured by looking at how other businesses like finance and insurance companies are willing to work more with them now. Tension Automation has brought about a revolution in the pharmacy industry, and it is here to stay. With America’s messed up health care situation mainly because of the ACA, at least something is going right. When reading about America’s health care industry, most of it is not positive. Well, this is.

Mail order pharmacy also saves a lot of time for the customers because there is no face to face counseling involved. You can order from the comfort of your home which saves time and other traveling expenses. This is another reason why it is so popular with the masses.

They are also able to work faster and deliver better results reducing human errors due to all the automation that is involved in the process. Assembly line mail order pharmacy is a salient example. They are capable of fulfilling more than 10,000 prescriptions in a single day with fewer errors than a regular mom and pop store that will find it difficult to fulfill 100 prescriptions a day and that too with more errors. Mail order is conducted with bar codes and is always quadruple checked.

Another major benefit of mail order is that is it able to access regions and penetrate areas that traditional stores are unable to enter. Imagine a small village with a limited population. Opening a small store there might not be so profitable, and not all the medicine is going to be available there either. But mail order solves this problem with acuity.

Mail order can cut driving time because, in a rural area, the store may be far away from the place where the patient is located. Mail order will also deliver the product at a much lower price due to a smaller processing fee. This is because their operating costs are low, and they can fulfill prescriptions at a much faster rate and in bulk.

It is clear that mail order pharmacy is the future for the pharmacy industry and domain.