Every penny counts when it comes to good pharmacy management. Knowing where to find every penny can help owners gain a complete understanding of their business’s financial health.

This need for financial visibility has never been greater, as pharmacies face economic realities and headwinds from multiple fronts, including the Lingering fallout from the DIR “Hangover.”

Pharmacies rang in 2024 to find themselves at serious risk of cashflow short flows, the result of a “perfect storm” of changes in DIR fee assessments. Going forward, DIR fees will be collected at the point of sale via a negotiated price. This replaces past practice, which had been to arbitrarily claw back fees long after a transaction had been settled. However, according to Drug Topics, the changes are likely to result in “higher up-front DIR fees coupled with lower patient copays, which will lead to cashflow issues and financial pain as all pharmacies will receive a low copay.”

To make matters worse, the implementation of the new process overlaps with a final assessment made using the old process. The result? An expected cashflow crunch so severe it has been dubbed the “DIR Fee Hangover.” The cash flow emergency is expected to last through the first half of 2024. Read more >