M. Joseph Medical contracts with workers' compensation insurance carriers and maintains a national network of pharmacies and mail order service to dispense approved medications to the injured workers of the various insurance carriers. Our network includes over 99% of all pharmacies in the United States, and grows continually as we add as necessary, small neighborhood pharmacies and doctors who dispense from their office.

Dispensing through this network of pharmacies is the most efficient and cost effective method of fulfilling a doctor's prescriptions. Dispensing of drugs via the injured worker's pharmacy is based on the tried and true business model of the doctor giving the prescription to the patient and the patient then going to the pharmacy of his/her choice to have the prescription filled at absolutely no cost to the injured worker.

The most important aspect of this traditional model is the safety of the patient. The claimant's local pharmacist can immediately determine if the prescribed medication may or may not be harmful to the injured worker, in case he/she may simultaneously be taking other medications prescribed by another doctor (i.e., blood pressure medications). The treating w/c doctor may not be aware of other prescribed medications, and consequently, dangerous drug interactions could occur. Only the local pharmacist knows what other medication his customer may be taking on a routine basis, and only the local pharmacist is equipped and has the time to discuss in detail the effect of a prescribed medication, or combination of medications.

Here's an example of how the system works. Typically, an insurance carrier is apprised of a worker's work-related injury, after a doctor has treated the injured worker and then after an adjuster has accepted the claim for payment. The adjuster contacts M. Joseph Medical and asks us to provide the claimant with a prescription card similar in nature to those issued by any other major group health insurance carrier (i.e., Anthem, Blue Cross/Blue Shield). If required, an approval for medication may be given over the telephone when the card is lost or has not yet arrived. Telephone approval eliminates the need to the claimant to pay "out of pocket" and wait for reimbursement. The dispensing pharmacy knows immediately if the drug is approved and also knows the amount of money the pharmacy will receive for the prescription(s). The carrier is assured that the pharmacist is dispensing a "work-related" prescription and not a prescription that should be covered under the patient's group health insurance plan.

Within the retail pharmacy industry, the Average Wholesale Price (AWP) is the barometer by which the price of all drugs is determined. Pharmacies within our network will discount their product from the published AWP because we assure them that as a group they will receive millions of dollars of additional sales each month and additional store traffic. In addition, our network will in all cases accept the absolute lowest price available, the Federal Medicare Allowable Cost (FMAC). For these two reasons, we are able to pass through to those W/C carriers who retain our services, a substantial discount which has averaged 24-25% less than the published AWP over the last several years.