Skip to main content
MJH Life Sciences
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
Home
  • News
  • Viewpoints
  • Product Updates
  • Community
  • Health Systems
  • Clinical
  • Topics
  • Job Board
MJH Life Sciences

SUBSCRIBE: Print / Digital / eNewsletter

NCPA: Independents Offering More Services than Ever Before

pharmacist with patient
  • Christine Blank
November 8, 2019
  • The Latest, Community Practice, Pharmacy Strategy

Results of NCPA’s 2019 Digest suggest independent pharmacies are offering more services than ever before despite their continued decline.

Independent pharmacy represented 35% of all retail pharmacies in the US and a $75.8 billion marketplace, according to NCPA’s "2019 NCPA Digest", sponsored by Cardinal Health. The Digest was released at NCPA’s Annual Convention in San Diego in late October.

The estimated number of independent community pharmacies dropped from 21,909 in 2017 to 21,767 in 2018. The report also says that independent pharmacies are providing a variety of extra services, including: medication synchronization (79%), medication therapy management (77%), flu immunizations (76%), non-flu immunizations (69%); blood pressure monitoring (57%), and durable medical goods (53%).

Trending: Providing Healthcare to Transgender Patients

Around 91% of community pharmacies are offering some type of medication adherence program, “aligning the interest of patients, payers, pharmacists, and plans,” says NCPA in a statement.

"Independent community pharmacists have long been lauded for the services patients can access and the quality care they can receive at these locally-owned pharmacies," said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey, RPh. "As economic pressures on pharmacies continue—and as more medical-side payers find value in community-based pharmacies—it's increasingly important to change the pharmacy payment model to compensate for value and recognize pharmacists for the services they do and can provide.”

Other primary findings from the 2019 NCPA Digest include:

  • Prescription volume is 58,823 (189 per day) in 2018.
  • Seventy-four percent of community pharmacies serve population areas of 50,000 or fewer.
  • Thirty-nine percent of independents dispense specialty medications. The top disease state specialty medications dispensed include: rheumatoid arthritis (83%), HIV (54%), and multiple sclerosis (40%).
  • 2,351 pharmacies are participating in the CPESN USA national network of clinically integrated pharmacies, with networks launched and expanding in 44 of the 50 states.
  • Thirty-nine percent of independent pharmacies have collaborative drug therapy agreements with physicians, and 24% have access to electronic medical records.
  •  Fifty-four percent of total prescriptions are covered by the Medicare Part D and Medicaid programs, comparable to previous years.
  • Sixty-five percent of all independent community pharmacy owners donated to at least five local organizations in 2018.

The top four point-of-care services provided are: influenza (13%), rapid strep (12%), cholesterol screening (10%), and hemoglobin A1C (6%).

Related Articles

Resource Topics rightRail

  • Resource Topics
  • Partner Content
  • Surgical Care
  • Solid Tumors
  • COPD Management
  • Vaccination and Immunization
  • Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
The Future of Pharmacy
Best Practices in Workflow Management for Retail Pharmacies
Hospital Pharmacy Technician Handbook
Rapid Credit Handbook
How to Accurately Determine True Drug Costs

Current Issue

Drug Topics November 2019
Nov 12, 2019 Vol 163 No 11
Digital Edition
Connect with Us

  • Column 1
    • Home
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
  • Column 2
    • Editorial Info
    • Editorial Board
  • Column 3
    • Advertising Info
    • Reprints
    • Advertising Terms
  • Column 4
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
Modern Medicine Network
© UBM 2019, All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited.

We've noticed that you're using an ad blocker

Our content is brought to you free of charge because of the support of our advertisers. To continue enjoying our content, please turn off your ad blocker.

It's off now Dismiss How do I disable my ad blocker?
❌

How to disable your ad blocker for our site:

Adblock / Adblock Plus
  • Click on the AdBlock / AdBlock Plus icon on the top right of your browser.
  • Click “Don’t run on pages on this domain.” OR “Enabled on this site.”
  • Close this help box and click "It's off now".
Firefox Tracking Prevention
  • If you are Private Browsing in Firefox, "Tracking Protection" may casue the adblock notice to show. It can be temporarily disabled by clicking the "shield" icon in the address bar.
  • Close this help box and click "It's off now".
Ghostery
  • Click the Ghostery icon on your browser.
  • In Ghostery versions < 6.0 click “Whitelist site.” in version 6.0 click “Trust site.”
  • Close this help box and click "It's off now".
uBlock / uBlock Origin
  • Click the uBlock / uBlock Origin icon on your browser.
  • Click the “power” button in the menu that appears to whitelist the current website
  • Close this help box and click "It's off now".