Unlocking Digital Health: Strategies for iCare+ Commercialization

Whitney Lynch (00:00:03):

Alright, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Whitney Lynch. I’m the Associate Director of Business Development at NCPA. I’d like to welcome you to our Business Booster webinar Unlocking Digital Health, presented by IPC. Joining me today is Samantha Pomeroy. She is a pharmacy professional serving as the director of pharmacy services for IPC with a career spanning over 20 years. She brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her role. Samantha’s journey in the pharmaceutical realm began as a certified pharmacy technician where she developed a deep understanding of the intricacies of pharmacy operations. Also joining us is Ashton Maaraba, president of IPC Digital Health. Ashton has over 24 years of healthcare industry experience. He is credited with transforming several startup healthcare brands into consumer staples. Before I pass it off to our speakers, I did just want to cover a few housekeeping items. You can submit your questions through the chat or through the question feature. We will hold off on answering those and get as many as we can in at the end of the presentation. If for some reason we don’t get to yours, our speakers will most likely reach out after the program. Without further ado, I’m going to pass it over to Ashton and Samantha.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:01:25):

Thank you so much. Thanks Whitney. We really appreciate NCPA having us on today and for the opportunity to speak to you all. So welcome to IPC Digital Health, unlocking digital health strategies for iCare+ commercialization. So, for those of you who do not know who IPC is, we are independent pharmacy cooperative. We are a buying group for independent pharmacies, and we are also a secondary wholesaler, and we have a warehouse in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. So, some of you might know us from our buying group side, some of you might know us from our wholesaler side, but we have created a digital health platform and our brand is iCare+. So as Whitney mentioned, I’m Samantha Pomeroy and I am joined by Ashton Maaraba. He’s the president of IPC Digital Health and Pharmacy Services and he is going to get us started in our discussion today. Ash.

Ashton Maaraba (00:02:30):

Thanks Sam, I appreciate it and thanks Whitney and NCPA as well. First and foremost, I want to welcome everyone to the webinar and thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to listen to us and allow us the time to present IPC Digital Health and the iCare+ product. And then also, without a doubt credit our member cooperative for entrusting us to bring this new program as part of the value proposition and the suite of services that we are bringing to the market in order to future ready. Our independent pharmacy members we’re very excited to get into this new product and it’s been a journey in developing IPC Digital Health. We couldn’t have done it. We couldn’t have accomplished our goals without the support of the independent pharmacy cooperative staff and the IPC Digital Health staff working together cohesively, believing in each other, believing in our product, believing in our mission and our vision as well.

(00:03:45):

We also want to make sure that we always thank our board of directors for their support and our CEO Marc Essensa for his vision and his unconditional and unwavering support for us as an organization. We have a lot to talk about today. Hopefully we’re going to try to stimulate curiosity, put you in a position where you can see and feel digital health in your environment, the iCare+ products and brands that we’re bringing to the table. One of the things I wanted to mention before we move on to the next slide, and Samantha, and excuse me, Sam goes through the agenda, was that we’re experiencing a paradigm shift in the industry. Independent pharmacies are the most trusted brick and mortar or pharmacist and pharmacy staff in terms of our healthcare industry. The statistics tell us that independent pharmacies are the front lines of acute healthcare, and we have the power to really help change patient outcomes.

(00:05:00):

And so part of our paradigm shift and as a way of boosting revenue and diversifying the services that our frontline healthcare providers, hence pharmacists are providing day and age, is to bring in great new programs that are innovative like IPC Digital Health and the iCare+ product brand to mitigate DIR fees, to help you diversify your business offerings, to validate the profession as the advocacy from the government affairs side continues to fight for provider status in states where it doesn’t exist. This is the type of program that helps validate your profession, helps put you in a position and build that power profile within the communities that you serve. So, there’s really a lot to cover. You’re going to understand more about the program, what we mean by these points that I’m making, and looking forward to continuing the presentation as we go on through the slide deck.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:06:01):

So as Ash said, we have a lot to cover. We’re going to dive a little bit deeper into these following topics. First, we’re going to talk about the

Five pillars of Digital Health

The importance of digital health in community pharmacy

Exploring the benefits of iCare+ for patients and providers

Navigating the commercialization process. How has that been? What is the process?

Implementing effective strategies to integrate iCare+ into your pharmacy?

So, we have a lot to cover. We want this to be interactive. So, we would love for your participation and for your feedback and we would love to answer the questions that you have today and we’re excited to talk to you. So, we’re going to do a little icebreaker and Ash is going to monitor the chat for me, so please participate. We really do want to hear from you. The first question that we have as an icebreaker, “Is future-readying your pharmacy important to you?”

Ashton Maaraba (00:07:14):

Start typing away. Let’s see those answers a few minutes.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:07:18):

If you do not participate or if you choose to not participate, just keep these questions that I’m going to ask in mind throughout the presentation. But the first question is, “Is future-readying your pharmacy important to you?”

Ashton Maaraba (00:07:43):

Yeah, we’ve got one, yes.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:07:46):

Good, thanks.

