Today’s pharmacy workers are definitely overwhelmed and overworked. Recently, I was waiting and waiting in line along with three other people behind me. That’s when the gentleman behind me asked if he could use his grocery store rewards card to get points, which would enable him to get discounted fuel. 

When I told him that he could, he became very happy.

“Great.  My  drug costs are about $6,0000 a year and my insurance doesn’t  cover any of it so I would love to at least get some discounted fuel out of it!”

This got me thinking. He is paying $6,0000 a year and he is happy he’s now at least getting discounted fuel?

That’s where we are today. Since we were both still standing in line, I went on to say that he should also use one of the discounted drug prescription apps like ScriptClip and GoodRx or perhaps the pharmacy’s prescription saving plan. He said he tried to use his GoodRx card at the other pharmacy, but they wouldn’t let him. Since no pharmacist had come over to help us yet I then tried to give him a quick tutorial on how he most definitely can use these options and tried to quickly explain how he can do this.  As practice manager for Forest DPC for six years, I was pretty experienced in helping patients do this.

Finally, the pharmacy technician came over and our conversation had to come to an abrupt halt. I felt bad because there was so much more to say. 

• I wanted to tell him about the two wonderful direct primary care offices we have in our town.
• I wanted to tell him how these doctors would really look at the drugs they are prescribing in order to offer him the most affordable options.
• I wanted to tell him that these doctors would look up these drugs on these prescription-saving sites so that he would know exactly which pharmacy in town would give him the best price on each drug he needed.
• I wanted to tell him that these doctors would help him with finding an appropriate prescription savings plan if necessary. 
• I wanted to tell him that he should go to a direct primary care doctor!

I guess you never know where there will be a teachable moment to educate people about the value of direct primary care. There are many people just waiting in line at the pharmacies who could use some education. More importantly, there are many people just waiting in line at the pharmacies who need a good DPC doctor!