Why I‘m Opening a Direct Pay Pharmacy

After 25 years watching pharmacy get worse for patients, I’m doing something about it.

I was supposed to be an engineer.

That was the plan in high school. I was taking all the math classes, making sure I could fit calculus in before graduation. I’d taken drafting my sophomore year. The path was clear.

Then I got a job at a drugstore in downtown Appleton, and everything changed.

Three pharmacists worked there. One had graduated in 1953, one in 1963, and one in 1976. These were community pharmacy veterans — people who’d built careers on being the approachable healthcare provider in the neighborhood. I watched how they cared for their patients. How people would walk up to the counter with a question and walk away with answers. How the whole interaction took minutes, not hours.

I was sixteen years old, and I fell in love with this idea: using math and science to help people, right then and there. Not over months or years like an engineer might, but in real time, face to face, one person at a time.

I’m now solidly middle-aged. I’ve worked in pharmacies for almost thirty years. And my passion hasn’t changed—but pharmacy has. I’ve watched it erode from the most trusted profession in America into the worst hassle of people’s week.

I’m opening a direct pay pharmacy because I believe Madison deserves better. Because I know pharmacy can be what it used to be. And because I’m done watching a broken system hurt the patients I care about.

Going above and beyond for our patients.

Here’s what I do now, even in a broken system—and what I’ll be able to do even better in my own pharmacy:

When I notice refill dates don’t match up—maybe a one-month supply lasted someone almost two months—I ask questions. “How are you taking this medication?” Often the answer is: “I’m supposed to take it twice a day, but I always forget the second dose.”

Many patients don’t know there are once-daily alternatives for their medications. I call the clinic, explain the situation, and ask if we can switch them. Doctors say yes, because they know a pill left in the bottle isn’t helping anyone.

When someone can’t afford a medication, I don’t just shrug and let them walk away. I call and ask for cheaper alternatives. I’ve switched patients from $200 acne creams to $20 versions with the same ingredients—just a slightly different form, equally effective. That’s $180 in savings from a single phone call.

There was a story in the news not long ago—a young man in my hometown of Appleton was told his asthma inhaler would cost $600. He couldn’t afford it. He went home and died several days later from an asthma attack.

That pharmacist could have offered a less expensive alternative. I know there are cheaper options for those medications. If that young man had been my patient, I would have worked to find something affordable. I certainly would not have let him walk out the door like that.

When patients need a refill but there aren’t any left, my first question is: “Do you have pills for today? Do you have pills for tomorrow morning? Are you completely out?” Because I don’t let people go without their blood pressure medication, their antidepressants, their diabetes medications. I get on the phone, call the clinic, explain the situation, and get that prescription sent over the same day.
Patients have been conditioned to just go without. That’s dangerous, and I refuse to accept it.

The Qual-i-tee Promise.

So here’s what I’m promising.

Your prescriptions will be ready when we say they are. Not some of them—all of them. If something isn’t ready, you’ll get a phone call with an explanation and a promise for when it will be.

Actually, you’ll get phone calls regardless. “Just wanted to let you know we’ve ordered your prescription—it’ll be here tomorrow.” Then the next day: “Your prescription came in, it’s ready for pickup, here’s what it will cost.” Imagine that. A personal call, from the same pharmacist who filled it last month.

And when you call us, a person will pick up. The whole point of staffing a pharmacy properly is that nobody sits on hold wondering if anyone is coming back.

The value of direct pay pharmacy services.

Our prices are posted before you ever hand us a prescription, you can check our drug price list any time. For many routine generics, e.g. blood pressure, cholesterol, thyroid, mood, or antibiotics; a one-month supply runs about $13, and a three-month supply about $30.

We might not be the best fit for every budget, but before you decide, look at the list and compare it to your copays. A lot of people are surprised which number is smaller. And even if the number is not smaller, many people find that there is a hidden cost to getting such low prices, so we’ll let you figure out if the savings in time with fewer trips to the pharmacy, the safety and convenience of free pouch packaging, the comfort of knowing the person who fills your prescription, and the ability be able to reach someone and ask a question are worth the extra expense.

This is about making Madison better.

My wife and I have lived in Madison for 25 years. Our kids were born here. They go to school here. This is our community, and we care about it. I’m looking to provide the pharmacy service I desperately believe this community needs and deserves.

I think about those three pharmacists from the downtown drugstore a lot these days. What they did wasn’t complicated. They were present. They were prepared. They knew their patients. A kid sweeping the floor watched them work and changed the whole direction of his life.

That’s the pharmacy I fell in love with at sixteen.