Insurance rules force local business to change
Lisa Wakeland, lwakeland@communitypress.com 3:09 p.m. EDT June 3, 2014
ANDERSON TWP. – As a local business enters its 75th year, it’s going through a lot of changes. Kunkel Pharmacy is now Tri-State Compounding Pharmacy and Kunkel Medical, and they’ve stopped being a regular pharmacy.
The change wasn’t part of a new rebranding strategy – it was the result of law and insurance company changes that forced owner John Dinkelaker to sell the pharmacy portion of his business.
It all started when changes in how Medicare covers prescription drugs went into effect.
“When the insurance companies got into the fray, they said we had to be a member of a group to provide services for customers,” Dinkelaker said.
The former Kunkel Pharmacy, 7715 Beechmont Ave., was part of the preferred network until this year, when some Medicare health plans removed “any willing provider” from which pharmacies would be reimbursed by insurance companies, Dinkelaker said. That meant customers not using a preferred provider would have higher out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs.
continue to read here
The change wasn’t part of a new rebranding strategy – it was the result of law and insurance company changes that forced owner John Dinkelaker to sell the pharmacy portion of his business.
It all started when changes in how Medicare covers prescription drugs went into effect.
“When the insurance companies got into the fray, they said we had to be a member of a group to provide services for customers,” Dinkelaker said.
The former Kunkel Pharmacy, 7715 Beechmont Ave., was part of the preferred network until this year, when some Medicare health plans removed “any willing provider” from which pharmacies would be reimbursed by insurance companies, Dinkelaker said. That meant customers not using a preferred provider would have higher out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs.
continue to read here
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