HME/DME Program

In the fifteen years that The United Pharmacist Network Inc. (UPNI) has been in service, we have established many relationships in order to benefit our members, the independent community pharmacies. It is our goal to ensure that our pharmacies continue to have access to their patients and that the Pharmacist-Patient relationship not be severed.

However, this year the independent community pharmacy is again under attack from many sides. With the advent of the Medicare Part D Program in 2005, reimbursement for our services has decreased so much that 5% of the independent community pharmacies across the nation have closed their doors. In addition, we have seen three PBMs grow their market share so that they control at least 80% of the prescriptions transacted in the United States on a daily basis. Lastly, there is word from Sacramento that the State Department of Health Care Services will be resubmitting their 1115 Waiver this year with the intent of transitioning the Special Needs Population from Medi-Cal Fee for Service into Medi-Cal Managed Care over the next 5 years.

What this is all saying is that while the provision of distributive prescription services to our patients is still a vital part of our practice, we need to look at other avenues to generate additional revenues.

It is with that in mind that the United Pharmacists Network, Inc. has developed The UPNI DME Network which we would like to invite you to join.

UPNI has recently signed a contract with a medical services organization named SynerMed to provide HME services to their 550,000 members. We anticipate that our contract with SynerMed will be first of several that will drive people into your pharmacies and provide business with larger profit margins than we are seeing with prescriptions.

UPNI has also contracted with Domos HME Billing to help facilitate billing for services rendered to SynerMed beneficiaries.