The PillRoute magazine

Counter to Curb

Reporting on the daily work of independent community pharmacy, from med synchronization and adherence to the delivery route.

  • Nine reports in the current issue
  • Written by Jimenez Julien
  • Reviewed by a pharmacist in charge

All articles in Counter to Curb

Pharmacist arranging amber vials and weekly pill organizers on a white counseling counter beside a brass mortar and pestle practical guide

How to Build a Med Sync Program in an Independent Pharmacy

Medication synchronization aligns a patient's chronic prescriptions to one anchor date. Here is the patient selection, the short fill math, the plan overrides and the call script that make it hold.

7 min read

Capsules and thirty day vials laid out in an even counting grid on a white pharmacy tray under soft daylight numbers and benchmarks

Pharmacy Adherence Math: PDC, Star Ratings and the 80% Line

Proportion of days covered drives the triple weighted Part D adherence measures. Learn how the ratio is built, which drug classes count, and why crossing 80 percent changes what a plan pays you.

8 min read

Two pharmacists reviewing a wall planner of colored dot stickers at the back counter of a community pharmacy case study

A 90-Day Med Sync Rollout at a Two-Pharmacist Store

Follow one independent store through ninety days of med sync: the first patient list, the partial fill cycle, the refill call queue, and the week the delivery route finally settled into a rhythm.

7 min read

Owner standing in the wide aisle of an independent community pharmacy with deep green shelving at opening hour trends and outlook

PBM Reform, NADAC Pricing and Where Reimbursement Is Headed

State PBM laws, NADAC benchmarks and the move of price concessions to the point of sale are reshaping what a filled prescription pays. Here is what independents should plan around next.

8 min read

View from a delivery van passenger seat on a snowy rural road with an insulated cooler strapped in the footwell field report

A Winter Ride-Along on a Rural Pharmacy Delivery Route

A cooler in the footwell, salted county roads and a signature pad that will not wake up in the cold. What a morning in the passenger seat teaches about building a route that finishes by four.

7 min read

Why we publish it

Written from behind the bench, not from a keyword list

Every piece in Counter to Curb starts with a store: a technician working a refill list, an owner recosting a delivery run, a driver with a cooler in the footwell. We publish the arithmetic and the procedures we would want if we were still standing at the counter, and we say plainly when something depends on your state board or your plan contracts.

If your afternoon looks like the ones described here, PillRoute lines the whole panel up on one anchor date and sequences the stops that follow.