The NACDS Total Store Expo Rewind | Part One

Thank you First Data Bank (FDB) for sponsoring this episode's coverage of the NACDS Total Store Expo! The NACDS Total Store Expo was in Boston, MA from August 15-17! Pharmacy owners, pharmacy students, and pharmacists gathered for forward thinking conversations and innovation to create more profit and better outcomes in their pharmacies. The NACDS TOTAL STORE EXPO is the largest gathering of retailers and suppliers in the health and wellness industry. Discover new and innovative products, technology and services and find the partners you need to thrive in an unpredictable consumer environment. In this "on the street" style of interviews, our host Todd Eury, CEO and Founder of the Pharmacy Podcast Network connects with: Mike Plinski - FDB (First Data Bank) Amantha Bagdon - RxPost Kris Rhea - Pharmacy Marketplace EJ George - Pharmacy Student Christopher Thomsen - CAPSA Healthcare Heather Haro - DiversifyRx Daniel Heusmann - Eyecon RxSafe

• 0:05Speaker 00

  You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the pharmacy podcast network.

• 0:26Speaker 01

  We're here in Boston at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Total Store Expo at booth 2024 First Databank. Are you a pharmacist Jedi or a pharmacist fossil? Master your universe with revolutionary pharmacy tools. More coming from First Databank here with our podcast press coverage. The NACDS Total Store Expo Rewind.

• 0:55Speaker 02

  Hello, this is Mike Plinsky with First Databank at NACDS, and you're listening to the pharmacy podcast.

• 1:03Speaker 01

  Mike, it's been some time, but it's great to see you here at the Total Store Expo. How are you?

• 1:08Speaker 02

  Doing well, Todd. How are you doing?

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Doing really well. I like partnering with with First Databank, bring a lot of information to the markets. I've seen your booth, lots of traffic here, people interested. I want to talk about Navajo. I want to talk about how that's changing the game for a lot of our pharmacies. Right out of the gate, our listeners might not know about that new system. Talk about what is that?

• 1:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, Todd, Navago is our new smart D U R system for built specifically for retail pharmacies. And it provides essentially three things for retail pharmacist. So one of those things is it's consolidated alerts. And this provides pharmacist with what the risk to the patient is. And this allows pharmacist to not have to decipher what's going on with the alerts within their system. Navago will provide that to them. The second thing that you get with it is that Navago is action oriented. So it provides the pharmacist with the next step.

• 2:15Speaker 02

  So most alerting systems today just basically kind of fire an alert and then pharmacist has to. Yeah, you do what you do. You have to like pharmacist using their, you know, brains all the time to try to figure out what's going on. With Navago, we kind of surface what the next step should be and provide them with that action. So action types could be like contact the patient, contact the prescriber, take an administrative action. And then, once you are presented with that action, there's also narratives that go along with it. So if it's like, for example, contact the prescriber, it'd be written, the narrative would be written for more of a

• 2:55Speaker 02

  a medical professional, that type of terminology, where if it was something more driven towards the patient, it would be written more towards patient level. So it's more in their terms as opposed to be in medical terminology. And I guess if you think about, there's probably one other thing that Navago does offer farm retail pharmacies is that it can also surfaced pre-screened therapeutic alternatives. So when there is an issue that you need to contact the prescriber, Navago's algorithms is able to basically look at the medical condition that the prescription is being used for. And if there is a contraindication, then Navago can go ahead and surface what other medications might do that that are pre-screened.

• 3:38Speaker 02

  So that when you are speaking to the prescriber to maybe switch the med out, you could suggest, hey, we could switch it to this med or that med. So it kind of makes the workflow more efficient. So you're not having to deal with another issue down the road when the prescriber changes the medication.

• 3:54Speaker 01

  Mike, is it embedded into the pharmacy management system? So it feels seamless to the operator?

• 4:00Speaker 02

  It is. It's exactly what it does. It's a embedded workflow that self programmers or some pharmacy software vendors integrate into their systems that then replaces their current D U R screening process.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  All right. And then that workflow helps us stay on track. What else is interconnected to be able to pull out data reporting, follow up? What else is there for the pharmacist and pharmacy operators?

• 4:33Speaker 02

  So one unique thing about Navago is that it will remember the previous action that was taken.

• 4:40Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 4:40Speaker 02

  So therefore, some of the real world results that we get from Navago is that it will easily reduce your alerting by over 70% and therefore makes the alerts much more relevant as opposed to an annoyance.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:58Speaker 02

  There's a big decent sensitization to alerting today. So a lot of the alerting is just being bypassed and ignored.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  True.

• 5:07Speaker 02

  So this way you can trust the alert that's being fired to actually be meaningful, actionable, and then it also guides you what you should say during that conversation with the patient or his prescriber.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  Hey, if you're listening, you want to learn more about Navago, reach out to Mike. Mike's on LinkedIn, or you could go to firstdatabank.com to learn more. Mike, thanks for sharing this time with us here at Total Store Expo.

• 5:33Speaker 02

  Next time.

