The Independent Pharmacy Cooperative Impact at the 2023 NCPA Annual Convention

Every year IPC participates in the thrill and exhaustion of the NCPA Annual Convention. Getting to meet with our members, our warehouse customers, pharmacy owners looking to improve their businesses, our vendor partners, industry leaders, and NCPA staff and leadership makes for a very busy five days in Orlando. It is so worth it!

On the exhibit floor we were excited to share all the ways that IPC is leading the way to Future-ready independent pharmacy. Our Digital Health team, Ashton Maaraba, Kelli Stovall, Samantha Pomeroy, and Dylan Liang had a continuous audience in front of our demo screen learning how this innovative program will lead the way in 2024. As we were demonstrating the IPC Digital Health iCare+ platform in our booth, one member stated, “I see your vison, and this is the future.” Another community pharmacist stated, “This (iCare+) will be one of the biggest impacts in our rural area in a very long time, our community needs this.”

From Thursday to Tuesday Mark Kinney, EVP of Government Relations, and John Covello, Director of Government Relations, were enhancing connections with NCPA leadership, state pharmacy Associations, the FPN board of directors, Florida legislators, AAPA leadership, and many more. The NCPA Annual Convention is an opportunity to synergize our advocacy efforts with other proponents of our cause all across the country. The successes Mark and John have achieved these past two years have been collaborative and connecting with these other groups at the NCPA Annual Convention plays a key role.

The end result is a close alignment on lobbying approaches to mitigating the Part D DIR hangover cliff, federal and state prescription payment reform legislation in all payment programs (Medicaid, Medicare, other public payment programs, commercial payers), and pharmacist payment for services through federal and state legislation.

In addition to the meetings Mark and John conducted, Paul Karch, EVP & General Counsel for IPC, met with the General Counsel of NCPA and the lawyers working on the PBM class action litigation and structure for bringing individual owners DIR Arbitrations.

We are working hard to affect changes in the industry for the betterment of our members and the industry as a whole.

Ron Andus, VP GPO & Member Services, and Lisa Hawkins, Regional Director, attended the RxOwnership program last week to demonstrate how a McKesson/IPC partnership is ideal for new startup pharmacies to ensure long-term success. If you know a pharmacist looking to open their own store, have them contact us for a one-on-one consultation. Aligning with McKesson and IPC from the beginning is a proven path to successful store ownership.

On Sunday, we hosted Todd Eury and his Pharmacy Podcast Network in our booth on the exhibit floor where he interviewed pharmacy owners, IPC leadership, and other influential industry leaders. Be sure to subscribe to the Pharmacy Podcast Network to stay in tune with the latest industry news and trends.

The IPC Vendor Program is an excellent resource for our members to gain access to high-quality, valuable partnerships to improve their business. The exhibit floor is where we reconnected with our valued vendor partners, such as Vim & Vigr, DrugStore2Door, RxHearing, GeriMed, Mason Vitamins and more. PRS & Advasur, the power behind IPC SecureLink, had booths just an aisle or two away. So many solutions at your fingertips. Many members stopped by our booth to thank us for the partnerships we have created and the value they bring to their business.

There are so many people to thank for such a successful event and first we need to thank the staff at NCPA for their tireless efforts to execute such a tremendous convention. As we wrap up, we look forward to taking what we learned and the connections we made to serve our mission to “maximize the success of independent pharmacy.”