OnDemand 400 for RxMap Case Study

The Customer - Mail-Meds PharmacyRxMap multi-med card

Mark Theobald has been in the pharmacy business for more than 20 years.  Like most visionaries, Theobald has been working on a dual track for the past two decades - building up his professional expertise while conducting an ongoing strategic assessment of the pharmacy market-place.  This high level perspective enabled him to identify an opportunity to provide pharmaceutical services to a market segment with health care needs that were not being met by traditional pharmacies.  In 2004, Theobald founded Mail-Meds Clinical Pharmacy in Ft. Myers, Florida, to meet the needs of patients on complex drug regimens.  He targeted clinics that serve disease states requiring multiple medications, such as HIV/AIDS, mental health, diabetes and congestive heart failure.  "Many people on multiple medications go to retail pharmacies or use mail order," explains Theobald.  "But these pharmacies are not able to meet the needs of these patients.  Studies have shown that more than 50% of people who take five or more medications a day do not adhere to their medication regimen."
According to Theobald, the primary reason for non-adherence is that patients don't understand how to take their medications.  Not only does this have a negative impact on the individual patient, but it adversely affects the entire health care system. The cost of medication non-adherence is staggering - estimated at approximately $177 billion annually in total direct and indirect health care costs in the U.S.  Theobald explains that studies show that patients who do not adhere to their medication regimens have dramatically more admissions to the hospital, increased doctor office visits, and more admissions into long-term care assisted living residences.
"The most important thing for most patients with chronic illnesses is to make sure they're taking their medications correctly - and that's what we do," explains Theobald.  "We developed some unique products and services to help patients stick to their treatment plans. " A critical component of medication adherence is packaging.  Retail pharmacies typically dispense medications in vials, forcing patients
with multiple prescriptions to keep up with numerous containers with varying administration instructions and re-fill dates.  The task of juggling these multiple vials often proves overwhelming.  Mail-Meds simplifies the entire process with easy-to-use multi-medication packaging.  As soon as the pharmacy gets prescriptions from a new customer, Mail-Meds "cycles up" or short-fills the patient's prescriptions so that they all become due on the same date.  Then Mail-Meds packages the patient's prescriptions in their Med-Box® Personalized Pill Box System.  Each Med-Box is typically filled with all the medications that a patient takes at a particular time of day, such as morning, mid-day, evening or bedtime - eliminating anxiety about which pills to take at what time.   Continue - pdf