• 5:38Speaker 03

  Hey, it's Amanda Bagden from RX Post. Welcome to the pharmacy podcast network.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  Amanda, good to see you here at NACDS Total Store Expo. I love your booth. It wasn't full power with all the balloons as it was, but you still have the theme of it. And I love the vibe. You bring so much energy.

• 6:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm glad we're still able to pull our personality out into our booth. Sad that we don't have the full balloon artist experience here at NACDS, but I will push them for next year in San Diego to allow us to have the balloons because they are safe.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So the theme at Total Store Expo is really, they say all in and and it's about profitability. It's about doing things differently than you did the last five years, just because of profit is so important to keeping things going. RX Post, if the listeners don't understand what that system is, give us an overview about RX Post.

• 6:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, RX Post is a pharmacy to pharmacy marketplace. We help pharmacies sell their unused drugs directly to other pharmacies. It's a great way to minimize waste in the supply chain and an easy way for pharmacies looking for better cash flow to kind of liquidate some of those assets that they're not using in the store.

• 7:05Speaker 01

  So how does that work? I could imagine it's a network at the independent level where they can jump on and see what's available and then what they can upload to the system. But talk to me about that chain environment. Is there any differences between those two models?

• 7:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think a lot of the larger chains already have an internal model for inner store transfers and optimizing, redistributing inventory that's slow moving towards the stores that have high volume of demand and need and dispensing for those products. So RX Post was really born to give independent pharmacies that same competitive edge. One of the interesting things I'm learning here at NACDS and doing the market meetings is even with the large organizations, inventory continues to be a challenge. You know, a few feel like they have successfully kind of nailed down their processes,

• 8:06Speaker 03

  both between data, systems and people, but it was a two to three year process in order to get that done. Other companies and organizations feel like they're halfway there. There's still pieces that are missing. And so they're curious to have conversations with us about where we can fill those gaps.

• 8:26Speaker 01

  Shout out to our pharmacy technicians. Amanda, you started in this industry as a pharmacy technician. Look what you've accomplished. Look, look at the entrepreneurial spirit and the business that you've built. I want other technicians who understand the business of pharmacy and maybe they specialize in something very specific. Maybe they're the ones that does restocking, or maybe they're the ones that design the front ends, or maybe they're doing inventory management. But based on your experience as a tech, look where you are now. I think there's something that we must encourage our technicians to build businesses inside their pharmacies, of course, and take ownership,

• 9:09Speaker 01

  but then possibly moving into entrepreneurship. And it's not easy.

• 9:13Speaker 03

  It's not easy. I am a proud pharmacy technician. When I go on stage and introduce myself, I always introduce myself first as the pharmacy technician before a founder and CEO because it's so core to why I started this business. And I really want to encourage other pharmacy technicians who have that entrepreneurial spirit. You don't necessarily have to go out and start a business to be entrepreneurial. You can take those skills that you have at the pharmacy that you enjoy working at and go to your owner and kind of have those conversations of, you know, can they empower you with some projects that you can deliver results on and, you know, the long-term goal is how do we get you to negotiate higher pay?

• 9:54Speaker 03

  If you're bringing in additional revenue for the store. So I know AI automation is a is a hot topic right now, hot takes right now. I'm excited in a lot of ways for pharmacy technicians to be freed up.

• 10:11Speaker 03

  To work on more patient-facing activities that actually create additional revenue for the store. I know in California, we're working on pilots for pharmacy technicians to be dual-trained as community health workers with health navigation for patients in both urban and rural communities to get them connected to the things that they need in order to address the social drivers of health. Another avenue that's been talked about a lot, I think, in the pharmacist's space, but not as much in the pharmacy technician's space is, you know, these insurance brokers. You know, when Medicare patients hit open enrollments, how are you helping them navigate their plans based on their existing medication

• 10:56Speaker 03

  list? And educating them on when they choose a plan, does it mean that they can keep their pharmacy, or are they going to be forced to go to mail order? You know, what's important to them beyond just the cost of the medication? And I think technicians are well-positioned to jump into a lot of these roles. And where I see the future of pharmacies, these technicians are the little business operators, helping pharmacies bring in the additional revenue, management of systems, processes, people. So when the pharmacists want to do clinical services, they're freed up to do so. And it's a much more cohesive style of operations

• 11:41Speaker 03

  instead of just continually trying to put out fires and stay afloat.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  Pharmacy operators, people that are making business decisions, I want you to reach out to Amanda Bagden, rxbost.com. Reach out to Amanda. Tell her that you heard her on the NACDS Total Store Expo Rewind here on the Pharmacy Podcast Network. Amanda, I'm so proud of what you've built. Shout out to you and your team. Your team's growing. And we always look for rxbost at every conference. So we will see you in Kansas City at NCPA.

• 12:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, see you in Kansas City. We'll get some barbecue.

• 12:18Speaker 04

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• 12:59Speaker 04

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• 13:44Speaker 01

  NACDS Total Store Expo here with Chris Ray. Chris, it's so good to see you.

