In a move expected to save the health system $12 million, New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health will move its pharmacy and delivery service in-house for its 66,000 employees, according to a Newsday report.
Northwell Health recently launched a prescription medication mail-order program through its Vivo Health Pharmacy, which provides pharmacy services throughout the Northwell health network. The mail-order program will focus on delivering medicine for treating chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
As a result of this new program, the health system will replace Express Scripts, a mail-order pharmacy, with its own pharmacy to streamline costs and the delivery of medicine for chronic diseases.
Employees can still use neighborhood pharmacies to fill one-time prescriptions.
By shifting the services in-house, Vivo Health Pharmacy will ramp up the number of prescriptions it fills per day from about 50 to about 500, according to Onisis Stefas, PharmD, Northwell Health's chief pharmacy officer.
"There will also be an expansion of 14 net new jobs because of the conversion," Dr. Stefas said. "It's a big ramp-up for us."