Ashton Maaraba (00:07:48):

Amad. We appreciate your response.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:07:50):

Yes, thank you. Okay, next question.

Ashton Maaraba (00:07:53):

Now we’ve got second, yes.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:07:54):

Okay, good, good.

Ashton Maaraba (00:07:56):

Now we’re on a roll.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:07:58):

It’s very important to us here at IPC, so we do hope that it is important to you. What percentage of your total daily script rate is cash? Cash is king. So, what percentage of your prescriptions that you’re filling on a daily basis do you feel like is cash? I’ll wait just a few minutes.

Ashton Maaraba (00:08:23):

Okay, five. That’s a nice number. Not enough.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:08:32):

It’s never enough.

Ashton Maaraba (00:08:34):

A little less than five or is that greater than five? I can’t tell. Well, I should have worn my glasses.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:08:45):

I talked to a member the other day, they had 15%, they thought. I said that’s a great number.

Ashton Maaraba (00:08:50):

10ish.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:08:54):

Okay, let’s go to the next question. Do you have more than three patients per month that do not have access to primary care? Yes, or no? You live in a rural area just depending on your area. Do you have more than three patients in a month that you feel don’t have the appropriate access to primary care? Yeah,

Ashton Maaraba (00:09:19):

That’s great. I’m seeing a lot of yeses and yeps, sure, we sure do.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:09:23):

Okay. Alright, last question. Do you have patients that are uninsured or underinsured? Yes, or no?

Ashton Maaraba (00:09:38):

I’m seeing a lot of yeses or a few yeses that are coming in.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:09:45):

Good. So, we are going to talk through these today, so keep these questions in mind, your answers in mind, and I’m going to have Ash start us off with the five pillars of digital health and dive into each of these that we have in our platform.

Ashton Maaraba (00:10:05):

Thanks Sam, I appreciate it. And those questions were really important. We looked at certain icebreakers to add to the presentation and we really wanted you to start thinking for those that responded, thank you very much for those that didn’t but could answer those questions with numbers that were tangible and obviously yes, no responses related to what’s going on in your store environment, in your ecosystem. I think it’s important to note that cash, business access and affordability, those are very important aspects of whether or not our patients are getting better throughout our community. And for those of you that didn’t have the opportunity to hear previous presentations that we had rolled out about IPC digital health and what our five pillars consist of, just a couple things that we do want you to understand in terms of why we even exist. Our goal at IPC was to advance the member value proposition.

(00:11:16):

We looked at the, right now obviously we’re a drug wholesale distributor and an amazing GPO, but we also looked at how can we focus on the adherence side of the world in order to modernize pharmacy and really get pharmacy ready for the now and the next X number of years after the now and last year we were future proofing independent pharmacy with our MVP concept. This year we’re future readying our pharmacies and our members and we developed the five pillars of digital health and that’s really what digital health embodies. I’m going to take you through the five pillars, so you understand what we are offering now within those pillars and what are we bringing in the 2.0 version from those pillars. So, you understand that digital health is a modern way of diversifying your pharmacy, but we’re also doing this in stages, so we make it very easy for our independent pharmacies, our members to engage at that level one, perfect it, adopt it, embrace it.

(00:12:30):

I mean, our vision was to develop a healthcare ecosystem for our members. And so, as you do that at square, at level one, phase one, then you’re ready to tackle phase two and you really become experts in digital healthcare across your community. If few buzzwords that you hear a lot out there are differentiation, points of differentiation, build and advance the credibility and the integrity of the profession. That’s what digital health and the Eyecare Plus product really do for you. So, starting out what the Eyecare Plus brand consists of under digital health is telehealth, which covers telemedicine, telepharmacy, light and remote patient monitoring. Telemedicine provides your patients with direct access to primary care providers for at an affordable price, both for an encounter and for a subscription for the entire family. And we really looked at the best ways to develop this and make the offering and it’s part of the Eyecare Plus Virtual Healthcare Center and we’ll show you what that looks like further in the slide deck.

(00:13:44):

Telepharmacy Light is very unique. We adopted Telepharmacy Light as a medium to remote patient monitoring. What we developed as part of our ecosystem is a pharmacy centric digital healthcare platform. It’s the first time, and I’m going to say it again, pharmacy centric. Pharmacist centric, which is completely different than historical remote patient monitoring platforms that you’re used to seeing. The reason why we developed this pharmacy centric is because of how critical your venue is to healthcare. And when a prescription comes in through the normal standard prescription queue and the pharmacist follows up on the iCare+ platform with that patient through a life synchronous encounter, that’s telepharmacy life and that’s the beginning of where we start to really subsidize the pharmacies on these cash transactions. We’ve also offered because our members where a member co-op, as Samantha mentioned, there’s also the ability to generate revenue just from having your patients use the telemedicine platform because our members basically own a share of IPC cooperative.