• 13:56Speaker 05

  Yeah, Todd, thank you for having me. This is so exciting to be here. This is, this show is so massive and so many great technology partners and supply chain partners are here for the retailers.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  I, I'm more comfortable sometimes at shows like this because there's, there's not as much clinical discussion at the Total Store Expo where our focus is profitability and being able to maximize, even if you don't change your prescription volume, even if you don't change the number of patients that come through your door, squeezing profit where you can is so paramount. It's so important. So let's shift gears from, you and I like to talk, our community independent pharmacies, but you and I know that the evolution of privately-owned pharmacy is definitely coming into the chain space. And I'm so proud of

• 14:49Speaker 01

  some of our private owners out there that have grown their businesses beyond three, five, 10, 15 stores. So talk to us about your, you've watched this since your McKesson days start transforming. So how does Pharmacy Marketplace kind of tie into the chain environment and supporting those pharmacies that we love the most?

• 15:09Speaker 05

  Yeah, I think the key is as these baby boomers, you know, that are exiting the market, selling their pharmacies, some of the younger generation know that, hey, to really compete, they're having to scale their operations and buy multiple stores and then apply best practices and workflow and technology and efficiency optimization, right? So that's why I'm here. Pharmacy Marketplace is really trying to help understand what medium chains are doing from an efficiency standpoint on workflow and purchasing of drugs and how we can leverage that to teach our community pharmacy owners what they can do to be as optimal as possible.

• 15:53Speaker 01

  Chris, you and I reflect who we serve. And those high performers are the kinds of operations that we're most attracted to. I love the Chris Antipases out of Pittsburgh who are just hyper-focused and hyper-active and hyper-market where they're serving multiple markets. The reason why I mention that is you and I serve multiple channels in the media space. We have to. Pharmacy Podcast Network's moving into public relations, moving into business development support and bridge building. You've moved into media as well

• 16:33Speaker 01

  and how important it is to drill down into the private owner and how dispensed times has really risen and is becoming a major publication in the pharmacy industry. Talk to us about that experience because we've kind of watched it grow, grow up from the beginning.

• 16:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, Todd, it's been such a wonderful thing to see. We just saw that there was a need for information relevant to community pharmacy owners. How do I stay in business? How do I operate at the top of my license? What's happening on the legislative front? And then from a workflow optimization technology standpoint, those are the pillars that we're really focused on. I'm so excited about this issue that's coming out in the fall. We interviewed Douglas Hoey, we interviewed Mina and Joe Moose, we interviewed Chris Lynn Weaver from NASP, just asking them, hey, as we go into the fall and the NCPA conference, what are the initiatives that you all feel have gained momentum in 2026 and from a legislative and

• 17:32Speaker 05

  clinical standpoint? And I just, I think it's going to be our best issue to date because it is from our leadership, like, hey, these are the things that we're focused on. And as, as a servant to you as the independent owner, this is what you need to be looking at for 2027 to keep shifting the paradigm of how you innovate in your business.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  Is there any specific focus that you're noticing in the chain environment, a non-prescription-driven service that you see rising? Is there a drive to do something that is, say, cash-based for patients?

• 18:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, obviously, you know, we're still kind of coming off the GLP bubble and all these medium-chain grocery stores are having to adjust what they're stocking in their, their pharmacies in the supermarket to address, hey, we're not selling as many cokes and snack foods and sugary items. We're needing more fiber, wellness items, you know, supplements to attend to those patients. So that was something that we started noticing last year from, from all the data. And, you know, I think that they're having to adapt to the modern consumer and the popularity of that item. But yeah, I think they're looking at what our independent pharmacies are doing from a community health worker perspective

• 18:55Speaker 05

  and from some of the clinical things that have popped up recently and saying, hey, how can we apply that in our operation, i.e. through our, our dieticians and some of our pharmacists? How can we be better connected and stewards of the community? And I think one thing that the chains do so, so well, or these medium chains that our community pharmacies can learn from, is their immunization efficiency, right? I think our independents a lot of times are very concerned about inventory control when they're doing vaccine programs and getting stuck with items. And these medium chains are figuring out some of that. So wanting to glean some information and on that side to bring back to our independents.

• 19:39Speaker 01

  Chris, appreciate you stopping by. We're at the First Data Bank booth today, 2024. Appreciate you being here at the NACDS Total Store Expo.

• 19:49Speaker 05

  Thank you, Todd.

• 19:54Speaker 01

  NACDS Total Store Expo, EJ George, P3 Pharmacy Student. I love having pharmacy students on because I want to know from your perspective, what you think of the future of pharmacy. We're in the chain environment this time. Chain is a huge part of the careers of a lot of pharmacists have started their careers in. Some of them make a life of it, others transition to other parts of pharmacy. EJ, talk to us, tell us the school that you're with and what you're most interested in when it comes to pharmacy practice.

