Page 19 - HME Business, November 2017

PHARMACY REVENUE: MANAGING PAIN BEYOND DRUGS
Chronic pain is a major public health epidemic that costs the United States $299 billion to $324 billion in lost productivity every year, according to TheGoodBody.com. About 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, with one in 10 experiencing pain every day for three months or more. For pain that lasts longer than 24 hours, the problem is even worse — one in four Americans are affected (according to the National Center for Health Statistics).
Today’s discussions about pain typically include references to the devastating effects of the opioid crisis in America, where more than 20 million Americans are struggling from addiction. Severe pain medica- tion is such a concern that Connecticut and Alaska may be the first two states to allow patients to put “non-opioid directives” into their medical file, which tells healthcare prescribers to avoid opioid medications.
With pain sufferers becoming more aware of the dangers of strong pain killers and seeking non-addictive alternatives, pharmacies are in a good posi- tion to offer consumers non-pharmacological solutions to managing pain.
“There are a few reasons why pharmacists should carry non-pharma- cological products in their store,” says Ryan Moore, vice president of Compass Health, which carries a line of pain relief products, including electrotherapy, hot and cold therapies, topical analgesics and kinesi- ology tape. “First, you start off with the fact that over 58,000 people died in 2016 from an opioid-related death. It’s been in the news, so everyone is aware and trying to cut down on the amount of opioid prescriptions per year. And pharmacists are really on the leading edge of that, and should be offering patients alternatives to opioids.”
Moore also says that pharmacists have the opportunity to increase revenue streams by offering non-pharmacological pain management solutions.
“It’s a great business opportunity to capture these patients who
are also looking for alternatives,” he says. “There are so many people now who are scared of pain meds but are still in pain. So, it just makes incredible business sense for pharmacies to offer and educate patients on the best products to decrease pain without pills.”
According to experts interviewed for this article, there are a variety of product categories that pharmacies should consider carrying.
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ELECTROTHERAPY
PAIN IS AN EPIDEMIC IN AMERICA — AND WITH THE OPIOID CRISIS CAUSING CONCERNS ABOUT ADDICTIVE PAIN KILLERS, MORE PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR DRUG-FREE PAIN RELIEF. DME PHARMACIES ARE PERHAPS IN THE MOST IDEAL SPOT TO SERVE THIS NEED.
Mike Williams, ATP, president and CEO of iReliev, which sells electro- therapy solutions, owned 14 DME facilities in California from 2001 to 2010. Now, his company is specifically focused on TENS for both acute and chronic pain relief, as well as electrical muscle stimulation, which is intended for muscle strength, recovery, and muscle conditioning.
“TENS is transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation,” he explains. “It’s based on two theories of pain relief. The first is that electrical impulses interrupt the pain signal to the brain, so the brain interprets the pain signal in a different way. So if you’ve got the TENS device on, you’ve got these impulses interrupting the pain signal to the brain, and you no longer feel the intensity of that pain, or you no longer feel the pain.
“The second theory is the idea of endorphin production,” Williams continues. “This is backed by empirical data. We have customers across the country who literally talk about how they take the TENS device off and they still have relief, and that lends to this idea of the endorphin production theory, where you’ve got endorphins that are being released as a result of the TENS waveform, and, therefore, they actually get a physiological benefit after the use of TENS.”
And although TENS is great for chronic pain and arthritis seen in older adults, it also lends well to a younger demographic.
“For pharmacies that are looking to broaden the offering to incorpo- rate sports medicine type of products, electrotherapy is a no brainer,
By Joseph Duffy
“There are so many people now who are scared of pain meds but are still in pain. So, it just makes incredible business sense for pharmacies to offer, and also, educate patients on the best products to decrease pain without pills.”
— Ryan Moore Compass Health
DME Pharmacy | November 2017 Rx11