(00:14:57):

So, it gives you the idea that we have a little bit more flexibilities than your traditional GPO out there because of our business composition and our business makeup. The remote patient monitoring channel is really cool because it’s the 2.0 of our iCare+ platform. Our platform is hybrid, it’s software, it’s internet based, and when we created this we said, look, we want that level one to give patients affordability and access to just your typical, your typical telemedicine doctor. We also want the pharmacist to have a link on the platform as well. So, we customize the patient profile in order to link the patient to your pharmacy from the get-go. That’s how we create that connection, hence the telepharmacy light for remote patient monitoring. It’s the same platform, telepharmacy Light.

(00:15:56):

We have a standard as part of the protocol and that’s a five-minute visit and the pharmacist gets reimbursed directly through IPC for completing that five minute visit. Those that are familiar with remote patient monitoring CMS has already distributed guidelines that require, sorry, that reimburse pharmacies that are part of collaborative practice management agreements with local providers, local physicians. We also allow those physicians to tie into the platform as part of the iCare+ clinic tied to that store. So that’s our pillar number one. Pillar number two consists of point-of-care testing and home health tests. We didn’t stop at just one part, one offering for iCare+ we also integrated and bundled labs home test kit labs into the platform itself and we’ll show you what that consists of later on. But basically, from home test kit standpoint, we merchandise home test kits. They’re part of the launch bundle.

(00:16:58):

These are active home test kits. We merchandise ’em to your store and when patients purchase the kit, they activate it on the platform. We have the web-based platform and then we have the iCare+ mobile app. So patients will activate their kit directly on the mobile app and then the pharmacist can automatically see the patient’s profile and the activated kit on their side. When the patient sends in the kit, what happens is the lab result filters directly into the platform for that patient and for the pharmacist to view for point of care testing. We’re really excited about this. I’m going to pass this one over to Sam. She’ll just briefly cover that part of pillar number two and then we’ll move on to the next pillar. Go ahead Stan. Sure.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:17:43):

So currently our clinical pharmacists and VP of pharmacy services, Kelly and myself do one-on-one consulting with our members to get you started in offering point of care testing. We provide guidance through the CLIA waiver process helping you know what analyzers to use through our contracts through GPO, we have great pricing on tests and analyzers that we can help direct you to. We also help you to create your workflow, what does that look like if you’re going to offer that in your pharmacy and we can also help you with a pricing structure. So that’s what we are doing currently with point of care testing, but our ultimate goal with digital health is to integrate point of care testing the results and the process into iCare+. So, we’re really excited about bringing that to you as well.

Ashton Maaraba (00:18:42):

Thanks Kim. And part of that strategy is to continue to collaborate with vendors that are focused on digital health, that are also focused on, that are modernized, that are innovative and that really kind of fit into our overall picture and long-term plan so we can continue to offer the services that are integrated into our platform as a digital benefit in order to keep all the details in the labs consolidated into one access point. Prescription savings is our third pillar. We wanted to do things differently than what typically independent pharmacists have experienced over the years through the GoodRx and some of the traditional models that are out there that are more, that cater more to the chains and the preferred networks. I think this was a category where we could really advance under and advanced in given that we are a GPO, we are a drug wholesale distributor, we have a way of molding the formulary and we can gain access to a primary priority claims processor.

(00:19:49):

So, we developed iCare+ script pass, which is really one of our favorite pieces and favorite token items and benefits that we plugged in as a cash incentive for your patients and also as an incentive to our pharmacies to earn in some of the rebate. We design our own formulary. We also utilize PAC pricing, which is more of a progressive method for assessing direct pricing and the discounts that are offered on the platform. So, we’ll mention a little bit more about that later, but it gives you the idea that this is not your traditional drug discount card. This was created specifically and exclusively for independent pharmacy members and we’re very excited as you learn more about it, we think you’re going to love it. There’s the opportunity to get cash back as part of a rebate given again that we are a member cooperative, we’re known for rebates.

(00:20:48):

That’s how it works through IPC. Everything that comes in is purely patronage. So, we found a way to adopt IPC digital health components into that patronage compendium, so to speak. The fourth pillar is people transport and coming soon RX delivery. Why we’re proud of People Transport is because of this. We know that one of the biggest disadvantages consumers have across the country patients have is that many of them can’t even get to their primary care. We also know historically that remote patient monitoring platforms failed to address the people transportation piece of it. So, for example, when we get into remote patient monitoring, which is our 2.0 version, we found that historically, for example, a patient would get enrolled into a case between their primary care and a pharmacist under a collaborative practice agreement. But then a quarter of the way through the interventions that were taking place for that patient, we found that cases couldn’t be completed because patients couldn’t even get to the provider.

(00:21:53):

What they say necessity is the mother of all inventions, right? So, what we did was we found a partner in Uber Health and we worked with them, we pitched them our vision and they said we’re in. We are the only company that is setting this precedent right now. And what we feel we made the impossible happen. We made it possible. We fully integrated Uber Health into our people, into our platform. So, both the pharmacists and the doctors that are collaborating together can automatically trigger the transportation and the pickup for that patient. The patient gets notified in the app and through an SMS as well, they also get a voice call letting ’em know that Uber Health is on the way to pick them up and take them to their doctor. We think it’s awesome and we work very hard on it. Our partners at Uber Health are extremely excited about this.