• 20:28Speaker 06

  Yeah, so like you said before, my name is EJ. I'm a current third year student pharmacist at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California. And like you said, everything is changing pretty rapidly, the world, healthcare, the future. So there's a lot of uncertainty in general within the role that pharmacists are going to be playing in the future, in the quite near future. So it's all super exciting, the influx of this new technology, artificial intelligence. I truly personally believe that there's always going to be room for pharmacists and specialists to help kind of make those critical clinical decisions for patients, you know? And it's really hard to program a computer to understand how to give culturally competent

• 21:13Speaker 06

  care, you know? So there's always going to be the need for that actual individual interventions and being able to really meet patients where they're at in order to give them the best level of care that they need based on their own kind of situations and circumstances.

• 21:29Speaker 01

  The spirit of the provider, there's different layers, different personalities. There's pharmacists out there, maybe a P2, a P3 pharmacy student who want to go into clinical, or they want to go to specialty rare disease, or they really like pediatrics. They might go into whatever, whatever sector it is. Entrepreneurship within that, regardless if you have your own business, or if you're working for a big corporation, the entrepreneurial spirit makes you continue to push, and I think that drives innovation. EJ, the listeners might not know this, you have a very entrepreneurial spirit.

• 22:09Speaker 01

  You have a side business that you're building music, you're doing some DJing on the side. Talk to me about the spirit of entrepreneurship and how that helps to excel pharmacy care.

• 22:20Speaker 06

  Yes, definitely. So I actually started my first LLC in undergrad as an event production platform. That was really about bringing kind of like culture to these undergraduate institutions, giving students a safe space, and also kind of using a lot of those proceeds to crowdfund grassroots scholarships, emergency funds for the students that needed it. I've since taken those skills and gotten to travel the world, doing all types of event production stuff, from public address announcing to doing a lot of stuff to the behind the scenes. And like you saw, I am an international DJ as well. So I was actually quite nervous going into pharmacy school, kind of wondering how it

• 23:04Speaker 06

  would be taken as a professional, going into this corporate America as like a music producer and DJ, and being very forward about that. And I've gotten a lot of acceptance and a lot of different opportunities, seeing that I now have like this very unique skill set and this unique kind of persona to bring into the space. And it's been very well accepted. As you saw, I got to DJ at the APHA Annual Conference in Los Angeles in 2026.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  So much fun.

• 23:32Speaker 06

  It was a blast, it was a blast. And just realizing that, wow, I could take my pharmacy experiences and my music passion and have them come together in that space. And I really think that this new generation of practitioners kind of embody that. We are very much wanting to express our genuine selves, not necessarily fit into maybe a traditional corporate box. I think all of that is changing as well, just within the culture, and I really think it's important. Personally, I grew up never getting treated by any type of black providers. I am African American, and that means a lot, you know? Not having that representation. Our communities have like a long distrust in the healthcare system.

• 24:16Speaker 06

  So when you bring this level of diversity and allow students to express themselves freely within their school environments, that translates to the professional environment, and it allows them to really bring a different level of care and cultural competence to healthcare that's quite frankly missing and leading to a lot of preventable illness, preventable deaths. And I'm excited for the revolution in healthcare, so.

• 24:39Speaker 01

  EJ, I think there is something very psychological about mixing the arts with medicine. And like you said, you said corporate, and in my interpretation of that, that means being super serious and very structured and very business. When you start showing your personality through arts, whether you are teaching kids to paint, or if you're doing something on the side with a community involvement, in your case, music, that brings you closer to the patient. And I think that you get to be a little bit more contextual, a little bit more relatable. There might be young kids who see you in a lab coat, and maybe they're scared because it's time for immunizations, or it's time for a shot, and you changing it up with asking, hey, what kind of music do you listen to?

• 25:24Speaker 01

  And all of a sudden, they're like, oh, this guy's a human, you know? And I'm looking up to him because he's a, you know, he's a provider, he's a pharmacist. I think there's something to that in communicating with the public.

• 25:35Speaker 06

  Yes, exactly. I know whether it's, you know, walking into a medical center and your provider has sneakers on, you know? Like, that's going to make me take a load off and realize like, okay, yes, this is a person. And it's a person that's not afraid to express himself, and, you know, automatically it'll make you a little bit more comfortable, or at least in my case, you know? And we're seeing this new wave of practitioners of just corporate America not afraid to be themselves, you know? And I'm a very, very strict proponent of that. I think that there's enough robots in the world, you know? We need, we need what makes us special as humans, you know? And embrace the diversity, embrace our passions, and there's definitely space for that in healthcare.

• 26:19Speaker 06

  I feel like I've gotten a lot of support from my faculty members. I try to do my best to really encourage other students and other faculty to kind of bring their own level of flavor into these spaces, just so you never know who you're going to inspire, you know? You never know who's going to hear that, who's going to see you and want to follow in those footsteps, so.

• 26:40Speaker 01

  EJ, thank you so much for participating in our interviews here and coverage of Total Store Expo. And we have been watching your career for a while and going to continue to watch it. So can't wait till you're walking down here with your, with your Farm D, and we'll be able to meet up with you maybe in a year or two and get you back on the show.

