I'm Back!

Hi Everyone!
It's been, what?, 7 years since my last post? So much has changed. I recently lost my job with the employer I had been with for 15 years. They recently adopted the practice of forcing out anyone over the age of 35. They told me they could hire someone with less experience for less money. By getting rid of me, my store saved $50K per year in salary costs. Then there is the savings in benefit costs. At no point did they ever ask if I was willing to take a pay-cut. These big chains were throwing money at us in the 90s and 00s, but somehow it was our fault for making so much. These chains have also been responsible for flooding the market with pharmacists in order to drive down salaries. They realised that sponsoring pharmacy schools was cheaper that paying high salaries. Since moving to this area, 5 pharmacy schools have opened. They vary in size, but altogether we have almost 1000 new pharmacists graduating each year. Many apply for PGY1 programs, but there are only so many of those to go around. With more and more pharmacies closing, there are very few jobs available. I haven't figured out why a retail establishment would rather hire someone with no experience over someone with 30 years experience. It's not like the pay would be different. I also can't figure out why, if I want to be a staff pharmacist, why it matters that I have management experience. I'm "over-qualified" in their words. I'm currently obtaining my MBA, but I was trying to make myself more valuable to my then-employer. I've had to put that on hold until I find a job since I was paying out-of-pocket. Oh well, life changes can be exciting. I'm trying to get into another branch of practice other than retail. I picked up a 3 month temporary job with a hospital, which was awesome. I've got my fingers crossed that I can get a permanent position with them in the future. Wish me luck!

The MTM Debate

I'm usually not one to use my blog to blast anyone or anything, but this has really ruffled my feathers. My company uses a company called Outcomes to file MTM claims. Some of you may be familiar with this company. I recently got "locked out" of my store's account because, and I quote, I was "filing too many of the wrong kind of claims". What, you may ask, are the "wrong" kind of claims? Well according to Outcomes my claims have been "educational in nature and do not significantly effect the patients' outcomes". Again, that is a direct quote from the Outcomes rep that I spoke with. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I can quote several well-known, multi-national studies that have proven beyond a doubt that the pharmacist's role in educating the patient DOES significantly affect the patient's outcome. So, upon informing the rep  of these studies I received the following reply. "Well, your claims have to justify our existence to the insurance companies for us to continue to offer this service". Wow!  How many of you didn't know that this was the reason for MTM services? Foolish me, I thought the reason for the service was to better the patient's disease outcome through pharmacist intervention. After 30 minutes of debate with this rep, the conclusion was that the only claims they want to see are ones that save them money. They have absolutely NO interest in bettering the patients' outcomes. The only claims they really want to see are things like drugs being discontinued or changed to something less expensive. They hide this fact behind a facade of caring for the patient's financial expenditure, but when I pointed out that most of my patients who qualify for this MTM service are receiving their Medicare Part D plan through state funding and their copays are the same regardless of what they get then the issue of financial expenditure only applies to the insurance company themselves. Now, my main concern for my patients is that they get the best care possible. I am also a strong advocate for giving them the best care at the lowest cost. However, there are situations where lower cost medications have been tried, have failed, and the patient is placed on a higher cost medication that works for them. Outcomes does not want to hear this. They are run by business professionals and not healthcare professionals so they do not understand this concept. All they see is dollar signs. They don't believe that educating patients on proper dosing, proper technique, possible side-effects, monitoring parameters, etc. is of any use. Why they allow for these kinds of claims to begin with is just part of the facade that is erected. File too many of these and you are banned from filing any more. I was informed that I could still file the "right" kind of claim and that if I file enough of those claims then I will be allowed back into the fold. You know what, I don't need Outcomes. I have been caring for my patients for 23 years without them. It would be great to get paid for the interventions that I have been performing for all these years but I will not be part of this farce. Their threat is that if pharmacists don't perform for them then they will start using nurses to do MTMs. Who cares! I will go on doing my job. I will not allow Outcomes, or anyone else, dictate how I care for my patients. What do they expect us to do with those patients who may cost a little more to care for? I will continue to educate my patients because I know it makes a difference. I have seen it with my own eyes. I ran a diabetes education clinic for several years and I saw patients whose blood glucose went from in the 500's down to normal after just a few sessions of pure education. Now that is truly an outcome!

