Pharmacist Roots Run Deep and Spread Beyond the Counter at RxSS

Rx Savings Solutions was founded by a pharmacist who didn’t just dispense medications. He went out of his way to help patients find prescriptions they could afford. Because adhering to treatment was good for their health and quality of life. Because he cared.

Every PharmD at RxSS pursued the profession wanting to help patients live better lives. The opportunity and mission here appealed to the same calling.

Today, board-certified pharmacists serve in nearly every part of the organization. Take a look at how they deliver for members and clients every day.

Diverse Clinical Perspectives

Every RxSS pharmacist joined us from somewhere else. Most began in retail community pharmacies. Many practiced in the space for years, some managing entire store regions or leading chainwide initiatives. Others moved to health systems, PBMs, managed care, hospitals, and other inpatient clinical settings.

Each has witnessed pharmacy’s impact on patients—when prescription benefits work well for them, and when they don’t. The latter almost always comes down to cost. Behind the counter, they saw how the same drug could be $10 for one patient and $100 for another. They often knew other drugs in the same class could be just as effective and cost less. But in a fast-paced, high-volume pharmacy, there was rarely time to explain all the options a patient might have.

At RxSS, they have the time and ability to provide that traditional pharmacist care and consultation on a scale they could never imagine in pharmacy school.

“How do we take care of people the right way? As a pharmacist, that’s what you do, right?” said Bryan Schuessler, PharmD, a certified specialty pharmacist (CSP) and Director of Product. “You help them traverse that journey and get the best outcome, time and again. That’s why we’re here.”

Prioritizing Patients and Payers

RxSS members deserve clinical expertise from clinicians who care at every step in their medication journey. At the same time, RxSS clients know there’s an entire team looking out for them that is armed with a deep understanding of pharmacy benefits and how the intricacies affect payers.

Primary care physicians treat the whole patient and whatever health conditions may be present. Specialists focus on a specific condition or disease. Doctors of pharmacy are specialists in the medicine physicians prescribe.

Physicians often prescribe a medication without knowing what it will cost the patient or insurer. How can they, given the $10 and $100 scenario from earlier? Patients may assume the prescribed drug is their only option. Sometimes it is. More often there are several.

Pharmacists know all of them—generics, all the available forms and formulations, alternatives in the same drug class, dosage form possibilities… everything they might suggest to a patient or pharmacy customer who can’t afford or find what their doctor prescribed.

The Power of Suggestion

RxSS pharmacists have curated more than 52,000 of those clinical suggestions covering nearly 10,000 prescribed products.1 These fuel our clinical engine and help the patented algorithm identify more opportunities for cost savings in any formulary and benefit design.

“That’s exactly why I took this job, to make sure members on a large national scale understand that there are options for them,” said Brittany Ulrich, PharmD, CSP, Specialty Pharmacist – Sales.

“We’re not just flooding our engine with suggestions. If we wanted to, we could have 200,000,” Director of Pharmacy Shelby Luzenske, PharmD, clarified. “We are very cautious with what we add to ensure recommendations make clinical sense and that doctors will approve them.” (Doctors approve nearly 90% of submitted requests for RxSS-suggested switches.(2))

More suggestions lead to more savings opportunities. Members pay less out of pocket. Employers and health plans spend less on pharmacy.

When it All Comes Together

RxSS pharmacists may work on our products, support sales and their consultant partners, help clients achieve their goals, or assist members on the front lines and behind the scenes. Whatever role or function they serve, each contributes to the individual member success stories we live for at RxSS.

For every heartwarming or tear-jerking testimony we hear or see, thousands of similar positive outcomes exist only in claims data or dollars saved on a spreadsheet. They all take our pharmacists back to that patient or customer they couldn’t help for whatever reason, the care they couldn’t deliver in previous practice settings.

Now they can provide it for millions of people. Even if virtually or digitally, it goes back to individual member impact and improving lives.

Tiffany Finch, PharmD, whose team hears the great member reactions every day, summed it up for every pharmacist at RxSS: “When someone says that you’ve saved their life, how grateful they are for all the help you’ve given them, it reminds you how grateful you are that you get to do what you do every day.”

(1) RxSS data; July 2024; approx. 52,000 clinical suggestions covering 9,911 unique claim products.

(2) RxSS data; March 2022-March 2023; 88.35% of prescription change requests approved after submitted to provider through RxSS concierge service.

(3) Net Promoter Scores (NPS); April 2024; 78 NPS from RxSS clients; 67 from members.

(4)“NPS Healthcare Guide: 25 Healthcare NPS Benchmarks & Industry Guide.” CustomerGauge blog, 4 Oct. 2024,?https://customergauge.com/benchmarks/blog/nps-healthcare-net-promoter-score-benchmarks