GeriMed Services for Long Term Care Pharmacies
GeriMed has invested an amazing amount of experience and talent in developing several unique pharmacy services, each aimed at decreasing our members' costs while maximizing their profits. We believe that taking advantage of these resources gives independent pharmacies an edge when competing with larger pharmacies.
At GeriMed, we are always ready to work with you — so ask yourself: How might these resources benefit your long term care pharmacy?
Long Term Care (LTC) Knowledge Base:
GeriMed specializes in long term care pharmacy operations, reimbursement and consulting. With more than 65 years of long term care experience and an extensive support staff focused on long term care pharmaceuticals, we are the industry leaders in providing contracts and services that work. If you're starting a new pharmacy, GeriMed can assist you with making your initial purchases, obtaining reimbursement and accessing the proper channels to work with nursing homes and other facilities.
Long Term Care Contracts:
To ensure client satisfaction, GeriMed offers contracts with more than 130 pharmaceutical manufacturers and more than 35 non-pharmaceuticals. These contracts are negotiated to meet the needs of long term care pharmacies and include thousands of available line items from brand and generic manufacturers. Some other group purchasing organizations have more line items available on contract, but GeriMed awards contracts based on the best prices and the highest levels of FDA-approved quality available. Having numerous contracted manufacturers for the same generic name, strength and size of a product does not necessarily offer members a better portfolio. In fact, it can complicate contracting because product use is spread out among so many awards.
Choice of Wholesaler:
GeriMed encourages members to choose suppliers based on their specific needs. Our pricing is loaded with all the major national wholesalers and most regional wholesalers as well. Many products are also available directly from the manufacturer for added flexibility. Furthermore, GeriMed does not accept contract administration fees from any wholesaler, as other group purchasing organizations do. Wholesalers should offer the lowest contract prices directly to pharmacies. GeriMed does not participate in any source programs with the wholesalers because these programs do not include auditing procedures to ensure the best generic pricing for the items purchased by our member pharmacies. GeriMed maintains integrity with its clients by consistently offering competitive contract pricing.
Incentives:
Manufacturers work with long term care pharmacies in order to provide quality products to the unique class of trade. GeriMed offers special incentive programs designed to maximize discounts to members for products with clinical efficacy in geriatric patients and patients with chronic medical conditions. Brand products for these programs are chosen on clinical efficacy standards, financial benefits for the patient and/or payer, and discounts to the pharmacies.
GeriMed Data Management System:
We know your time is valuable. Therefore, either GeriMed or the manufacturer will administer any agreement that requires purchasing data collection. To take advantage of this service, members authorize their wholesalers to gather daily electronic data for all purchases and submit it directly to GeriMed. Our staff then analyzes this data and submits the information to the appropriate manufacturers. In addition, dispensing data is collected directly from the pharmacies or their dispensing software company for analysis and submitted to the manufacturers for applicable incentive programs. GeriMed takes appropriate steps to ensure HIPAA compliance and protection of data for each member.
Clinical Programs:
GeriMed continues to sponsor seminars, clinical advisory councils and other educational programs for the benefit of our members. We also add special programs, instructional guidelines and helpful algorithms regularly to the consulting software.
GeriMed Long Term Care Networks:
GeriMed's Medicare Part D network allows long term care pharmacies to earn higher reimbursement for providing additional services to long term care patients. This network also assists independent pharmacies in receiving payment for problem claims, prior authorizations and much more. GeriMed works with the PDP/MA-PD plans to make sure the voice of long term care pharmacy is heard, problems are solved and claims are paid daily.
GeriMed Reconciliation:
This program compares the amount paid by the Medicare Part D plan to the amount negotiated in the contract. If the pharmacy receives less than the amount due, these discrepancies are reported back to the pharmacy and/or to the plan for resolution. Many discrepancies are under billed, where the pharmacy bills an amount lower than the contracted amount. These reports are returned to the pharmacy to ensure that they bill the appropriate amount.