Is pharmacy school a 100K scam????

[PokeMyBrains]

MWU and Western being the most expensive..
Should not go there. Go to a public school, cheaper.

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[Caverject]

 

[jasmine0211]

Pharmacy is probably one of the best career choices you can make. I have offers for $60/hour as a retail pharmacist

There's a huge shortage. The retail chains were offering me $56/an hour. I said "NO" and kept negotiating. Some reoffered at 58, others reoffered at 60.

There are some chains with the audacity to not even offer sign on bonuses.

Guys - there's a shortage, you can find a job anywhere. Different district managers offer different things. If you don't get a sign on bonus, don't sign on with them. Those who go with a chain WITHOUT a sign on bonus is screwing themselves as well as future pharmacists over

 

[MountainPharmD]

Pharmacy is probably one of the best career choices you can make. I have offers for $60/hour as a retail pharmacist

There's a huge shortage. The retail chains were offering me $56/an hour. I said "NO" and kept negotiating. Some reoffered at 58, others reoffered at 60.

There are some chains with the audacity to not even offer sign on bonuses.

Guys - there's a shortage, you can find a job anywhere. Different district managers offer different things. If you don't get a sign on bonus, don't sign on with them. Those who go with a chain WITHOUT a sign on bonus is screwing themselves as well as future pharmacists over

Wrong, wrong, wrong. The only person you screw over by taking a bonus is yourself. The dumbest thing you can ever do is take a sign on bonus. Sign that bonus agreement and your signing a deal with the devil. Trust me you will see.....

 

[Caverject]

Wrong, wrong, wrong. The only person you screw over by taking a bonus is yourself. The dumbest thing you can ever do is take a sign on bonus. Sign that bonus agreement and your signing a deal with the devil. Trust me you will see.....

I have to agree with Mountainman here... signing on bonuses are invitations to get something rammed up your *** for 3 years

 

[SCCpharm]

I'm still a p1 here. But, if you plan on staying with the company for 2+ years anyways, whats wrong with taking a sign on bonus?

The only negative I can see is if they make you a floater, but can't you sign up to be a staff pharmacist?

 

[StallionRx]

I dont get how taking it is a bad idea. I took one and got 13k right out of the bag. Its a one year contract that Im still under. I never floated or was ever told to move to another store.

I have one buddy that signed on with another chain for 16k POST TAX. He has a 2 year commitment, but generally seems pretty happy.

 

[Caverject]

It all just depends on what you want to do. If you take it, that means you are locked into serving that agreement. That also means they can send you to the crappiest store they can't staff and have you work it.

 

[StallionRx]

It all just depends on what you want to do. If you take it, that means you are locked into serving that agreement. That also means they can send you to the crappiest store they can't staff and have you work it.

Yea, Ive heard that before too.

A girl I was on rotation with took a sign on bonus but had it written in her contract that she HAD to work at a certain store. Played it safe.

 

[pharmacy123456]

If pharmacists don't start taking a more active role in MTM and the future of the profession then I think that their role in society could be jeopardized. What value does a pharmacist behind the counter at rite-aid, cvs, or walgreens provide to the average customer. A majority of the public just views pharmacists as dispensing their presciptions which means they may not know to go to the pharmacists with drug related questions: they would feel more comfortable going to their doctor.

Also with the shrinking drug insurance reimbursements pharmacists have to go into MTM to find a new revenue source for their services. It is almost widely known that pharmacy as a commodity is not that profitable (hence the reason for a walgreens on every corner....they have to gain leverage through sheer volume of prescriptions they fill) What is scary though is that pharmacists (the people most qualified to do MTM) are no even preforming most of the MTM services that are getting reimbused....nurse practicioners, nurses, and doctors are. If pharmacists do not start performing these services then the niche could possibly no longer be ours.

How many of you are keeping up with current legislation: especially pertaining to medicare part d and how much the government wants to cut pharmacy reimbursements so that the percent of AMP they pay is not even profitable for anyone.

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=22310
an example of what could have potentially happened for all of you people choosing to remain in your safe community pharmacy bubble.

 

[Caverject]

If pharmacists don't start taking a more active role in MTM and the future of the profession then I think that their role in society could be jeopardized. What value does a pharmacist behind the counter at rite-aid, cvs, or walgreens provide to the average customer. A majority of the public just views pharmacists as dispensing their presciptions which means they may not know to go to the pharmacists with drug related questions: they would feel more comfortable going to their doctor.

Also with the shrinking drug insurance reimbursements pharmacists have to go into MTM to find a new revenue source for their services. It is almost widely known that pharmacy as a commodity is not that profitable (hence the reason for a walgreens on every corner....they have to gain leverage through sheer volume of prescriptions they fill) What is scary though is that pharmacists (the people most qualified to do MTM) are no even preforming most of the MTM services that are getting reimbused....nurse practicioners, nurses, and doctors are. If pharmacists do not start performing these services then the niche could possibly no longer be ours.

How many of you are keeping up with current legislation: especially pertaining to medicare part d and how much the government wants to cut pharmacy reimbursements so that the percent of AMP they pay is not even profitable for anyone.

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=22310
an example of what could have potentially happened for all of you people choosing to remain in your safe community pharmacy bubble.

She's back!

 

[retiredrph]

I have hopefully a relevant question to this thread. Since most pharmacists dont compound and generally operate with knowledge/info only ( as they dont have to cut people up or drill their teeth ets) why a self-taught pharmacist is an unheard-off thing? Why a pharmacy technician can't, even after working for awhile become an intern, pass some exams, work off their 1000-1500 hours, pass more tests/exams, read the same books perhaps, pass some more exams/tests, and finally pass NAPLEX and get a license?

