Cardinal Health Helps Retail Pharmacies Meet Growing Patient Demand For Convenient Access To Home Health Care Products

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Aug 08, 2013, 09:00 ET

SEATTLE, Aug. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- At its annual Retail Business Conference (RBC) for independent pharmacies, Cardinal Health will today announce that its retail pharmacy customers can build and diversify their businesses by providing their patients with convenient access to more than 40,000 home medical products through Independence Medical.

Earlier this year, Cardinal Health acquired Independence Medical, a leading distributor of disposable medical supplies and durable medical equipment. By accessing Independence Medical's broad product and service offering, Cardinal Health retail pharmacy customers can now develop a new source of revenue by meeting the growing patient demand for home health care products.

Independence Medical's comprehensive home medical product offering can help retail pharmacies:

Meet all of their patients' home medical product needs: Independence Medical can deliver more than 40,000 products to 99 percent of the U.S. population within 1-2 business days. These products can be shipped directly to a community pharmacy for in-store patient pickup, or right to the patient's door, with the pharmacy's name on them.
Easily market their new or expanding home health care offering: With personalized catalogs, customized fliers and brochures, educational materials and package inserts tailored to specific patient demographics, Independence Medical offers unique, cost-effective marketing tools to empower community pharmacies to promote their medical product offerings and attract new customers. Interactive online tools make it easy for community pharmacies to schedule patient order reminders and recurring patient orders – offering maximum convenience while building recurring revenue.
Build customer loyalty and increase margins: Independence Medical leverages proprietary industry data to help community pharmacies manage patient formularies and develop product cross-selling opportunities that build customer loyalty and increase margins.
Optimize service and operating costs: Independence Medical accepts orders via Web, phone, fax and secure electronic platforms to provide its customers with ordering flexibility and convenience. It also helps reduce warehousing, inventory management and labor costs, and offers customized shipping options including home delivery, order consolidation and bulk ship.

"In today's increasingly competitive health care landscape, it's more important than ever before that community pharmacies find innovative ways to grow their businesses while meeting their patients' evolving health care needs," said Jon Giacomin, president of U.S. Pharmaceutical Distribution for Cardinal Health's Pharmaceutical Segment. "This new offering will help retail pharmacies diversify their revenue while also strengthening their role as a local health care destination in the communities they serve."

About the Cardinal Health Retail Business Conference (RBC)
The Cardinal Health Retail Business Conference (RBC), held August 7-10 in Seattle, provides independent pharmacists and pharmacy franchise owners with the opportunity to network with and learn from thousands of their peers from across the nation, while gaining new insights to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their businesses. The annual event provides independent pharmacy owners, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other pharmacy industry professionals across the United States with access to pharmaceutical manufacturers, buying opportunities, continuing education sessions and programs to help pharmacists reduce costs and improve patient care and efficiency. For more information, visit www.CardinalHealth.com/RBC.

About Cardinal Health
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH) is a $101 billion health care services company that improves the cost-effectiveness of health care. As the business behind health care, Cardinal Health helps pharmacies, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories and physician offices focus on patient care while reducing costs, enhancing efficiency and improving quality. Cardinal Health is an essential link in the health care supply chain, providing pharmaceuticals and medical products and services to more than 100,000 locations each day and is also the industry-leading direct-to-home medical supplies distributor. The company is a leading manufacturer of medical and surgical products, including gloves, surgical apparel and fluid management products. In addition, the company operates the nation's largest network of radiopharmacies that dispense products to aid in the early diagnosis and treatment of disease. Ranked #19 on the Fortune 500, Cardinal Health employs 34,000 people worldwide. More information about the company may be found at www.cardinalhealth.com and @CardinalHealth on Twitter.