(00:22:47):

We will have, if you’re attending ideas here, we will have a member from the Uber Health team working with our group at this year’s conference prescription delivery. We are moving into that next as part of our fourth pillar. We wanted to do people transport first. Prescription delivery is next and we will integrate the prescription delivery portion of Uber Health as a supplement to those stores that are trying to expand their reach within their communities or other communities for prescription delivery as a supplement or those stores that are finding, maintaining their own prescription delivery program is operationally prohibitive or extremely expensive. Going through the Uber Health prescription delivery model, which would be integrated into our platform is a much more, could be a much more cost effective channel for them. That kind of completes our pillar number four. And finally, pillar number five, we’re very excited about pillar number five and this is a 2025 project for us and that’s getting into what we call copay assistance programs.

(00:23:54):

So, I’ll stop there at pillar number five. Copay assistance programs, as you know, have often catered to the large chains over the years where the manufacturers and specialty drug manufacturers as well, both brand and specialty have really worked more towards offering the chains the benefit of providing copay assistance that’s integrated through either the switch or through the PMS tagged against this specific NDC and that patient based on that patient demographic in the population receives that benefit. Many independent pharmacies over the years have been getting caught out of those opportunities while we got a little tired of that and we said, you know what? We need to operate as a network. That’s what iCare+ is a network and the fact that we have this network gives us a seat at the table. So, we’re getting into this, you’ll hear more about it further down the year. So that’s it for the five pillars and onto the next slide.

(00:24:57):

So, this slide I won’t touch too much on because we did cover it in the five pillars, but it kind of gives you the idea of, again, it reiterates that we’ve expanded what Telehealth consists of within our ecosystem. We’ve added the telepharmacy like piece and access point and it’s fully automated into the provider platform based on those patients that are enrolled into the program. And then I did mention remote patient monitoring as well. Keep in mind we’ve developed a digital healthcare ecosystem of care designed for our IPC members and it is unique. We’ve raised the bar and we’ve bundled everything under one software solution that we host under the iCare+ virtual healthcare strategy. Next slide.

(00:25:53):

This shows you what a home test kit looks like. Part of the starter program is an iCare+ participant. You not only get the access to the software, we actually set up a virtual healthcare center in your store. So, it is a white glove service end to end, which we’ll talk more about at the end. But part of your bundled starter program, you do receive six free fully customized test kits to where once the kit’s activated on the iCare+ mobile app or the provider pharmacist can actually activate it for the patient behind the counter and then also support the patient, whether it’s the pharmacist or the pharmacy staff member or health coaches in your store. You can support the patient, help them take the test, and then they would mail it directly from the store. They can mail it later, but this is a merchandisable item.

(00:26:42):

The reordering for this item is available through the member catalog on the member website through IPC. Those that are existing members, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Those that are not members, you better get on board because you’re going to miss out. But we are very excited about this, and we see this as an extremely critical category and I’ll just tell you why The cost of engaging in this test is probably 10 times less than having to go to the lab and it really depends on what the labs are charging. This is a cash-based model, but it gives you an idea having the same type of test with the same type of biomarkers and analytes. We do differentiate with our analytes than what you see. For example, at competitors out there. We have expanded the number of analytes that are included in each test for the reason of putting our pharmacies and our pharmacists in a position to really cater to that patient based on their condition, detect what could be wrong or validate what they already might know in terms of what could be wrong with myself and so forth. So, this is one of the fastest growing home healthcare categories on the market and our goal was to put IPC independent members at the front and on the front lines of this fast growing category. And that’s one of our goals obviously and part of the IPC value proposition. So next slide please.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:28:08):

I’ll just add to that Ash in visiting the pharmacies and implementing this in pharmacies, this was one of the things that they were all very excited about and also very surprised at the price point for the patient for them to purchase it obviously, but for the patient as well. So very excited about that.

Ashton Maaraba (00:28:29):

Yeah, Sam noted just not when she visited the stores and heard the feedback, but just a statistic that everybody should keep in mind. One of the things that we’re hearing out there that’s been documented and been publicized on various media sites, whether it was CNN or you may have read it in different publications, STDs today we’re experiencing a higher number of STDs in adults, in adult patients than we’ve experienced in many, many years. So, one of our tests is an STD test and then this gives you kind of an idea in terms of script test, which I mentioned is one of our pillars. We have our own bin number, we have our own group, we have our own PCN number. Why also did we get into script pass? So, our pharmacies can also develop relationships with local businesses. There’s many of our pharmacies that are in rural markets or in health deserts are connected to businesses that don’t offer insurance.

(00:29:34):

So when you start thinking more about iCare+ in our virtual healthcare program, the pillars and the different tentacles that are offered those pillars, hopefully you’re starting to kind of feel and see how some of these tentacles can really fit inside local businesses and employer sites that don’t offer insurance as a way of funneling traffic to your store, building your business, and then also expanding the different cash based services that you offer within your community. What’s great about our program and the group number that you see is that we can also create subgroup numbers so you can also private label this and depending on the number of stores you have, it is an option that we are providing for limited groups based on a few qualifying elements that are part of that process. Next slide please.