Not all that long ago pharmacists did not need to attend a college. When states began to reguire a college degree the non-college grads were given the opportunity to take the test if they had worked in pharmacy for some period of time. If they passed the state test they were licensed. Interesting there were many who passed the test and never went to school. I think the colleges have lost their focus. It should not take 6 years to become a pharmacists especially for retail and other primarily dispensing positions. I would like to see a 4 year program for those who don't want to go the clinical route. And many will not get there as most jobs in pharmacy are not in clinical areas. Many jobs are in areas where 4 years would be plenty to properly prepaired to be a licensed pharmacist

 

[retiredrph]

The pharmacist shortage is here to stay. At least for a long enough period for you to pay off your loans. It will be a long time before CVS and Walgreens place a store on every corner. There are plenty of corners left.

There is a problem in the future, IMHO, that is why I suggest
all pharmacists explore other options such as injections, MTM, consultancy practice. Retail will not be the gravy train forever. Also, while it may not be the gravy train, there two things you should note:

If you are good, you will always be able to get a job. There is always room at the top.

Salaries will not fall to $50,000.00 per year.

I'm curious how do you rate one retail pharmacists being at the top compare to another retail pharmacist

 

[retiredrph]

If pharmacists don't start taking a more active role in MTM and the future of the profession then I think that their role in society could be jeopardized. What value does a pharmacist behind the counter at rite-aid, cvs, or walgreens provide to the average customer. A majority of the public just views pharmacists as dispensing their presciptions which means they may not know to go to the pharmacists with drug related questions: they would feel more comfortable going to their doctor.

Also with the shrinking drug insurance reimbursements pharmacists have to go into MTM to find a new revenue source for their services. It is almost widely known that pharmacy as a commodity is not that profitable (hence the reason for a walgreens on every corner....they have to gain leverage through sheer volume of prescriptions they fill) What is scary though is that pharmacists (the people most qualified to do MTM) are no even preforming most of the MTM services that are getting reimbused....nurse practicioners, nurses, and doctors are. If pharmacists do not start performing these services then the niche could possibly no longer be ours.

How many of you are keeping up with current legislation: especially pertaining to medicare part d and how much the government wants to cut pharmacy reimbursements so that the percent of AMP they pay is not even profitable for anyone.

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=22310
an example of what could have potentially happened for all of you people choosing to remain in your safe community pharmacy bubble.

You raise some vary valid points. Pharmacy has made some inroads to a more clinical/service aspect but unfortunately retail where most of the jobs are and are being created is viewed as a delivery/comodity not a professional service. One of the biggest concerns Me and other pharmacists have had is the control of most pharmacy organizations by the chains. The problem is pharmacists needs and desires are contrary to the chains/employers. My biggest concern has always been the work load in retial. The chains want production and the pharmacists want a safe pace and time. The single biggest concern/problem that if fixed would improve conditions would be the use of scanable RX cards and workload limit regulations.

 

[genesis09]

The technology for scanning insurance cards has been around for quite a while. I don't know why they don't implement it.
Illinois has required a degree for pharmacy since the 1880s. The minimum degree has change since then. They have never gone back to a lower degree after the higher degree has been placed as the minimum required degree.

 

[retiredrph]

The technology for scanning insurance cards has been around for quite a while. I don't know why they don't implement it.
Illinois has required a degree for pharmacy since the 1880s. The minimum degree has change since then. They have never gone back to a lower degree after the higher degree has been placed as the minimum required degree.

I was referring to oklahoma on the non-degreed pharmacists. But that was years ago and I'm sure most if not all are retired or passed on.
As far as the scanable card the answer is quite obvious. The pbms do not want to make it easy for people to collect their benefits. I bet every pharmacist or tech here has seen a customer get so frustrated trying to get a script processed they just say I'll pay cash for it. You see when I was involved with utilization management I worked with a variety of insurers and pbms. One major insurer who I will not name for liability concerns would reject a medical claim on the first error they found. In oher words they would stop at the point of the error. So if there were more errors you would have to resubmit correcting or providing the information they requested. On the resubmittal the insurer would process the claim again and stop at the next error. I called the company rep and asked does your computer scan the whole claim or stop at first error. They said first error. I said why don't you just give all the errors to the patient so they can fix them all at once. They said because for every 1000 claims rejected less than 100% get resubmitted. You see one way the insurance processors make money is to reduce claims paid. Frustration generation is their main tool. So to make a long answer short The PBM's really don't want to make processing a script any easier with scanable cards as its not in their best financial interest. If you want to know how doing that helps them make money let me know I'll explain that in another post.

 

[BidingMyTime]

You're basically asking why you can't just one day take a test to be a pharmacist if you "work the hours" without attending school, and that's ludicrous... maybe 100 years ago.

In some states, can't legal assistants study on their own and then take the bar exam and become lawyers without having their JD?

Other than rotations, I can't say I learned much at my pharmacy school that I didn't get out or reading a textbook (or from talking with an older student). A few classes were a total joke, in that the teacher literally taught nothing that was needed or that we were tested on. Oh Pharmaceutics class was fun--we didn't even have a textbook for that. The "instructor" would just assign us something to compound each week (anything from suppositories to dusting powder) and we had to figure out on our own how to do it (after failing the first few labs, I realized the value in making friends with upper classmen.)

I imagine with the shortage of college professors the situation in pharmacy schools is even worse than when I went. I certainly can understand the sentiment of studying on ones own and then taking the test. Too bad everyone can't be honest about it--College A could say, yes we have crappy professors who will waste your time for 4 years, pay us 80% of our standard tuition rate, complete the year-long residency, and you can skip the 4 years of classes and we'll still give you a degree, then you can study on your own (as you would have to anyway) and pass the NABPLEX all the sooner). Sounds like a fair deal to me.