• 26:58Speaker 06

  Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.

• 27:00Speaker 07

  Hello, this is Christopher Thompson with CAPS Healthcare, and you're listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.

• 27:12Speaker 01

  Christopher, thanks for being here with us, the Total Store Expo here in Boston, the rewind on the Pharmacy Podcast Network. It's good to see you.

• 27:22Speaker 07

  Good to see you too. Thank you very much for inviting me.

• 27:24Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. We like to hear from a mixture of people, and the main theme from our perspective is innovation and how pharmacy care has drastically changed. I've been in pharmacy for 22 years. It's, there's no more, there's not as many silos anymore where you're talking about specialty, chain, community, long-term care, compounding. It's really starting to all blend together. I want you to tell our listeners an overview of what CAPS is doing here at the NACDS, and where your interests and connections are with pharmacy care as well.

• 27:57Speaker 07

  Sure. Well, I've been in this business, starting way back when we started as GritPro, so over 30 years. And just as you said, I've seen so many things change in pharmacy and in technology. Certainly a consolidation of number of pharmacies from independents to chains, supermarkets with pharmacies, the dynamics of the market, the business has changed dramatically.

• 28:23Speaker 07

  And I think what we're seeing right now, Todd, is that the role of the pharmacist is changing to a much more important patient-centered focus. And I think we're experiencing a dynamic shift in how things are done in the pharmacy. I mean, it's, we all grew up with the pharmacist behind the counter in the white coat, and that's the person that filled the prescription and talked to us. But the most important part of that business, or that professional, is being there for us and speaking to us. And so what we have seen here changed dramatically, and this really started to get accelerated through COVID and after COVID. It is moving from filling

• 29:08Speaker 07

  the prescriptions at the pharmacy and handing those over to the patient to a central fill focus. It's not new. Central fill and mail order is 20, maybe 25 years old. It was started back in the 80s, 90s with central fill operations for the VA so that they could become more efficient. There were a few companies around like Express Crips, and then you started to see some of the PBMs get into the mail order. And central fill was talked about, but it was not really embraced completely like we're seeing today. Fast forward past COVID, we saw, obviously, patients were unable, not willing to go to the pharmacy. And so pharmacists

• 29:50Speaker 07

  had, and pharmacies, how do we get those medications to our patients? Some of them shifted their central fill operations to mail order. Others started up central fill so they could accelerate that process. And so we stepped into it and really embraced it wholeheartedly. Now, we're not new to this. 20 years ago, we built one of the first high-volume dispensing systems for Express Crips. And then CBS came along, and they tapped us and said, we'd like to use that as well as we're starting up our mail order facilities. But after COVID, all of a sudden, we said, there is such an interest and a need for this. And then, you know, it's not just getting those medications to the patient, but it's getting harder and harder

• 30:32Speaker 07

  to retain pharmacists and technicians, the labor force. It's very competitive now. It's tough to find some of the labor. And then some of those operations in central fill are so labor-intensive that pharmacies, the businesses that are running pharmacies are finding out that automation is really a good way to reduce the cost of labor, especially when you can't find it or retain it. And then from there, grow and build your business.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  So where, is there a, is there like a number of either individual pharmacies who are coupling themselves into a chain brand and putting messaging out to the different communities that they're serving? What's the magic number where an organization would start to say, hey, we should be looking into central fill technology?

• 31:23Speaker 07

  It's a really good question. We get asked that all the time because you got, you know, it's obvious for some of the larger entities, Express Crips, no problem, they get it. That's a large organization. The larger chains, the larger healthcare systems, they get because of the patients they serve and all that. But there are different models starting to emerge. Central fill is a service. You know, that is where a group comes together, builds a central fill, and then create what we call a multi-tenancy delivering system so that for smaller chains, for even the independents, they become part of that. So they can offload some of their heaviest volume that is currently trying to be, you know, get processed inside the stores, send that out to a central fill as a service, and then that comes back in,

• 32:06Speaker 07

  gets filled at a much different rate, and then it comes back into those pharmacies, just as if it had been filled, you know, in the back of the pharmacy. But now you have alleviated the pressure. So the labor pressure off of that pharmacy, and you're allowing those pharmacists and technicians in that pharmacy to really focus on and take care of the patient.

• 32:25Speaker 01

  Do I see central fill, or do we see data out there that shows that central fill cuts down on waste?

• 32:31Speaker 07

  Yeah, I would, I mean, we're starting to see some of that. We're controlling the inventory in a much better rate. So there are larger volumes, the inventory, the buying power that a central fill is able to do. There's not as much waste in terms of the medications, you know, and some of the things that go along with that. So there's definitely an advantage or an opportunity to do that. And I think you'll start to see a lot more on that as well.

• 32:57Speaker 01

  Delivery to the patient. We have, let's say, Giant Eagle, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so many of them. And now they're saying to their patients who they know might need a little extra care, but they're not so sick where they need like a skilled nursing facility. Maybe it's their home that's being delivered to. Talk to us about kind of some of the success stories of some of your organizations that are relying on your technology to deliver to the home. And I also want to talk about packaging and the individual where there's multi-dose in a strip, you know, where they're ripping their 8:30 dose versus their 12 versus their 4pm. So talk to us about that as well.

