For many, having prescriptions delivered to their home is not just a convenience, it’s a necessity. Lack of mobility, access to transportation, and other social determinants impact the health of members and increase costs for health plans.
To address these obstacles, and improve member experience, Abarca, in partnership with Triple-S, launched Triple-S en Casa, Puerto Rico’s first home delivery pharmacy program.
THE APPROACH
To deliver a program that would allow members to reliably and conveniently access their medications, Abarca began by:
- Building an intuitive, user-friendly app that allows members to order, manage, and schedule delivery for prescriptions on their phones or devices.
- Leveraging Darwin, Abarca’s advanced PBM technology platform, to process claims and provide information to users in real time.
- Collaborating closely with Triple-S and Alivia Home Delivery, a local pharmacy network, to ensure that members are receiving the services they need when they need them, and keeping all stakeholders engaged in the project’s long-term success.
- Putting modern technology in the hands of members that could serve as a platform for monitoring people with chronic diseases and other telemetry functions in the future.
THE RESULTS
With a launch planned for Spring 2020, Abarca worked closely with its partners to expedite the launch of Triple-S en Casa to meet the urgent need for home delivery of medications brought on by the COVID-19 public health crisis, and Puerto Rico’s strict quarantine protocol.
Within 30 days, we achieved 151% of our initial goal of registered members for the program. Of the claims that were processed in that period, more than 80% were for maintenance medications. Of those, nearly 60% were 90-day supplies, more than double the retail average. This is an encouraging indicator of ongoing medication adherence in Triple-S en Casa users.
While Abarca had predicted that Triple-S en Casa would be most popular among tech-savvy millennials, 30% of the program’s early adopters were actually members aged 65 or older.
Assuming that this program follows national home-delivery pharmacy trends, Triple-S en Casa can help members increase medication adherence and improve health outcomes.
While continuing to refine and adapt Triple-S en Casa, Abarca will use this model to develop additional home delivery programs rooted in modern technology and user-friendly member tools to serve members in Puerto Rico and across the U.S.
151%Achieved initial goal of registered users |
60%Of initial prescriptions were for 90-day supplies |
30%Early adopters were aged 65 or older |
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*This case study was written by Christian Caballero, Director of Strategic Projects, Gabriel López, Senior Manager of Home Delivery Operations, and Katherine Ocasio, Director of Analytics.