(00:30:31):

And then I already touched on people transport and prescription delivery, but it kind of gives you an idea our partner, Uber Health, what that consists of. If you’re part of one of our subgroups, one of our sub-GPOs that we may have presented to, if you’re not part of a sub GPO, you want to join IPC. As soon as you join IPC and you request to join iCare CarePlus, you are going to be able to see end-to-end the demo. If you are attending McKesson idea share again, please stop by our booth and you’ll be able to see how this all kind of bundles and how this works together. Next slide.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:31:12):

One thing I was thinking, Ash before we move on is just from working behind the counter for so many years and trying to bring solutions into our pharmacies, there were so many different logins, so many different subscriptions that we had so many different platforms that we had to offer all of these different solutions. And one thing I really appreciate, and I feel like our members really appreciate about this is it’s all in one. So, you don’t have all of this extra, we get nicked and dimmed enough. And so, I just wanted to mention that as we were going through that I thought all of this is in one place, all of this is in one platform, so that’s so nice.

(00:32:03):

Okay, so in talking about digital health and community pharmacy and why it’s important with advancements in technology, patients are increasingly turning to digital solutions. We see it all the time for their healthcare needs. So, let’s take a moment and just talk about the importance of digital health and community pharmacy and what that means. I always like to look at the data when talking about this. The NIH reported that 90% of Americans live within five of a pharmacy. That is significant. And also, in our research we found that 52% of Americans are either uninsured, underinsured, they’re suffering from an insurance gap or they’re living in a healthcare desert. So, keep that in mind. Community pharmacies participating in digital health really provides patients with the access that they otherwise might not have. Ash mentioned remote patient monitoring, participating in remote patient monitoring, and collaborating with those providers and helping patients and their families monitor these chronic disease states can truly enhance patient care and improve patient outcomes.

(00:33:28):

It reduces healthcare costs by preventing complications and hospitalizations and it can also bring in additional revenue to your pharmacy. So, I truly feel like being future ready, you really need to think about digital health and community pharmacy and just kind of expand on the benefits of digital health. It’s convenient for our patients. We all live busy lives. We’re all searching for convenience in everything. In today’s world, it is for those that have mobility issues. If you think about that, they can do this from the comfort of their home. That’s really important. It’s affordable for so many that are underinsured, have high deductibles, have high copays, so there’s affordability. And one thing that I have noticed is trust. Our patients trust us in community pharmacy. Not only do they have access to us, but they trust us, and trust and access can be a true barrier to care for so many. And then as a provider, when we say provider, we’re talking about you, the pharmacist. Like I said, being future ready is becoming that total healthcare destination for your patients and for your community. And iCare+ can provide you with the tools and the resources that you need to incorporate this into your business and to diversify your offerings.

(00:35:17):

Let’s talk about the commercialization process a little bit. Ash, do you want to talk to our members about the onboarding process and then maybe we could share some of our experiences in implementing this into our member pharmacies?

Ashton Maaraba (00:35:32):

Absolutely. Thanks Sam. This is a real exciting part of our process because of the disciplines that we underwent, and we implemented as an organization to build this program into our member offerings and also build a sustainability model so it lasts forever. Sam did a really great breakdown of who IPC is at the beginning and keep in mind that that breakdown is a testament to the organization that’s been around for over 40 years. So, we looked at it and we said, look, 40 years of discipline on the drug distribution side, we need to build 40 years of discipline on the digital health side. And so, to do that, we had to really build a process that made sense that was fully adaptable to the same type of services that our members have historically entrusted us to deliver and that typically stand out for our members and those that have wanted to become members have attested to in the sense of referrals that they’ve received about IPC.

(00:36:48):

So, we looked at everything and we said, you know what? We can’t reinvent the wheel here. Our members need to be able to have a clean, transparent journey within the automated systems and processes and catering and white glove service model that they’re traditionally used to with a modern twist. And that’s how we designed this onboarding process and this experience. It truly is a genuine journey that we tested when we planted the seeds for Eyecare plus digital health and Eyecare Plus. We looked at the process, we started out with their MVP concept. We alpha tested the processes and then we spent significant amount of time beta testing this across the country with 15 selected stores. I was fortunate myself, Sam and Kelly Stovall, our VP of pharmacy services and the entire beta and commercial team here at IPC that were part of the whole IPC digital health distribution staff.

(00:37:59):

We tested this and we applied process of improvement to it, and we really made sure that this worked to the T and we had a lot of fun doing this. This is the program we put together. This is the process in order to assure the discipline behind the program, but it’s a two-way street. When you enroll into iCare+ you are committing as an organization to future ready your pharmacy. That means your behavior and your mindset has to be ready and charged to go to differentiate because you’re already in a position to succeed. Many of you that participated in our icebreakers, we asked you those questions for a reason. You’re already in a position to succeed with this. You already have the patient base and those of you that are going to listen to this on the recording, go through those steps too. Have a notebook set aside right next to you and write down those questions before we move into the next slide, write down the answers to those questions.