• 33:41Speaker 07

  Yeah, I mean, we have experience in clients with us that are doing both. So you've mentioned two different ways of giving medication to the patient in the home. And sometimes, like you said, they're not in a home, they want to stay in their own home, they may have a caregiver that comes in, visits them and takes care of them, or someone in the family. But we need to get those medications to them on time so that they continue to take their medications at the right time, the right doses and all that. Sometimes it's coming to them in the vial form, it's coming into them in a unit of use prepackaged, or it's coming into them what we call the, you know, the strip packaging or pouch packaging, where it's dosed out for the morning, the afternoon, or the lunchtime, afternoon and evening, make it easy for them to, you know, acknowledge what it is they're supposed to be taking.

• 34:26Speaker 07

  Once that package is taken, then they know they've taken that dose. We're starting to see some of the, some really good new technology based in the home where it can be filled at central fill in a traditional vial with a specialized cap that gets mailed directly to that patient's home. They place it in the device, and it reminds them when they should be taking their medications. And then they log in, and it actually observes them taking those medications and connects it back to the pharmacist and to their physician or caretaker, not caretaker, but, you know, taking care of their health.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  Right.

• 35:00Speaker 07

  And so that they can actually observe how they're taking their medication, what time they took it, and if there's something that's not right, they can remind them, make them need to change that. So they're monitoring them. It's almost like a form of telepharmacy, but now it's in the home. So we can get the medication to them very, very efficiently. And, you know, if we're doing, we're delivering to the home, it's because sometimes they can't get out, or their caregiver is unable to get, go to the pharmacy. So it's a very efficient way of doing it and keeping them on their healthcare regimen.

• 35:30Speaker 01

  This has been good. Talk, talk to our, or let our listeners know, where can they reach out and learn more about your organization and reach out to you?

• 35:38Speaker 07

  Well, it's very easy. It's, we have our website, we're on social media, LinkedIn, Facebook, et cetera. But it's capsahealthcare.com, and you'll find us there. Everything you need to know about our company, but especially about the central fill, the mail order, and I'll just mention one last piece, is we've got into direct-to-patient. So we're seeing that there is a huge, I mean, obviously, we know all about the GLP-1s, that, you know, the explosion of that, and the need for that. I mean, it is, this is a great medication that is helping millions and millions of lives. And so the manufacturers, as well as the pharmacy groups, the PBMs, et cetera, are finding if we have this demand for it,

• 36:19Speaker 07

  it's being prescribed by the physicians, how do we get that to them in these huge volumes? That for the most part, they're manual filling operations. So we've developed special technologies for that across our platform, both with software and equipment, to handle just those kinds of medications directly to the patient's home. So we're really, we're looking after all parts of it. And quite frankly, I think we're the only one that have the platform, both in software and equipment, are able to do it right now.

• 36:47Speaker 01

  All right, listeners, you heard from Christopher, capsahealthcare.com. That's C-A-P-S-A, healthcare.com. Christopher, thanks for spending time with us here at the Total Store Expo.

• 36:59Speaker 07

  My pleasure. Really enjoy it. Thanks, Todd.

• 37:06Speaker 00

  Hey, this is Heather Harrow with Diversify RX. You're listening to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.

• 37:14Speaker 01

  Heather, welcome to Boston, NACDS Total Store Expo. It's great to see you.

• 37:19Speaker 00

  Great to see you too. It's been a great show, hasn't it?

• 37:23Speaker 01

  It has been. It's been very busy. Day one was busier than day two, but we still see a ton of people here. The attitude is all about profitability. It's about building the front end out. We're hearing a lot about testing. We're hearing a lot about artificial intelligence and better delivery, logistics. So when I think of Diversify RX, the sweet spot for you has always been helping the independent community pharmacy. However, we both know in the real world of pharmacy, in the business of pharmacy, that there are micro-chains, there are expansion of pharmacy, independent pharmacies starting to do business with other independent pharmacy owners

• 38:03Speaker 01

  to get buying advantages and scope of practice and build out and operations and back office, you know, abilities to kind of work together. So talk to us about your, your attention here, why you come to NACDS and why this is important to the, to the future of pharmacy.

• 38:21Speaker 00

  Sure. So I come to NACDS, well, we all know, there's no secret, Lisa owns pharmacies. So I come truly as a buyer for the pharmacy and then also to scope out new products, new ideas, new things, to pass on to our Diversify members. So I really come to many shows that we, even the ones that we exhibit, I always keep an eye out. It's kind of my responsibility to bring these things back, especially because Todd, there is 80, I think, I think the number is like 89 total pharmacy shows across the country each year. That is needed, yes. The state associations all need one, yes. I'm not saying they're not needed.

