Empirian Health
Trailblazing LTC Pharmacy Management

In today’s long-term care market, the rising cost of drugs is pushing facility operators to find ways to tighten the organization’s budget belt. These external pressures are not only squeezing operating margins but in some cases, putting viable providers in a no-win situation. Many nursing homes are selling or going out of business in the face of these and other challenges. The need of the hour is a reliable partner that can monitor and manage pharmacy costs while allowing LTC facilities to focus on patient care. Enter Empirian Health.

Empirian Health is dedicated to alleviating the stress associated with rising pharmacy-related costs and helping facilities focus on patient care. The company has a proven track record of lowering pharmacy costs for facilities with targeted tools, dedicated client service, and clinical oversight. “By building a strong relationship with long term care pharmacies, we help facility operators effectively reduce medication expenses and improve patient outcomes,” says Shannon G. Speir, president and CEO of Empirian Health.

“We completely believe in the notion of ‘one size does not fit all,’ so our products are designed in such a way that it is tailored for individual client needs,” emphasizes Speir. The company offers ClaimPoint^TM, a proprietary rebate management system that is integrated with a claims administration program to ensure the lowest net cost for its clients. Empirian Health has achieved success in processing a large volume of LTC-A claims through its ClaimPoint system. Alongside its rebate system, Empirian Health also provides a full suite of audit and analytic tools that perform powerful data analysis to determine cost benefits. The audit and analytic offerings include systems like TrueView^TM that performs retrospective bill review to verify fees and plan parameters.

Empirian’s goal is to help facility operators reduce medication expenses and improve patient outcomes

Empirian’s rich history in providing promised services is incomparable and has been successful in consistently outperforming its clients’ expectations. For instance, utilizing TrueView^TM, Empirian evaluated pharmacy claims for a skilled nursing facility with branches in over 25 locations for one month. This consisted of approximately 21,000 claims including all Medicare Part A and managed care claims as well as all non-covered charges. After a thorough analysis, Empirian identified a number of credit recovery opportunities. The skilled nursing facility was able to realize a 324 percent ROI at the end of this initial review.

The Empirian Rebate program also helps skilled nursing facilities reduce Medicare Part A medication costs on average by four to six percent, with many achieving even greater savings. To elaborate on the rebate program, Speir cites another scenario where Empirian worked with a large multi-site skilled nursing facility spread over 100 locations with an average medication cost per patient per day of $34.83. In just three quarters, the average medication cost per patient per day was reduced to $31.86 due to the Empirian program. This reflected a savings of nine percent.

The Empirian team has extensive experience in managing clinical programs for unique patient populations, even ones with short lengths of stay such as skilled nursing where there are also not the typical drivers of behavior such as higher copays or coinsurance. They understand that by melding analytics, training, and communication along with the right medication management tools, Empirian can deliver higher quality patient care and lower costs. To augment their services, Empirian will continue to add experienced staff to exceed their clients’ needs and expectations. “We are planning to continue to develop innovative programs to manage our clients’ pharmacy needs, and continue to drive client improvements through analytics,” concludes Speir.