Prescription home delivery for physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) practices

Why home delivery fits PM&R patients

A PM&R caseload in workers' comp and auto injury often includes the patients with the most moving parts: a lumbar strain that has turned into months of limited function, a spinal cord or brain injury after a fall from height, an amputation after a machinery accident, chronic neck pain after a collision, or deconditioning after a long hospital stay. Many use a cane, a walker or a wheelchair, or have restrictions on how far they can travel.

Their weeks are already full of appointments — therapy several times a week, follow-ups with you, visits to other specialists, sometimes independent medical exams. Each extra trip costs energy that the rehabilitation plan is counting on. A pharmacy run is easy to drop, and dropping it can mean a missed dose or a delayed start on a new medication.

Because physiatrists often adjust medications as function changes — easing one, starting another to help sleep or nerve pain — the prescription list shifts over time. Delivery means each change reaches the patient without another errand.

• Patients using mobility aids or with travel limits
• Packed weekly schedules of therapy and specialist visits
• Medication adjustments as function improves
• Complex injuries such as spinal cord, brain injury and amputation

How joining works

Joining doesn't add a new system to learn. You fill out one form, we send the agreements, and our training team helps install our partner pharmacy in your EMR or e-prescribing system. After that, your physiatrists and advanced practice providers prescribe as usual, choosing the partner pharmacy for patients who want delivery.

PM&R practices often work inside hospital outpatient departments, rehab hospitals or multi-specialty groups. Tell us where your prescribers send prescriptions from, and setup will be planned around those settings.

If some of your patients transition from inpatient rehabilitation to your outpatient clinic, the discharge visit is a natural moment to mention delivery so the first outpatient prescription is planned in advance.

What changes for your team — and what doesn't

Your role as the coordinator stays the same. You decide what to prescribe, where to send it and whether delivery suits a particular patient, and the prescribing doctor decides refills.

The visible change is one more pharmacy saved in your e-prescribing pharmacy list. A full training department helps install it so it doesn't impact your workflow. Care coordinators and nurses who already track therapy and equipment can add one simple question to their checklist: would delivery help this patient?

• No change to therapy orders or equipment prescriptions
• Delivery is optional for every patient
• Medication is dispensed by our licensed partner pharmacy
• Medication is delivered to the patient's door

What to have ready

Gather the enrollment documents for each prescriber. If you share prescribers with a hospital system, note which practice entity they'll enrol under.

Naming a single contact — often a practice manager or the person who manages your e-prescribing settings — keeps communication simple during setup.

If your practice also prescribes durable equipment and orthotics through separate channels, that doesn't change. The program covers prescriptions sent through e-prescribing to our partner pharmacy.

• Practice details and the main contact
• Licence numbers and copies for each prescriber
• DEA numbers and copies for each prescriber
• A W-9
• Your EMR or e-prescribing system

Questions to ask before you join

Ask which of the medications you commonly prescribe can be mailed. Some medications, such as Schedule II controlled substances, may not be available by mail — your partner pharmacy will advise.

Ask what patients should expect to pay: a $5 dispensing fee applies, and a delivery fee applies. Whether a workers' comp claim or auto policy covers the medication is a question for the patient's adjuster or insurer, and your case managers can point patients there.

Finally, ask how setup will be scheduled around clinic days, so your providers aren't pulled away from patients.