(00:39:03):

The navigating the commercial process is simple. The first thing you do is you submit an onboarding form. We’ve created a landing page, the dedicated landing page that gives you the option to get started or learn a little bit more when you get started. There’s a series of questions we put you through to make sure that we really understand your pharmacy, your site, your people. We do that for a reason because not only do we call you for a virtual training to set the expectations, we come out there and visit you to set you up to make sure that we cater to you from beginning to the end, but it’s a two-way street. Your mindset, your behavior, your staff have got to be ready to execute because we’re putting you in a position to differentiate from your competitors and we have about a year where we’ve raised the bar, so every day that goes on where we don’t execute, you’re just giving your competitors the opportunity to catch up and which would be a shame. The second thing we do is we schedule a virtual training. Once we vet you and we get you ready and adapted into the system, then we schedule the online implementation. By the time we schedule the implementation, you’re going to have a solid concept of what are we getting here, what coming to our stores and what should we be ready with?

(00:40:30):

We work with you so you can think about dedicating a certain space inside your store. If you have consultation rooms, perfect If you don’t, that doesn’t mean that you’re not qualified. It just means you have to think strategically, and these are things we notice during our beta and we’ll show you what an actual picture of that strategic thinking consisted of and what the end result was and it was really exciting to see that end result. We also create what we call a hyperlink to a landing page to a consumer landing page for you. We actually dedicated consumer landing page with your logo so you can hyperlink it to your existing website so we can drive social media traffic to that site. Part of our deployment commitment is to invest in a social media budget. Part of your enrollment, you get that social media angle. So, we take advantage of Google advertising, we take advantage of social media channels like Facebook and Reddit nextdoor.

(00:41:35):

We’re looking at what makes sense in your community and that’s what we’re dedicating. If you don’t have a landing page up, it’ll be tough to kind of funnel that traffic in terms of the modern means. And we’re also going to deploy your traditional as well and we’ll talk to you more about that. Obviously during one of our follow-ups, the home test kit set up, you saw what a test kit bundle looks like, but that’s part of our commercialization process. And then finally the market development piece of this. There’s so much more that goes on in the commercialization in the sustainability process, but this gives you an idea of how easy to get started. If you look to the left, this is one of our beta stores, that’s what you receive in terms of the initial point of sale kit. There’s an Android device in there, there’s a certified seal, there’s marketing materials for the store so we can set it up.

(00:42:29):

There’s a stand. You also receive the bundle of kits and then you also receive a starter set of medical devices that are interoperable to the platform. What you see here to the left, that’s that store that didn’t have a consultation route. So, we thought creative and that space to the left was a space of just stuff that existed there that they didn’t know what to do with it. Before we left, we turned it into the iCare+ virtual healthcare center at that store and they thought about collaborating their immunization, their immunization program next to the iCare+ virtual healthcare center. The picture in the middle shows you one of the other stores that beta tested our program and how they set up iCare+ Virtual healthcare Center inside their consultation room. The picture to the right to the top is another iCare+ virtual healthcare center setup, and then the pharmacist to the bottom. On the bottom right hand side picture is a pharmacist who’s been trained on iCare+ provider pharmacist side. Remember that pharmacist centric element I talked I spoke about earlier. What she’s doing is she’s looking at the patient’s assessment and getting ready to make a telepharmacy light call for five minutes so she can get reimbursed. So there’s a huge payout with the program as well as part of the iCare+ we pay back incentive. That’s part of our program. Next slide.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:44:10):

Well, I was just going to talk about some of our experiences really quick. Ash, if you don’t mind.

Ashton Maaraba (00:44:16):

Absolutely go for it. You

Samantha Pomeroy (00:44:17):

Can share one, but I’ll share a few. It was

Ashton Maaraba (00:44:20):

They were pretty fun. Fun.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:44:22):

It was so fun visiting our member pharmacies and helping them to kind of think outside of the box and how they were going to implement this into their business or different programs that they could create using these tools within their pharmacy. Maybe it looks different in that pharmacy versus another pharmacy, but one pharmacist that Kelly and I talked to talking about remote patient monitoring, that’s in our 2.0, but talking about remote patient monitoring, she was currently doing it. She was fulfilling a contract with a provider, and everything was like hand documentation. She was just spending sleepless nights going in, documenting things so that she could pull those reports and send it to the provider. And she was so excited about the remote patient monitoring the platform and the tool and the Bluetooth devices. And so that made me smile because it can change her business so much.

(00:45:28):

Pulling a report and sending it to the provider and it all being pretty much digitized. So that was one great experience. And then another experience is I went to a really remote area, and they didn’t have providers that were close by. A lot of their patients were elderly and had a lot of mobility issues and even coming into the pharmacy was a challenge. And so, the pharmacist, they were delivering the prescriptions, she was going to visit them a lot of times, going to visit them to do wellness checkups and check blood pressure and all of those types of things. And so, she was really excited about just this offering for her patients that they could do this from the comfort of their home and just the access that they were going to have to, it was huge for her. I truly do think that it might look different. This program might look different in each pharmacy, but there’s something in all of the pillars that we’ve built that a pharmacy can benefit from.

