Prescription home delivery for workers' comp clinics

Why home delivery fits workers' comp clinic patients

Your waiting room reflects the local workforce: construction and trades, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, healthcare, hospitality, agriculture, transport. The injuries follow — lifting strains, falls, lacerations, repetitive strain in the wrist and elbow, crush injuries, burns. Many patients are on modified duty or off work entirely, and some don't drive while they recover.

Workers' comp patients also come back often. Recheck visits for work status, therapy coordination and medication changes are routine. Each new prescription is another errand for someone who may be juggling reduced hours, appointments and a claim they don't fully understand.

There's a practical benefit for your team, too. When prescriptions for injured workers go to one pharmacy your prescribers have chosen, staff may spend less time fielding calls from patients who couldn't fill a prescription locally and want to know what to do.

• Injured workers on modified duty or off work
• Frequent recheck visits and medication changes
• Patients new to the claims process
• Potentially fewer calls about unfilled prescriptions

How joining works

The process takes four steps. You fill out one form. We send the agreements. Our training team helps install our partner pharmacy in your EMR or e-prescribing system. Your providers then prescribe as usual and patients get delivery.

Workers' comp clinics often have several providers and several sites. Share how you're organised, and setup will be planned so every prescriber sees the partner pharmacy in the same place.

Many workers' comp clinics already have a front-desk process for capturing employer, claim number and adjuster details at check-in. That process stays the same, and it's useful here: the same details patients give you are the ones a pharmacy usually asks for on a workers' comp prescription.

If your providers also send prescriptions from a separate e-prescribing tool, mention it so setup covers it.

What changes for your clinic — and what doesn't

Your clinical decisions, documentation and employer and adjuster communications stay as they are. The partner pharmacy becomes one more saved option in e-prescribing.

A full training department helps install it so it doesn't impact your workflow. Your prescribers decide what to prescribe and where to send it, and the prescribing doctor decides refills.

Case managers and front-desk staff can also explain the option to patients who call because they couldn't get to a pharmacy. The patient's provider then decides whether sending the prescription to the partner pharmacy is appropriate.

• Same charting and claim communication
• Same prescribing screens
• Delivery offered patient by patient
• Medication is dispensed by our licensed partner pharmacy

What to have ready

Enrollment uses the same documents as any practice. For a busy clinic, assigning one person to gather everything for all prescribers usually works best.

If your clinic employs providers who work across more than one of your sites, note that as well.

• Practice details for each site
• 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 how claim details are passed along and what patients should have ready, so your front desk can prepare them. Ask what patients pay: a $5 dispensing fee applies, and a delivery fee applies. The adjuster or insurer can tell the patient whether their claim covers the medication.

Ask which medications can't be mailed. Some medications, such as Schedule II controlled substances, may not be available by mail — your partner pharmacy will advise.

And ask how the training team will work around your clinic's peak hours.

Finally, ask what your staff should say when a patient asks whether delivery is right for them. The honest answer is that the provider decides, and that eligibility depends on the prescription and the claim.