808 Podcast: How can independent pharmacies compete with chains?

Kunal Vyas the CEO of RxMile discusses with Bob Clark from 808 Podcast #314

Read the transcript

Read the transcript

Bob Clark: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the 808 Podcast. The podcast where I interview business owners, CEOs, executives, whoever else I feel like. 4 questions, 8 minutes and 8 seconds. Here we go.

Number one, a few sentences. Who are you and what do you do?

Kunal Vyas: My name is Kunal Vyas, I am the Co-Founder and CEO of RxMile. My background is in the health industry. I started off working for my uncle in a doctor group here in Orlando, Florida then took a couple of years working for Citrus Healthcare which is a HMO based in Tampa. We serviced about 30,000 lives and that’s where pharmacy came into my life where we created pharmacy to service these patients and had to figure out a way to do the logistics and pharmacy delivery and now, I am in the technology industry with RxMile.

BC: Perfect, perfect. So, question number two – that’s a good segway. How do independent pharmacies compete with chains? Go.

KV: Three words. Value-based care model. Right. 35% of the prescriptions written in this country are for the geriatric population, 65 or older. They only amount to 12% of the population, so that’s a little bit over one third of all prescriptions that are filled. These populations require certain measures that are set CMS to be met. Quality measures, patients with diabetes, patients with statin medications. There’s various different quality measures that relate towards the doctor’s performance scores and I believe the independent pharmacy has been ranked for the last twenty years as the first in regards to best quality and service so they can provide that to the physicians.

When you look at these chain pharmacies you know they’re understaffed, overworked. A lot of them have a one-to-one ratio where for each pharmacist there’s one pharmacy technician. It’s difficult enough to just answer the phones and fill the prescriptions and deal with the doctor’s phone calls that the whole idea of the value-based care model I believe is compromised at that point.

The other thing is that independent pharmacies have been providing free home delivery for decades which is something key they need to provide in order to compete with the chains and larger supermarkets. Now they have gone in to that lane ever since Covid, a lot of them charge though, I think it’s $4.99 sometimes with CVS, Walgreens has I think an $8 rate for delivery.

So independent pharmacies will always be propelled as the one that provides the free delivery service. Even Mr Mark Cuban I believe has a delivery fee set. Most of these people I am talking about as far as geriatrics go have zero-dollar co-pays on most of their generic drugs, so people pay for delivery costs, it just doesn’t make sense. That’s how I believe the independent pharmacy can really be not just with the chains but the supermarkets, mass merchants, and mail orders.

BC: Love it, love it. Let’s get to question number three. What other CEOs and executives do you know that you wanna give a shoutout to?

KV: Well personally, two of my uncles, my mentors. They pretty much taught me all I know, where I am. They invested the value-based care model here in Orland, Florida before it even was a thing. The other person I’d like to give a shout out to is Mr Mark Cuban. Just in regards to how he is entering out industry, trying to disrupt this industry. You know, for twenty years it’s been surveyed that patients prefer independent pharmacies over mail order pharmacies over the decade or so they’ve been in existence. And I just feel that it might be the wrong direction. He’s got the right idea, but he needs to utilize the independent pharmacies to actually disrupt this industry.

BC: Perfect, I’ll look your uncles up. Question four, final question. Tell me about your most epic sale.

KV: My most epic sale was VITAS Healthcare, VITAS Hospice. They’re the largest hospice in the US. I was lucky enough to get them right when we launched our company as a contract. It requires 24 hours, 7 days a week access to one hour emergency delivery services for patients at their last stage of life. Why I believe it was the best contract that I received was it really taught me how to be servicing 24 hours, 7 days a week. We built customizable technology for their nurses which really got my mindset into more of a technology plate. And that’s where RxMile was birthed from. Right, it’s a platform pharmacies can utilize with their own drivers and make sure everything is cost-effective, compliant and also the most important, they’re in control.

BC: Perfect, perfect. So, Kunal, you have three minutes and thirty seconds left. You can do some promo time, you can ask me a question, you can talk about the weather – whatever you want. We can end early, I am flexible, go for it.

KV: Right, so if there’s any independent pharmacies out there in the US. Preferably, even in the world. But in the US we have about 23,000 independent pharmacy I believe taken through a survey with people that we have communicated with that about 90% of these pharmacies are offering some kind of free prescription delivery to their patients and when I started in this industry I had to look at five or six different resources to be able to service my patients and deliver medications to them.

That’s where I came up with the idea for RxMile to deliver an all in one pharmacy solution that worked for me and helped me with retention, minimize my attrition rates, synchronize my delivery rates, overall patient satisfaction, live tracking different components, and I want to put it out there we just launched here in March 2022 and we’ve got great traction right now. There are independent pharmacies out there that are utilizing their own drivers to do prescription home delivery I have the solution for you.

BC: Love it love it. So hey guys, 2 minutes and 10 seconds left. Anything else you wanna add or we can end early. Early is okay.

KV: Well let’s listen to a little bit about yourself sir.

BC: You know believe it or not this podcast is about you, so I am usually quiet about who I am and what I do.

KV: Okay, no problem, I was just trying to be polite.

BC: No, I appreciate it. Most podcasters are failed evil villains because they just love monologuing, but I don’t.

KV: I appreciate the opportunity for you allowing me on your podcast to explain a little bit about my company, my background, and my vision. I look forward to keeping a connection with you going forward.

BC: Absolutely you have pulled it off there. four questions in 8 minutes and 8 seconds. Kunal why is it 8 minutes and 8 seconds?

KV: Because 808 is BOB.

BC: Kunal say your website real quick.

KV: RxMile.com

BC: It’s in the description it’s magic. Kunal thank you so much for being on, tip of the hat to you.