SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PREPURCHASED REPLENISHMENT OF PHARMACEUTICALS

• US 20100312578A1
• Filed: 06/09/2009
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wellpartner, Inc. (CVS Health Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Wellpartner, Inc. (CVS Health Corporation)
• Inventors: Hardaway, Jason Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,412,538 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients

Abstract

A computer system and method manages the disbursement and replacement of medication units to patients. Medication units disbursed to qualified patients under qualified discount plans are replaced by replenishment. Computer systems implementing traditional replenishment, cached replenishment, and prepurchased replenishment are disclosed. The computer system and method monitors medication units disbursed to patients by a pharmacy and tracks the amount of medication units disbursed to qualified patients of health care providers qualified under a discount program. When the amount of disbursed medication units reaches a threshold, replacement medication units are ordered. The medication units disbursed to non-qualified patients are replaced through restocking and the medication units disbursed under a qualified discount program are replaced through traditional replenishment, cached replenishment, and/or prepurchased replenishment.

Claims

1. A computer system to enable a pharmacy that disburses medications to patients of a plurality of health care providers to automatically coordinate prepurchased replenishment of medications disbursed to qualified patients of one or more qualified entities under a qualified discount program, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory in electrical communication with the processor, the memory including, an operating system, and

a prepurchased replenishment module to perform the method of

forecasting future disbursements of medication units during a given time period by the pharmacy to qualified patients of the one or more qualified entities;

identifying an advantageous pricing scenario for the medication units;

coordinating a purchase of a prepurchased replenishment container from a supplier, wherein the prepurchased replenishment container is purchased at a discounted price of the identified advantageous pricing scenario,

coordinating delayed shipment of the prepurchased replenishment container by the supplier to the pharmacy, and

associating the prepurchased replenishment container with the pharmacy such that when the pharmacy is in need of actual replenishment of one or more replenishment containers, the supplier sends the pharmacy an actual replenishment container corresponding to the prepurchased replenishment container and reduces the number of replenishment containers ordered by the pharmacy.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the method performed by the prepurchased replenishment module further comprises:

identifying an actual replenishment need at the pharmacy of at least one replenishment container;

coordinating shipment of an actual replenishment container corresponding to the prepurchased replenishment container to the pharmacy by the supplier; and

reducing by one container the number of replenishment containers ordered in a replenishment order of the pharmacy to the supplier for the shipped actual replenishment container.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the method performed by the prepurchased replenishment module further comprises coordinating actual replenishment for the number of replenishment containers remaining in the order of the pharmacy after the number of containers ordered is reduced for the shipped actual replenishment container.

4. The computer system of claim 2, wherein identifying an actual replenishment need comprises:

monitoring disbursements of medication units by the pharmacy to patients of a plurality of health care providers; and

tracking the number of medication units disbursed through qualified disbursements to qualified patients of qualified entities under a qualified discount program.

5. The computer system of claim 4, wherein monitoring disbursements of medication units by the pharmacy comprises reading bar codes that correspond to the disbursed medication units.

6. The computer system of claim 4, wherein monitoring the disbursement by the pharmacy of medication units to patients of the plurality of health care providers includes communicating with the health care providers over a network.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein coordinating the purchase of the prepurchased replenishment container further comprises coordinating payment directly to the supplier for the purchase by the one or more qualified entities.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the method performed by the prepurchased replenishment module further comprises determining each qualified entity'"'"'s share of cost for the prepurchased replenishment container based on the number of medication units disbursed to qualified patients of each qualified entity.

9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the method performed by the prepurchased replenishment module further comprises generating an invoice for each qualified entity, each invoice reflecting a corresponding share of cost.

10. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising an output device in electrical communication with the processor and wherein the method performed by the prepurchased replenishment module further comprises instructing the output device to provide notification of an advantageous pricing scenario to a user.

11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein forecasting future disbursements comprises:

monitoring disbursements of medication units by the pharmacy to patients of a plurality of health care providers;

tracking the number of medication units disbursed through qualified disbursements to qualified patients of qualified entities under a qualified discount program; and

calculating an average number of medication units disbursed through qualified disbursements during a given time period.

12. A computer readable storage medium, having stored thereon computer readable instruction code for a computer system to perform a method of automatic prepurchased replenishment of medications disbursed by a pharmacy to qualified patients of one or more qualified entities under a qualified discount program, the method comprising:

forecasting future disbursements of medication units during a given time period by the pharmacy to qualified patients of the one or more qualified entities;

identifying an advantageous pricing scenario for the medication units;

coordinating a purchase of a prepurchased replenishment container from a medication supplier, wherein the prepurchased replenishment container is purchased at a discounted price of the identified advantageous pricing scenario;

coordinating delayed shipment of the prepurchased replenishment container by the supplier to the pharmacy; and

associating the prepurchased replenishment container with the pharmacy such that when the pharmacy is in need of actual replenishment of one or more replenishment containers, the supplier sends the pharmacy an actual replenishment container corresponding to the prepurchased replenishment container and reduces the number of replenishment containers ordered by the pharmacy.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein coordinating a purchase of a prepurchased replenishment container further comprises coordinating payment for the purchase by the one or more qualified entities directly to the supplier.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises determining each qualified entity'"'"'s share of cost for the purchase of the prepurchased replenishment container.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying an actual replenishment need at the pharmacy of at least one replenishment container;

coordinating shipment of an actual replenishment container corresponding to the prepurchased replenishment container to the pharmacy by the supplier;

