BUFFALO, N.Y. — When’s the last time you had a real in-depth conversation with your pharmacist? Let alone a conversation about how they help with your medical needs? How does policy affect that?
"I have been a pharmacist for 34 years," said Black Rock pharmacist partner Bradley Arthur. "I've been doing a long time."
Focusing on consumer education is the "Not a Pharmacist Podcast" and this episode's guest, Arthur.
"In the case of pharmacy, you usually going to a prescriber that is going to prescribe a product or service that's then paid for by somebody else," he said. "So you're not intimately involved in that. So you're relying on you're relying on that system to provide expertise and guidance and counsel and what's best for you."
Arthur and his family have run an independent pharmacy for decades and part of the discussion today is centered around PBMs, or pharmacy benefit managers.
"Pharmacy benefit managers," he noted. "So it's PBM. Just the name itself is a misnomer. I mean, the name of their association is the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, or PCM. Whenever someone is trying really, really hard to to describe what they think they do in their name, they're usually not they're usually not doing."
The Pharmacists Society of New York State is partnering with Geoff Redick and Baker Public Relations to help break down a lot of medical, lobbying and technical jargon.
"It's a lot to digest. It's taken us almost two decades to get to the point right now where we can go into an office in Albany and they actually understand what are PBMs," Arthur added.
Of course, most people wouldn't be privy or paying attention to the major pharmacies past the brands.
"That's why we called it the 'I'm Not a Pharmacist Podcast' because I'm not and most people aren't. And so most people don't understand. And I'm still learning how these big PBMs control the pharmacy marketplace," said Redick.
Trying to lobby at the state and federal levels for change in coverage and support has been a priority of theirs, but they believe the power is more so now than ever with the people.
"But reaching just the general public in a way that's direct to them is a bit more difficult to do when you have topics that are so thick and heady and complicated as this," he added.
Which brings us back to microphones, a few cameras and one very carefully placed iPhone.
"Yeah, this is actually my first experience with the podcast," said Arthur. "I mean, I have always been of the opinion that, you know, when media came calling, it was important for me to participate, you know, so we could get the message out."
It may not be what you think about your hometown pharmacy.
"You know, it's this business is rooted in relationships and trust," he continued. "So any time we can we can bring that that message about how the system works to to the consumer, to the patient. In this case, I think it benefits the entire system."