Ashton Maaraba (00:46:29):

Yeah, Sam, that was awesome, and Sam made a great point there. There’s one more thing that I wanted to reiterate before we do go to the next slide. So, for those that are members that are going to engage in iCare+ for those that I can see in the chat, do you have to be a member to be an iCare+ participant? We’ll answer that later, but I do want you guys to know this and just to reiterate this so you remember and this resonates and goes viral because we’re a member owned co-op, we can do certain things that other groups can’t, especially when you adopt a digital health program like this because every one of our members own a piece of digital health and the iCare+ product program. We have reimbursement funnels and channels that go back to our pharmacies in the form of a service fee or a rebate.

(00:47:23):

Traditionally, we’re known for our rebates, and so that’s how we’ve kind of baked in the payback. There’s a service fee that’s paid back to the pharmacy for telemedicine enrollments by their patients both on the encounters and the subscriptions. There’s also a service fee paid back to our pharmacies for the telepharmacy like call. These are dollars coming back directly from IPC into your traditional rebate statement. So, it’s pretty cool. There’s a rebate for script pass that’s a rebate based on that comes from the admin fee, very low admin fee that’s assessed as part of processing the claim. And then there are potential opportunities to share in manufacturer’s coupons based on the home test kits. Now, one of the things you noticed, we customize those home test kits. It’s customized under iCare+. So, we have the ability to collaborate with brand manufacturers based on our relationships in that side or specialty manufacturers to be able to insert coupons and further subsidize that type of merchandise and then share that with you as well.

(00:48:37):

So, we didn’t just build the value proposition in software and these different components, and these aren’t just your typical components that you see on the screen. Nobody can just go and throw an iPad in a room and say, hey, we have our own virtual center. And then or white label, a telemedicine company, some random telemedicine companies’ software and say, hey, we now offer telemedicine. Those models, in my opinion and in our opinion, don’t work. The iCare+ the IPC model works best is optimized and it’s sustainable because of what we’ve shown you today. And really, it’s the only way to do this. If we didn’t do it this way, we probably wouldn’t be in this business today, and that’s why we’re extremely excited about what we’ve presented so far.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:49:28):

Okay, so for the sake of time, let’s move on. As I just kind of want to reinforce what Ash said earlier, you really have to bringing digital health into your pharmacy. It’s not just a sign up and leave it kind of program as you said. You have to be committed to offering these enhanced services and letting your community know that they have access to these services. So, we’ve got a marketing director on staff that helps with the promotion through social media. As Ash mentioned earlier, social media campaigns. We have print materials that you get in your point-of-sale kit and that you can reorder. We do targeted advertising for you as well as he mentioned. Is there anything else that I’m missing, Ash? But basically, we want to help you implement this and truly execute this in your business. So, it will take some work on your end, but we are there to help you with it.

Ashton Maaraba (00:50:39):

No, I think you nailed it. Every pharmacy that every independent pharmacy member that enrolls, once we’re done with your training and you’ve completed the training course, you become a certified iCare+ virtual healthcare center. The reason why we’ve certified you and you see the pharmacist affixing the seal to her front window is because it creates a brand standard of safety, security and the opportunity for us to create that Microsoft Butterfly effect or that Starbucks Queen effect. So, it can resonate not just within your community but in outside community. So, as we do engage in these types of programs that Sam was referring to, we want people to be able to recognize the seal and then the access channels. Store locators or program locators will allow us to put your store front and center as a participant where they can find iCare+. So, you’re looked at not just as a dispensary, but you’re also a virtual healthcare center. That’s so important. No different than what CBS Health Hub is doing, Walgreens Village MD and some of the others that are out there, not to name Drop, but I think it’s important that we pay attention to those types of programs because that’s essentially what they’re doing. They’ve developed their own ecosystem. We’ve now developed our own ecosystem because we can, based on our composition as IPC and based on the ability to offer and invest in IPC Digital Health and the iCare+ brand.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:52:15):

Agree. Okay. Well, as you can see here, we were at Idea Share last year. I don’t know if any of you got the chance to come by our booth. We will be there again this year. We have a large booth and area that we will be stationed at, so we would love to talk to you. We would love for you to come by and chat if you’re a member or if you’re not a member about things that are going on the industry chat about your business. We are going to do the Spend to win again this year. It was very popular last year, and you can win up to a thousand dollars in warehouse credit. As I said, we have our warehouse in Sun Prairie, so you can win up to a thousand dollars in warehouse credit. We’ll have some presentations going on the floor talking about industry trends, topics, government relations will be speaking on different things, different fields that they’re working on, and Ash, can you kind of fill them in on what they can expect with IPC Digital health and that launch there?