• 39:03Speaker 00

  I'm just saying that not everybody could be at every one and not even I can, but the ones that I'm at, I feel a responsibility to take back what I find.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. Total Store Expo has been really interesting. This is our sixth time covering the show. And I find that this, like you were saying, I'll see things at the Total Store Expo that I don't see happening in independent community pharmacy for two or three years down the road. So it's almost like we get to see a little bit of the future of what the retailer is doing, what the front ends are doing to build out attention to the front end. I think that that's important even in the independents.

• 39:39Speaker 00

  Well, it is. And I, and I'll, I'll share a little story with you and I won't name the name of the company, but there are a few companies in this room that they're not very independent friendly, but I don't think that they even knew that they weren't independent friendly.

• 39:55Speaker 01

  True.

• 39:56Speaker 00

  So I don't think they're bad actors by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that they're just ignorant to the plight, the true plight of an independent pharmacist. So I had some great conversations where I was, to be perfectly honest, very blunt with some of these very big companies that number one, you're missing out on a huge, huge population of people that you could be servicing in such a way that would make you, them, the company, not only the independents love them, but you know, the, the patients begin to recognize and love and see that they are pouring into.

• 40:36Speaker 00

  So yeah, I've had, I've had a few raised eyebrows this time. I don't know what's quite gotten into me other than, other than I'm just tired of independent pharmacy being the low man on the totem pole. We are not the low man on the totem pole. We are at the very, very forefront of patient care.

• 40:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:57Speaker 00

  And so I really believe that they should be also treated in that way.

• 41:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. I've seen some pivots for some very big companies who were hated by independents, who are making major pivots and now are partnering with specific independent community pharmacies. And when we say that, we're also talking about privately owned micro-chains out there that are seeing expansion opportunities. Something that I heard about at the show that was very exciting is number one, testing and number two, food allergy reactions to talking with your pharmacist about a diet plan that coincides with the medications that you're on. And I think that is badass. Like I want pharmacies to get more into that.

• 41:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. So Lisa's been preaching about those things for years, quite honestly. You know her, she has like a, I don't know, she's always 15 steps ahead of all of us.

• 41:52Speaker 00

  But that's been a strategy of Diversify's for ages now, but those tests were expensive. And we fall into the trap of spending with our own wallets, not what the patient needs. And so we would see these tests, they would be expensive, quote unquote, and we just would pass on it. We wouldn't even offer it in our pharmacy because we believed that it was never sold. But people now, the culture is shifting where people are taking responsibility of their own healthcare. And that includes paying out of pocket for things that their insurance won't cover, their insurance has no idea how to cover, things that your doctor wouldn't recommend, like testing.

• 42:34Speaker 00

  I'm not saying do anything your doctor doesn't recommend, but like testing and really figuring out how we can be proactive and not reactive in our, in our healthcare. And our whole culture is shifting that way. The, America is shifting that way. And I think that independent pharmacy can really jump on these trends. Testing, gosh, we love testing. I mean, we test ourselves. Lisa is an avid tester. I am not so much. I'm falling behind in it, to be honest. I get yelled at quite often about it, but those kinds of things where we really start to,

• 43:11Speaker 00

  we really need to stop putting our own limited beliefs on our, on our patients and other people. I mean, if, if somebody wants it, they'll find a way to buy it. And that's even in the poorest communities.

• 43:26Speaker 01

  Yes. And why not capitalize on that being you, the pharmacy in that region? If you're a small chain, if you're a micro chain, to start educating your community about allergies and testing and even PGX or something, just bring that to their attention.

• 43:45Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 43:46Speaker 01

  If they know it's available, they could buy it. There's people out there that will buy those tests.

• 43:50Speaker 00

  Absolutely. And I know you've heard me say this time and time again, but these are an excellent way to become the absolute expert in your community. You can use all of these topics to get on local radio, to get on local podcasts, to do blogs, to submit an article to your local newspaper. And this becomes a free marketing, free advertising, but you have something that they want, and that is content. These, your local newspaper, your local talk radio, I'm a talk radio junkie, so that's why I refer to talk radio. But even the, the music stations will have time that they talk, that they need content to talk about. You can be their go-to person. This is an excellent topic and excellent way to make yourself,

• 44:36Speaker 00

  absolutely your goal for 2026 should be, I'm going to be the expert pharmacist in our community.

• 44:43Speaker 01

  If you want to start a podcast, I know somebody that could help you.

• 44:46Speaker 00

  I got a guy.

• 44:47Speaker 01

  I got a guy. Exactly.

• 44:49Speaker 00

  I'm in Boston. I got a guy.

• 44:51Speaker 01

  I got a guy down there, not in Pittsburgh. All right. So thanks for being here. Thanks for being on the Rewind Show. It's always good to see you. I think the next show that we cross paths are is probably going to, will be NCPA in Kansas City.

• 45:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, I will be at NCPA. Before that though, I'm doing a little pit stop to, to see the folks out in California IPA.

• 45:16Speaker 01

  Oh, nice.

• 45:16Speaker 00

  Which if you've never been to an IPA conference, you are vastly missing out.

