Sometimes it is not good to be right…

I have often stated that within the next 4-5 years – as the RPH surplus grows – that we would see DM’s would come in and tell particularly the staff RPH.. that they have a newly minted RPH that is willing to work for xx,xxx.xx per year and that the staff RPH has 24 hrs to continue their employment if they are willing to work for the same – or less – of the newly minted RPH waiting in the wings.

It doesn’t take a MBA to figure out that accepting lower and lower reimbursements from the PBM’s is going to create a financial/profit crisis. I am still not convinced that WAGS resigning with ESI … has more to do with their merger with MEDCO .. and controlling 40% of  the Rx market place… than WAGS getting a decent reimbursement from ESI.

It use to be a “standing joke” in retail… “It doesn’t matter how little profit or even generate a lost on a product or product line… we can make up for  it with VOLUME”

It would appear that Rite Aid has drawn a line in the sand… with a contract with some California stores…  Here is a newspaper article   Union voting to authorize Rite Aid strike..

Their proposal is: the company wants to take back 34 benefits that workers currently get… This is while ….  John Standley, CEO, president and chairman of the company, earns almost $6 million a year and four senior vice presidents combined make about $9 million

all the while ….

reported a $28 million loss in its most recent quarterly statement. Fifteen locations across the country were closed in that period

Here is a posted quote reportedly from a Rite Aid Tech on the East Coast…

Scores of 18 year olds are being hired for four hour shifts, thrown into the Pharmacy to “type” prescriptions, and “fill” vials.With no training, no knowledge, and apparently no concern these dues paying, un-benefitted, low-payed, children are serving your medicinal meal. When the robot ran out of 5mg Enalapril one asked me why we couldn’t just use the 20mg she helpfully pulled off the shelf? Another was baffled by the fact that the cash register ran out of paper. She truly could not understand why that would happen – and she is a COLLEGE STUDENT! I have seen more medication errors in 2 months than I have in 10 years – in the Pharmacy,

This contract involves 6,000 Rite Aid workers .. including RPH’s…… the future balance of pharmacy and the very health of the public we serve .. could be the first step in a path to our future.. either a positive or negative step.

 

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