Press Release

McKesson Business of Pharmacy Solutions, Including MedSource, Optimize Hospital Pharmacy Financial, Operational, and Clinical Performance

SAN FRANCISCO — June 21, 2010 — McKesson Corporation, a FORTUNE 14 healthcare services and information technology company, today announced that McKesson’s MedSource^SM Medication Assistance Program (MedSource) saved participating U.S. hospital pharmacies a total of $3.3 million in 2009. MedSource services help increase the operational and clinical performance of hospital pharmacies, speeding the delivery of care and allowing clinical staff to spend more time with patients. Since program inception, MedSource has saved its health systems customers more than $30 million.

Currently helping more than 2,000 hospital pharmacies nationwide, the business of pharmacy (BoP) is McKesson’s evidence-based approach to transforming the hospital pharmacy into a center of operational excellence that supports optimal patient care. Harnessing McKesson’s distribution, McKesson’s MedSource is one solution within BoP that is designed to enable hospitals to capture significant savings, automate administrative processes, and improve clinical outcomes. By leveraging assets more effectively, MedSource helps hospital pharmacies reduce drug spend and increase cash flow. McKesson MedSource managers traverse the complicated reimbursement process on behalf of hospital pharmacies, thereby enabling hospital pharmacists to focus on patient care, rather than administrative paperwork.

“MedSource has proven to be an essential tool in McKesson’s approach to the business of pharmacy,” said Mark Eastham, R.Ph., SVP of Pharmacy Optimization, McKesson. “Directors of pharmacy using MedSource have an efficient resource at their disposal to help manage the often cumbersome reimbursement process for qualified medications. MedSource enables the hospital pharmacy to meet its financial and operational goals and provide all patients access to quality pharmaceutical care.”

MedSource Seamlessly Integrates to Complement Hospital Pharmacies’ Current Inventory Management and Accounting Processes

Through McKesson’s MedSource program, hospitals can utilize pharmaceutical manufacturer patient-assistance programs to help health system or hospital pharmacies replace drugs dispensed or administered to low-income, uninsured, and under-insured patients. Working directly with manufacturers, MedSource can assist hospitals in replacing the medications provided to uninsured and indigent patients — even if those medications are purchased with 340B pricing.

McKesson provides a MedSource manager who is dedicated to that facility’s inpatient and outpatient recovery process. The manager leverages proprietary software and tools for tracking, reporting, and troubleshooting, ensuring successful patient enrollment in each patient-assistance program and the subsequent manufacturer approval and replacement of those eligible medications provided.

“MedSource has been very advantageous to us financially in less than one year since our implementation date,” said Michael D. O’Neal, R.Ph., manager of pharmacy procurement, Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “The MedSource team’s ability to quickly maneuver their way through some of our more complex processes and be able to experience the success we have had is a testament to the collaborative effort between Vanderbilt and McKesson, and MedSource’s tenacity to capture savings for our Medical Center.”

MedSource features include:
• MedSource staff administers the program — McKesson assigns a dedicated manager to advocate for each hospital pharmacy
• No upfront costs or implementation fees — McKesson gets paid only when its hospital pharmacies receive replacement medications
• Ability to work with any pricing contract, including 340B
• Replacement medications received within 30–90 days
• Hospital quality and compliance standards upheld
• High level of opportunity capture

For more information on McKesson MedSource Medication Assistance Program, please call 800.571.2889, or email healthsystems@mckesson.com.

Media Contact: Matt Nagel, Cohn & Wolfe Public Relations
Phone: 415.365.8523
Email: Matt.Nagel@cohnwolfe.com
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