Outpatient Market

Unlike the vast majority of pharmacy automation companies that have focused on in-patient applications, Telepharmacy Solutions is focused on increasing patient access to improved pharmacy care, in more outpatient settings. The outpatient care market is four times larger by pharmaceutical sales volume and eight to ten times larger by number of care locations than the inpatient market. Outpatient care providers are deeply concerned about burgeoning drug costs and remain dedicated to lowering overall cost, while providing superior care and service to patients.

Budget Busters
Pharmaceutical expeditures represent the fastest growing component of the health care budget. According to IMS Health, the leading provider of pharmaceutical information, worldwide pharmaceutical expenditures continue to escalate.

Multiple Cost Pressures
Driving the increase in U.S. drug expenditures are factors including: an aging population, patient and provider drug preferences, pharmacoeconomic benefits, the accelerating introduction of new drugs, direct-to-consumer advertising by pharmaceutical manufacturers and cost advantages over alternate forms of care, most notably inpatient hospital care. This has created pressure on managed care organizations to control pharmacy costs and improve the process of managing medication treatments. Telepharmacy is a tool to help maximize pharmaceutical care and reduce the overall cost of care.

Aging Patient Population
Americans over the age of 65 make up approximately 12% of the U.S. population, but consume almost 35% of all prescription drugs. Some 65% of people over the age of 65 have two or more chronic diseases, and one in five elderly persons takes at least five prescription drugs per day. Approximately 2.2 million seniors average spending more than $100 per month on prescription medications.

New Payment Models
Physicians and other outpatient care providers have been affected as health care has shifted from a predominantly inpatient focused, fee-for-service model to more outpatient and ambulatory care and managed care forms of reimbursement, which increasingly transfer financial risk for pharmaceutical costs from traditional third-party payors to care providers.

Telepharmacy Solutions Meets the Challenges of Cost and Care
With more cost and outcomes effective care being provided in outpatient settings, the drive to control costs while concurrently enhancing care becomes imperative. Telepharmacy Solutions has clearly demonstrated, in both the public and private sectors, that telepharmacy can make a significantly positive impact on cost and care. We expect to become a pervasive and integral player, as the health care industry responds to the challenges that confront it.