What Keeps Me Young

One of the things I love most about my job is working with young people. Invariably, the technicians I hire are young, very young. Most of the time they are working as a technician while in school or while trying to decide what to do with their lives. ( I know, and work with some technicians who are "seasoned" and I love working with them as well, but I'm not addressing them right now.) These young people usually have zero experience which alot of pharmacist might consider a negative but I like molding them to my own liking. Call it hubris if you will but I think I do a good job of teaching them. Anyway, working with the youth of  today gives me insights into their culture that I would not normally be aware of. I don't have children and even if I did they would be old enough to be pharmacists themselves. I sometimes end up feeling like a mom to these young people. I know I am their boss and they know that I will "take care of business" if I need to, but I tend to be a little more layed-back in my approach to the title "boss".  In the words of one of my current 20 year old techs "You don't act like a boss but I still know you are." Many times these young people come to me with things they wouldn't go to their parents about. Some of it is funny, some sad and some concerning but I am honored that they feel comfortable enough to talk to me. It can be anything from how to obtain birth control to writing letters of recommendation for college.  Over the years I have seen many of these young people mature into wonderful adults. I see them go to college, get married and have families and I can't help feeling a parental pride. I hope that in some way I have influence them to be the adults they are. I hope they can look back on their lives sometime and remember me with fondness and respect. I know that when I was a 17 year old technician I worked with a pharmacist that influenced me to become one myself. She loved her job and it showed. She also helped me to understand how to get financial aid for college. No one in my family had ever gone to college so we didn't even know such aid existed. This pharmacist was my role model and mentor. She was fresh out of school herself and I thought she was the smartest person I had ever met. I have over the years lost touch with her. She would be in her late fifties by now so she would still be going strong if she is still working. Her husband was an archaeologist, which is unusual so if she's out there she knows who I am talking about. Anyway, back to my own young people. I want them all to know that not only do I want to influence their lives in a positive manner, but that they also influence mine. Working with them keeps me young! It's like having children but only for 8 hours a day. Sometimes some of the things they say makes me feel old, but for the most part I don't. They, of course love to point out how old I am when a song from the 80's plays on the in-store radio and I know all the words. They weren't even born yet. (I don't care what they say, the 80's had the best music!) I love seeing my "kids" get excited over things they are doing or new boyfriends. It also breaks my heart to see them disappointed or devastated by stuff that I know will seem trivial to them later in life. Anyway, this is what keeps me feeling young. Youth itself is the true Fountain of Youth. Youth is contagious so I keep it around.
  As a disclaimer: I love all my "older" techs too. "Older" is a relative term so deal with it! Experience techs are a vital part of the pharmacy team and they are greatly valued. Unfortunately they are few and far between. Most of the really good, experienced techs are already working in a steady job and are less likely to apply for another one. That is why I end up hiring really young, inexperience ones so I don't want to see comments about unfair hiring practices. At this moment I am looking at hiring a brand-new, inexperienced tech who is older than me. I don't intentionally look at only the young ones.

Masked Man

One of the comments on my "Shingles" post asked the question, "Why don't more people wear masks like the sensible people in Japan?" (paraphrased). That made me giggle because my husband wears a mask 24/7. No kidding! He has very bad allergies and cannot take allergy meds. He uses his voice for a living and the meds mess with the quality of his voice. The funny thing is, when he goes out in public he is treated either like a criminal or a leper. Why is that? Even his doctors, who should understand, act like he's trying to hide something. Why is our society so hesitant to accept this? He has been accused of the strangest things! He has learned not to walk into banks or even pharmacies because they think he's there to rob the place! Even pharmacies, where we should be used to seeing sick people wearing masks!!! What's up with that!!! I feel really bad for him. He had a man in a wheelchair challenge him on why he was wearing the mask. He challenged right  back as to why the man was in the wheelchair. It shut him up. And it was a challenge not mere curiosity. Children are curios and that's o.k. Anyway, ask yourself, would you be ok with a society where everyone wore a mask?