Ashton Maaraba (00:53:15):

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that you, and I always say the picture’s worth a thousand words, but if you look at the picture down to the left side, last year, the entire team had a great time presenting our digital health MVP. This year you’re going to see the actual product and the services that you are getting with Digital Health. So we’re going to put you through the opportunity to learn about each component, everything I’ve spoken about, the rollout, what the platform looks like, what the patient experience is, what the pharmacist centric provider experience looks like, level one, phase one program, and then obviously those that want to get into RPM, what that looks like in terms of after adopting level one and phase one and two into your environment. We’re going to take a look at the home test kit process, what that consists of.

(00:54:08):

We’re going to look at our Uber Health integration and really kind of go through, look at the medical devices, the interoperability with the platform, talk about the service model in terms of how we support you, the market development piece of this. There are really a lot of exciting talking and points and a narrative that we have planned for you. We’re really excited. The team has worked extremely hard to put together an awesome show for you, and last year we stood out and if you came by last year, you thought we stood out. Just wait till this year. It’s not just digital health, it’s also the supporting programs like our government affairs program that advocates on behalf of the issues for provider status, how digital health really helps catapult and validate that type of outreach. We’ll be talking about other parts of our program. Our IT teams have done a fabulous job in terms of improving the member experience on that end.

(00:55:12):

I hate it when I start getting into these types of calling out different business units in our company because I try to hit everybody, but I don’t always remember everything unfortunately with a lot going on. But I can tell you that the staff is going to be there to assist you in profiling our DNA and really the next steps of digital health and the other programs that you can get into. Keep in mind, you have to be a member in this phase one to roll out digital health. I encourage you and I urge you to reach out to the regional directors and the sales team at IPC in order to talk about how can you become a member of Independent Pharmacy Cooperative. The other thing is if you have questions specific to iCare+ and IPC Digital Health, feel free to ask. We are looking into opening this up to GPO customers beyond just the membership base and then eventually anybody that’s outside of IPC that’s not a member, but membership has its privileges. Members are going to be first and I can’t really give you a timeline when the other opportunities will open up for non-members. So really encourage you to look into IPC, the full spectrum on the drug side, the pharmacy services side, and the digital side going forward. So that’s what we’re going to be talking about during the conference.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:56:48):

Thank you, Ash. As Ash said, whether you’re a GPO member, a warehouse customer, or you’re not affiliated with this at all, our goal at IPC is to have your pharmacy future ready. And so, if you’re interested in future Ready in your pharmacy, if you’re interested in digital health, if you just need some resources and talk through some things, come by our booth, talk to us. We would love to talk to you about your business and about the future of your pharmacy. So, I think we have a few minutes left. Ash, can you look at the chat and see if we have any questions that we might be able to answer really quickly?

Ashton Maaraba (00:57:28):

Yeah, yeah. I’ll kind of do the quick 60 seconds or less response here on a couple of ’em. We do have two questions that I’m going to touch on. There are a few more, but it looks like we’ll only get to the first two. There is an owner that has three pharmacies. He wants to understand he’s linked to three, two clinics and wants to make sure he doesn’t take a business away from them. So, one of the things that I just want you to think about, in that case, they have cash patients. You have cash patients think of this as an ecosystem helping the community, so patients they can’t take care of, there’s an option for them through digital health. The other thing is the RPM side. That’s a classic opportunity to sign a collaborative practice management agreement. We can tie them to your clinic and guess what, not only are you guys collaborating and opening up cases in order to monitor patients that are suffering from chronic cases.

(00:58:22):

Remember one chronic case is RPM multiple is CCM. All of that is measured and matched on the platform. All the data and the reporting is available and then we bill using the physician’s MPI. So that’s a classic opportunity. The other one, the key question, and I think this is going to impact some of our listeners as well, is there an opportunity for non-members to offer this product outside of our buying group? I did just address that. I encourage you to email us at [email protected] or visit IPC at www.ipcrx.com. There is a funnel there where you can submit a lead to learn more about the program and go from there. But right now, membership does have its privileges and that’s why we built this. We built it for our members. So, we encourage you to become a member and reap all the rewards and the benefits. It’s not just what we’re presenting now, but that’s kind of the innovative mindset that IPC has as a company going into the future. So, we’re looking at innovation every day and innovation that makes sense in your pharmacist.

Samantha Pomeroy (00:59:36):

There is a QR code on the screen that will take you to that lead form. If you’re interested to learn more, you can fill that out. And our center of excellence will be in touch with you for some more information and to answer whatever questions that you might have. So, we really appreciate NCPA for having us on, and we really appreciate all of your time that we’re here live. And for anyone that’s going to watch this recording, NCPA will have it available and so will IPC on our website. So, thank you.

Ashton Maaraba (01:00:06):

Thanks everybody.

Whitney Lynch (01:00:08):

Thank you both Samantha and Ashton for that wonderful presentation. And thank you everyone for joining us today. As they mentioned, it will be posted on the NCPA website under events and then webinars, so you can check for it there when you have the opportunity. Thanks for joining us and we’ll see you again soon.

Samantha Pomeroy (01:00:29):

Thank you. Thanks everybody.