Your Voice: Changing Specialty Pharmacy Practice

At the end of 2013, PHA launched the Specialty Pharmacy Feedback Form in partnership with the Caring Voice Coalition (CVC) as a way for PH patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals to share their experiences with specialty pharmacies. Since then, we have gathered nearly 2,000 responses from community members all over the country - from over 900 different cities and 47 states!

You've told specialty pharmacies what works well and what needs improvement… and they’ve listened. When the program first started, many PHers voiced their frustrations with the long phone calls they had with pharmacy representatives. “The calls take so long that I’m out of breath before it’s even over,” said one respondent. To address this issue, PHA impressed the need for shorter phone calls during a quarterly Advisory Board meeting with the specialty pharmacies. Now, we’re seeing results.

In the beginning, over half of all PHers who submitted feedback were reporting long call times with their specialty pharmacies (identified as calls longer than five minutes). That number has since dropped from 52 percent to less than 32 percent – the lowest it’s ever been!

Moving forward, PHA continues to collaborate with industry to improve specialty pharmacy service and ensure quality access to treatment. We can't do it without you. Please share your own praise, concerns and suggestions through this form to help us identify the issues that need to be addressed. Your input can help the entire PH community.