Tips and Tricks to Grow Your 340B Program

Many companies have a solid approach with 340B. You’re likely missing out on savings if you treat your 340B program solely as a pharmacy program. The truth is that 340B performance can be influenced by other areas of operation. Operations workflows, financial reporting, human resource procedures, and financial reporting can all have a profound impact on 340B savings. 

Phones are the Gateway to Your Clinic

Patients must be able to pass through your “gateways” instantly to access your clinics. This will allow you to grow your practice and maximize your 340B savings. Many patients have difficulty getting through the main gate: the phone. Simply put, patients with access problems can result in lost 340B-qualified patients as well as savings.

You can ensure that patients don’t get diverted by long hold times, voice mail, busy lines, or voice mail. Your clinic could be losing business if new patients trying to schedule end up in voicemail.

Your scheduling team should prioritize revenue-generating calls. Your organization will lose new customers if it makes new patients compete with vendors and other callers. Online forms can help schedulers avoid calls for refills and medical records. They also offer other communication options.

What does your caller hear while they wait? Recording promotions is a better option than playing music during hold time. You can promote your pharmacy services or program participation during hold times.

Alternatives to phone calls

How many of your daily interactions are made by phone rather than a text message, email, or another means of communication?

Imagine someone anxious about their HIV status. Its past midnight and they need to be back at work by 8:00 AM the next day. The potential patient doesn’t want to wait for the clinic to open or be put on hold. Online scheduling and self-registration are a competitive advantage for covered entities. They can also book new patients online, even if the clinic is closed, by offering alternative options to the telephone.

EMR/PM Systems – Use

Many organizations don’t use their EMRs well. Many organizations fail to make full use of the EMR’s features. Some EMR features can be used to increase savings of 340B.

Automatic lab reminders – Labs can be vital to keep patients on their 340B drug schedule.

Reports – Clinics frequently fail to utilize the available reports. Reports such as “no shows” can be useful in helping you target patients at high risk of dropping out of your care. EMR report writers can assist your team in creating reports to identify potential contract pharmacy partners.

After-visit summaries – These are a great way to encourage medication adherence and educate about risky behavior.

Meeting Customer Expectations

Patients will leave organizations that continue to follow a paternalistic, outdated approach to healthcare. Patients have changed their expectations due to changes in healthcare consumerism. The 340B clinics compete with other providers like CVS and Walgreens retail shops, online providers as well as urgent care centers.

The competitiveness of covered entities in terms of convenience and accessibility should be examined. Are you able to offer walk-in or weekend appointments? Can patients self-schedule online? Can patients get same-day prescriptions online? How can your covered entity make its operations more competitive if they are unable to get a same-day prescription?

Human Resources

The approach of a Covered Entity to Human Resources can have a significant impact on its 340 Program success. The key to ensuring compliance with 340B is onboarding and orientation programs. Your team will be more successful in promoting the program to qualified 340B patients if everyone is familiar with it.

To maximize participation, scripting is an additional tool that can be used to standardize and optimize communications between team members with potential patients.

Manage Your 340B KPIs

Regular and timely visibility into key performance indicators (KPIs), 340B provides insight that can be used for savings.

Reporting is also used by covered entities to compare different clinics or see performance trends. Organizations can save time and money by eliminating manual processes that have long delays and using 340B dashboard reporting.

There are many opportunities to optimize workflows across multiple departments to maximize your 340B savings, from the first contact with your office to the collection and payment of claims.