Regional Pharmacy Chain Uses Medical Billing to Sustain Clinical Services

Watch The Full Episode on The Drug Topics© YouTube Channel.

In the first installment of the Medical Billing Decoded series, Jennifer Griffin, PharmD, a clinical pharmacist for Harps Food Stores, and Duane Jones, regional pharmacy supervisor and clinical director of Harps Food Stores, explain how a regional grocery chain transformed its pharmacies into clinical care destinations and trace the evolution from traditional dispensing to a robust portfolio of billable clinical services.

The conversation opens with Harps’ early adoption of point-of-care testing—years before COVID-19—which positioned the chain to respond quickly during the pandemic. Today, Harps pharmacists provide test-and-treat services for strep and flu, oral contraceptive prescribing, A_1C testing, and Medicare Part B–billed vaccines across all 39 locations. Griffin and Jones emphasize that these services were integrated through careful workflow design, not additional staffing, demonstrating that clinical expansion is possible even in lean community pharmacy environments.

Jones situates Harps’ work within the broader national provider shortage and the push toward value-based care, citing data on projected gaps in primary care access and the high accessibility of pharmacists—within 5 miles of 90% of the US population. He highlights evidence that pharmacist-led interventions can reduce hospital visits by up to 33%, improve adherence, and generate substantial savings for health plans and employers. Griffin adds frontline perspective, describing patient encounters where education around negative test results and appropriate self-care prevents unnecessary prescriptions while maintaining high patient satisfaction.

Throughout the discussion, Griffin and Jones argue that community pharmacies are uniquely positioned to solve pressing access and cost challenges—if pharmacists are empowered, reimbursed, and supported with protocol-driven systems. This opening episode sets the stage for a practical series on workflow, med sync, revenue cycle management, and the provider mindset needed to sustain clinical services in community pharmacy.

“Change is never fun, and it's always a little difficult, but once they embraced it and got through the change piece of it,” Jones said. “You can ask any of our pharmacists and all of our programs we've implemented; they would never go back to the way it was before.”

Watch The Full Episode on The Drug Topics© YouTube Channel.