reducing by one container the number of replenishment containers ordered in a replenishment order of the pharmacy to the supplier for the shipped actual replenishment container; and

coordinating actual replenishment for the number of replenishment containers remaining in the order of the pharmacy after the number of containers ordered is reduced for the shipped actual replenishment container.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein identifying an actual replenishment need comprises:

monitoring disbursements of medication units by the pharmacy to patients of a plurality of health care providers; and

tracking the number of medication units disbursed through qualified disbursements to qualified patients of the qualified entities under a qualified discount program.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein monitoring disbursements by the pharmacy comprises reading bar codes that correspond to the disbursed medication units.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein monitoring the disbursement by the pharmacy of medication units to patients of the plurality of health care providers includes communicating with the health care providers over a network.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises instructing an output device in electrical communication with the computer system to provide notification of an advantageous pricing scenario to a user of the computer system.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein forecasting future disbursements comprises:

monitoring disbursements of medication units by the pharmacy to patients of a plurality of health care providers;

tracking the number of medication units disbursed through qualified disbursements to qualified patients of qualified entities under a qualified discount program; and

calculating an average number of medication units disbursed through qualified disbursements during the given time period

21. A computer-implemented method to enable a pharmacy to disburse medications to patients of a plurality of health care providers and to automatically coordinate replenishment of medications dispersed by the pharmacy to qualified patients of one or more qualified entities under a discount plan, the method comprising:

a computer system forecasting future qualified disbursements of medication units during a given time period by the pharmacy to qualified patients of the one or more qualified entities;

the computer system identifying an advantageous pricing scenario for the medication units;

the computer system coordinating a purchase of a prepurchased replenishment container, wherein payment for the purchase is made to the supplier by the one or more qualified entities, and wherein the payment amount is a deeply discounted price of the identified advantageous pricing scenario;

the computer system coordinating delayed shipment of the prepurchased replenishment container by the supplier to the pharmacy;

the computer system associating the prepurchased replenishment container with the pharmacy such that when the pharmacy is in need of actual replenishment of one or more replenishment containers the supplier sends the pharmacy the prepurchased replenishment container and the number of replenishment containers ordered in a replenishment order to be shipped to the pharmacy is reduced by one container for the prepurchased replenishment container;

the computer system determining when the pharmacy is in need of actual replenishment by identifying when the number of medication units dispensed through qualified dispersals reaches a replenishment threshold; and

upon the number of medication units dispensed through qualified dispersals reaching the replenishment threshold, the computer system initiating an order by the one or more qualified entities for a replenishment container at a discount price under the qualified program, the replenishment container ordered for shipment to the pharmacy.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the computer system forecasting future qualified disbursements comprises:

the computer system monitoring disbursements of medication units by the pharmacy to patients of the plurality of health care providers; and

the computer system tracking the number of medication units dispensed through qualified dispersals to qualified patients of the one or more qualified entities.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein the computer system monitoring disbursements of medication units by the pharmacy comprises reading bar codes that correspond to the disbursed medication units.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein the computer system monitoring the disbursements of medication units by the pharmacy includes communicating with the health care providers over a network.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, further comprising

the computer system coordinating shipment of an actual replenishment container corresponding to the prepurchased replenishment container to the pharmacy by the supplier;

and

reducing by one container the number of replenishment containers ordered in a replenishment order of the pharmacy to the supplier for the shipped actual replenishment container.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the computer system coordinating the purchase of the prepurchased replenishment container further comprises coordinating payment directly to the supplier for the purchase by the one or more qualified entities.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, further comprising the computer system determining each qualified entity'"'"'s share of cost for the prepurchased replenishment container based on the number of medication units disbursed to qualified patients of each qualified entity.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, further comprising the computer system generating an invoice for each qualified entity, each invoice reflecting a corresponding share of cost.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, further comprising the computer system providing a notification of an advantageous pricing scenario to a user via an output device.

30. A computer system to enable a pharmacy to disburse medications to patients of a plurality of health care providers and to automatically coordinate replenishment of medications dispersed to qualified patients of one or more qualified entities under a discount plan, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory in electrical communication with the processor, the memory including,

an operating system;

a monitoring module to perform the method of;

monitoring disbursements of medication units by the pharmacy to patients of the plurality of health care providers, and

tracking the number of medication units dispensed through qualified dispersals to qualified patients of the one or more qualified entities;

a replenishment module to perform the method of,

determining when the number of medication units dispensed through qualified dispersals reaches a replenishment threshold; and

upon the number of medication units dispensed through qualified dispersals reaching the replenishment threshold, initiating an order by the one or more qualified entities for a replenishment container at a discount price under the qualified program, the replenishment container ordered for shipment to the pharmacy; and

a prepurchased replenishment module to perform the method of;

forecasting future qualified disbursements of medication units during a given time period by the pharmacy to qualified patients of the one or more qualified entities;

identifying an advantageous pricing scenario for the medication units;

coordinating a purchase of a prepurchased replenishment container, wherein payment for the purchase is made to the supplier by the one or more qualified entities, and wherein the payment amount is a deeply discounted price of the identified advantageous pricing scenario,

coordinating delayed shipment of the prepurchased replenishment container by the supplier to the pharmacy, and

associating the prepurchased replenishment container with the pharmacy such that when the pharmacy is in need of actual replenishment of one or more replenishment containers the supplier sends the pharmacy the prepurchased replenishment container and reduces by one container the number of replenishment containers ordered in a replenishment order to be shipped to the pharmacy.