The LTC Innovation Blog

Compliance, efficiency, and operational effectiveness can be viewed as three of the pillars that help LTC pharmacies hold themselves aloft in a complex and unpredictable market. The first of these is particularly important and extends not only to government regulations but also the stipulations of essential third-party business partners. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) hold perhaps the most sway in this regard.

For virtually all professionals, even those who've returned to a physical location (or weren't ever able to telecommute), work as a whole is far different than it was just a year ago. This is certainly true of those working in LTC pharmacies, not unlike other areas of health care. But one thing that isn't much different is the urgency — it's always been an incredibly hectic environment: facilities' prescription orders need to be processed and fulfilled. Paperwork must be completed with pinpoint accuracy to ensure proper reimbursement and keep the pharmacy compliant. The supply chain from drug vendors has to be monitored to mitigate the risk of shortages or delays.

Although we've crossed over into a new year, the world at large won't necessarily feel that different for many people, due to the persistent health hazard and societal upheaval stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Those working in various facets of the U.S. healthcare sector — particularly elder and long-term care, which has seen more death than other areas of caregiving by far — feel this burden even more acutely. Depression, anxiety, and the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder are hardly uncommon.

There is no corner of the health care sector that has gone unaffected by the primary or secondary effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those in the long-term care field, such as assisted-living facilities and the pharmacies that serve them, experienced some of the most severe strain on their resources in the early months of the crisis as the disease hit the elderly much harder than virtually any other demographic group.

“How could my pharmacy better support our SNF clients right now?”