Pharmacy First and American Pharmacy Alliance Offer a Pre-edit Advantage to Independent Retailers

September 1998

The Pharmacy First Network, a service of the Wholesale Alliance, announced that the American Pharmacy Alliance (APA) will provide the ability for participating network pharmacies to receive valuable pre-edits on prescription transactions utilizing their current computer systems.

"Pharmacy First was created to level the playing field for independent community pharmacies," said Barry Krelitz, R.Ph., executive director of the Wholesale Alliance. "By offering participating pharmacies every available technological advantage such as pre-edits, we are furthering our mandate to provide independents with the tools they will need to remain competitive in today's marketplace."

Pharmacy First, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, offers participating pharmacies the opportunity to connect with the network's system so that prescription data can be aggregated on a national scale for value enhancement. Once transmitted to a central clearinghouse, the data is engineered to calculate appropriate manufacturer market share rebates, provide compliance management, patient education services, and negotiate both contracts with managed care organizations and pricing discounts with drug makers on behalf of independent retailers.

"A distinct advantage of this implementation," said APA's chief operating officer, Karl Steele, "is that these pre-edit checks are performed by the existing in-store pharmacy system at the time of transaction, rather than at the end of the filling process as would be required with a remote, dial-out service. Participating pharmacists will be able to get important advisories at a much earlier point in the dispensing process and will be more likely to act on them."

A key aspect of the Pharmacy First data collection strategy is to employ existing pharmacy technology wherever possible in the delivery of network programs and services, allowing the group to create a powerful prescription database. By taking advantage of the more than $1 billion that pharmacies and their computer software providers have already invested in technology, Pharmacy First is able to rapidly deploy new programs and services to further leverage that investment.

"Our member pharmacies want the combination of high tech without high cost," said Krelitz, "and through our strategic partnership with the APA, that's exactly what we've been able to give them."

The APA, headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, is a consortium of 16 software system providers serving independent and small chain pharmacies. The APA agreed to become one of the primary data providers to Pharmacy First one year ago, enabling the network to efficiently cross platforms with thousands of pharmacies on a national basis. The Wholesale Alliance, sponsor of the Pharmacy First Network, is a consortium of 24 independent regional pharmaceutical wholesalers representing a combined customer base of approximately 15,000 retail pharmacies in 34 states from coast to coast with sales totaling in excess of $8 billion.

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"The American Pharmacy Alliance" and "PromptRx" are servicemarks of The American Pharmacy Alliance.

Updated: January 2001