EP313: Partnering Up With Fiercely Local and Fiercely Independent Pharmacies, With Dan Strause and Drew Leatherberry

Let’s talk about one aspect of health care that’s not talked about possibly often enough: big national health care players siphoning money out of local communities—potentially a lot of money depending on where you are and considering that health care is inching toward about 20% of the GDP. But besides the money leaving the community, another downside of large national players is that sometimes problems—even kind of seemingly simple problems—can be totally intractable and unsolvable because there’s just so much diversity of need and intricacies if you’re trying to come up with a broad-stroke solution that works for everybody across the land. On the other hand, by thinking and acting locally, these same problems can be solved. Besides, at a local scale, community and relationships within the community can become powerful forces for good.

In this context, I was super thrilled to have had the chance to interview Dan Strause from Hometown Pharmacy and Drew Leatherberry from Avergent about a collaboration model they put together pairing up local PCP teams hired by self-insured employers with their local hometown pharmacy. Together, they’re similar to a team-based advanced primary care model that also has a level of navigation built in. Considering that patients visit their local pharmacy something like 35-ish times a year, it’s the expertise right in front of your face to help manage patients with chronic conditions. Add to this equation a pharmacist’s education and a local pharmacy’s position as a member of the community. Local pharmacies who are patient first and entrepreneurial could be a great way to keep health care local and solve for the needs of their communities at the same time.

This episode is the first-ever simulcast between Health Rosetta and the Relentless Health Value podcast. It was recorded live at the recent Health Rosetta Summit. Thanks much to the Health Rosetta team, including Dave Chase, for inviting me and Relentless Health Value to be a part of the summit.

In this episode, the CPESN Pharmacy Network comes up. Should you wish to learn more about the CPESN Pharmacy Network, listen to the Relentless Health Value interview 129 with Troy Trygstad. 

You can learn more at hometownrxpharmacy.com and avergent.com.

Dan Strause is a partner at Hometown Pharmacy of Wisconsin, a group of 70+ independent pharmacies focused on personalized patient care. Hometown Pharmacy educates and empowers patients and communities to make informed decisions about their health.

Drew Leatherberry is founder of Avergent, a Wisconsin-based benefits advisement firm serving employers around the country, guiding them to 20% to 40% cost savings on top of next-gen benefits and patient experiences. He has spent over a decade leading employers to restore health care to sustainable levels for their team members.

05:02 What has Avergent’s collaborative care model accomplished?
06:07 How did Drew and Dan connect?
07:08 “We realized that we were missing out [on] … how … to leverage the experience and the expertise of the pharmacist in driving better patient care.”—Drew
07:31 Why would a pharmacy make it their goal to get their patients off their medications?
08:20 “Prescription medicine is the most expensive, most dangerous form of a plant.”—Dan
08:39 “We believe we can help people by giving up prescription medicines.”—Dan
08:45 Is a pharmacy equipped to create a personal relationship with their patients?
12:50 “It’s a spin on traditional navigator-advocate-type roles.”—Drew
16:15 What does helping the patient look like through this partnership program?
19:18 “We’re really unifying the patient health record … and then … cross-referencing all those different data points … on a micro level [and] a macro level.”—Drew
20:53 “Everyone is onboarded into the collaborative care model.”—Drew
21:05 How does this collaborative care model cross the spectrum?
22:13 “Pharmacists are one of the unique professions that doesn’t get paid for time and knowledge [but rather] because of the product they dispense.”—Dan
23:06 “We can see the day where … patients will get a prescription from mail order but still need us.”—Dan
25:46 “We would love to get paid to keep you healthy.”—Dan
27:15 Why are pharmacists wanting to get patients off prescriptions, and how are they involved?
27:36 “In some cases, we are misapplying expertise that’s sitting right in front of our face that can help us deliver a better patient outcome.”—Drew

You can learn more at hometownrxpharmacy.com and avergent.com.