• 45:22Speaker 01

  I would love to attend. I don't know if it's, if I can squeeze another conference out. My wife's not going to give me a hall pass for my 12th conference or something. So it's hard to keep up.

• 45:34Speaker 00

  I get that. I get that.

• 45:35Speaker 01

  Heather Harrow, it's good to see you.

• 45:37Speaker 00

  You too. Bye-bye.

• 45:42Speaker 07

  Dan Huesman with Icon RX Safe and you're listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.

• 45:51Speaker 01

  Daniel, welcome to the Total Store Expo 2026. It's good to see you.

• 45:55Speaker 07

  Thanks for having me.

• 45:57Speaker 01

  We're usually hanging out with a bunch of independent community pharmacy owners or people in long-term care pharmacy. This vibe is very much front-end profit development. We've even seen some testing, but it's a little bit different vibe, but not, I mean, we're still home. We're still in the, in the micro chain environment. What's happening there? So talk to us about Icon RX Safe being here at NACDS.

• 46:24Speaker 07

  Yeah, this is a space, as much as independent pharmacy, we hang in the chain space. So at the store level, Icon's really big with some national chains. We've been in the central fill pharmacies for a long time. So a lot of these companies here are partners with us from the central fill location. So we enjoy and we like to keep expanding and it's, it's a conference for me to gain more knowledge in terms of seeing volume that's still at the store level versus the central fill and the demand that we still have for our technology at that individual store location. It's really intriguing just to learn what drives that decision for a chain pharmacy to still have store level volume versus the central fill load off of the volume.

• 47:07Speaker 01

  So how's our micro chains adopting the long-term care pharmacy at home where, I mean, I think of my own Pittsburgh, I think of Giant Eagle. Giant Eagle was recently acquired by Kroger. I'm thinking, hey, how many Giant Eagle pharmacies have an opportunity to extend services into the home with people who just can't get out anymore? And the baby boomers are hitting the top level of their demographics in 2030. So there's a lot of work to do over the next five to 10 years.

• 47:39Speaker 07

  Yeah, one Giant Eagle, great folks. I know a lot of them over there as well. And I think just in general, we're going to see that probably two to three years from now really take a hold. You know, they have a number of locations, all these chains do as well. And the independent space that we deal with, when you have just a couple of locations implementing an LTC at home, long-term care at home program, it's a lot easier when you have a ton of locations and trying to do the rollout with that. Obviously with Icon RX Safe, compliance packaging has to be a part of that program. How do you package for multiple locations and provide that service? How do you have the staffing that's in place to be able to, you know, adequately provide to those customers as well? So I think we're

• 48:21Speaker 07

  going to see that big time in the next couple of years, but right now I think it's still medical billing. I think that's in place. Our partners with MedSense as well. I think they're getting more steam as well, but this LTC at home growth, I think we're going to see more in a couple of years than we're seeing like right at this moment.

• 48:40Speaker 01

  I also hear of a lot of creative moves that our independent community pharmacies are making to couple together with other pharmacies. Now I have three stores, this guy over here has six stores, somebody over here has four stores, and there's some operational efficiencies that they're putting together. I could see the use of a central fill in those models of being able to say, hey, we're part of a buying group that has X number of stores to really start thinking, how can we be more creative about creating efficiencies?

• 49:11Speaker 07

  Yep. Yep. I think that's going to come down to, you know, accountability of the product, the, how do you shift the profits between when you have multiple store owners? That's a challenge now even with a rapid pack and wanting to implement compliance packaging. You've got, you know, let's call it 10 stores with four owners and we put a machine in one store and whose inventory are we using? How do you allocate the delivery model and the expense that goes to each owner? But absolutely, I think people are going to have to have a more creative approach in the future as we get into that. But, you know, the independent space that we come from, it's funny, I was in California last week at a pharmacy, talking about another pharmacy in Jonesboro, Arkansas that we know. It's so small and tight niche

• 49:54Speaker 07

  and I think you're going to see those relationships keep, you know, continuing to expand. Yeah.

• 49:58Speaker 01

  Well, we appreciate you being here on the Total Store Expo Rewind Show on Pharmacy Podcast Network. Where are we going to see you next? I know we're headed to Kansas City to NCPA.

• 50:09Speaker 07

  Yeah, in between there, we're doing a trade show at SPS Health. If you're familiar with that group. And then we'll have NCPA and then the, we have a new product for single med card filling and that'll be at the framework show.

• 50:22Speaker 01

  Oh, nice.

• 50:23Speaker 07

  Soft riders and that's the ton of excitement for RX Safe that's on the rise.

• 50:26Speaker 01

  It's incredible.

• 50:27Speaker 07

  Yeah, yeah.

• 50:28Speaker 01

  I might see you there too. I'm not sure. I haven't been confirmed, but.

• 50:31Speaker 07

  Yeah, Chicago's awesome. So yeah, it'd be great.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  All right. Thank you so much, Daniel. It's good to talk to you.

• 50:36Speaker 07

  Appreciate it. Thank you.