Planning to work with a new pharmacy partner to manage staff wellbeing or support your company’s healthcare packages? As with any HR decision to make, this isn’t something to rush into without doing your research and considering your options.
Not all pharmacies are legit, and those that are might still try to rip you off or offer subpar services once you’ve signed up. When you’re vetting pharmacies as potential partners for your business, make sure to ask the following six questions.
What Are Your Licensing And Accreditation Credentials?
The first job for your HR department is to check that the pharmacy is properly regulated. You can usually figure this out by checking the pharmacy’s website—for instance, UK-based Hightown Pharmacy, which sells everything from Naproxen tablets to prescription meds, clearly displays its GPC registration number on its website footer.
If you can’t easily find this info or you just want to validate it in a real conversation, ask your point of contact to show you proof of licensure. You can also check for any disciplinary history at this time, which can make for an awkward conversation but is something you have a right to know about.
How Do You Protect Employee Data And Medical Privacy?
Another must-have for a pharmacy partner is the infrastructure and protocols to meet data protection policies and healthcare privacy regulations. Ask the pharmacy rep about their encryption and data storage practices, as well as who has access to sensitive information.
Your HR department has likely already put in a lot of work to maintain trust with staff, so you want any third-party health services you’re offering on behalf of your company to support your efforts.
Can You Offer Tailored Health Solutions For Our Workforce?
The next step is to figure out exactly what services the pharmacy partner offers, and whether this makes them a good fit for your employees. For instance, do they offer tailored solutions for chronic conditions, mental health, travel health, and so on? How about consultations or wellness packages that’ll help you meet your employees’ needs?
These packages aren’t absolutely essential, but they can be useful, especially if you have a larger team or remote staff with diverse health concerns
What Are The Costs, Discounts, Or Subscription Options?
Service fees and pricing models can vary quite a lot from one pharmacy to the next, so you’ll need to figure out exactly what is offered by your shortlisted pharmacies, and whether or not the value for money is good.
Some pharmacies might offer bulk pricing or business-specific savings, which are well worth taking advantage of, as long as they actually are competitive and aren’t just marketed to sound that way. Looking for scalability in pricing may also be important for your business, especially if you have a growing workforce and need a service that can adapt to your changing needs.
How Do You Handle Prescriptions and Delivery?
Since many of your employees probably rely on medications for their day-to-day health, accessibility is obviously highly important for any online pharmacy. Make sure to find out about your potential partners’ processes for handling prescriptions and deliveries, including whether or not they offer same-day delivery, and whether they have an automated system for managing repeat prescriptions.
On a similar note, you’ll also want to find out about the customer support offered by a potential partner. If your employees need to get help, they should be able to easily contact the pharmacy through multiple channels (phone, email, live chat, and so on). Importantly, these channels should also be responsive, so your employees know that they can trust the service you’re providing.
Are You Able To Integrate With Our HR Or Benefits Platform?
Finally, working with a pharmacy that can integrate with your existing HR benefits program is the most convenient solution you could hope for, so ask your shortlisted pharmacies if they’re able to sync with your benefits software.
Not only will this make admin a whole lot easier for your HR department, but it’ll also give your employees an easy experience. If a pharmacy offers good tech integration, it’s usually a green flag, showing that they’re modern and scalable.
