Will Butler:
Really happy to have you all here. Panelists, if you want to mute for the time being while folks are coming in, feel free. You don't have to, but we have a big group joining us today. We've already got more than 100 folks with us and we're going to get started in just about 60 seconds here to give everyone a chance to come on in.
Will Butler:
The voice you're hearing right now, or the face you're seeing if you're looking at your screen is me, I'm Will Butler, and I am VP of Community at Be My Eyes. Be My Eyes, if you're not familiar, is the mobile app that allows you to get visual support on your phone, whether you might be visually impaired or have low vision or color blind or whatever it is that you might need visual support with, Be My Eyes is there for you and you can download it on the App Store for your iOS for Android devices. We're going to be talking a little bit today about how you can reach Accessible Pharmacy, and the folks who are joining us today from Prodigy, and for care with your Prodigy-related products through Be My Eyes. So if you hear us referring to calling Accessible Pharmacy on Be My Eyes, that is going to be in your Be My Eyes app. So if you don't have that downloaded, I highly recommend doing that now, or you can do it later on and just sit back and enjoy the webinar.
Will Butler:
So we're just getting on about 9:01 AM here in California, and we're just about to reach 200 folks joining us in the webinar, so with that, I think it's probably time to start introductions and get us off and running, here. If you want to drop in the chat where you are joining us from, we'd love to see chatter about who's here and I'm going to be trying to keep my eye on that chat throughout the day, and we're, of course, going to answer any questions that you may have. Just drop them in the chat or in the Q&A. I see a lot of folks here from Los Angeles, from Philly, from Austin, Texas. There's a whole... Quinton, Virginia. Welcome, welcome, welcome, everybody.
Will Butler:
Starting off, I told you a little bit about Be My Eyes. Be My Eyes is a free visual support app. It's available to anyone who needs it, and we connect users with companies, non-profits, and healthcare organizations who are able to support them through live video. If you do have great eyesight and you like the idea of being part of the community, you can sign up as a volunteer and answer Be My Eyes calls from people all around the world, its a really lovely experience. So no matter who you are, download the app and check it out. We host these sorts of webinars regularly so check back with us and we're going to follow up as well with the video at the end of this webinar. So if you enjoy this, think about who you might want to know about the content of today and forward it on to them. Feel free to do that.
Will Butler:
I want to introduce my pals here from Accessible Pharmacy and from Prodigy. We're joined by, from Accessible Pharmacy, we have Jason Barret, we have Alex Cohen, and we have Andy Burstein, and then our special guests of honor today, are Jeramie and Shardelle from Prodigy. We're going to talk about talking glucose meters and all of the knowledge that we can share there and we're even going to talk about how you can get your own talking glucose meter, at no charge. But first, I want to set the scene a little bit by introducing the co-founder of Accessible Pharmacy, the guy with the idea behind creating a pharmacy that's more accessible for people with low vision. Alex Cohen, thank you so much for being with us today, and for participating in this event.
Alex Cohen:
Well, good morning/good afternoon. Thank you very much, Will, and thank you to our partners at Be My Eyes and of course, my colleagues and partners from Accessible Pharmacy Services and of course, our special guests from Prodigy. Accessible Pharmacy Services is a comprehensive healthcare company specializing in medication management for the blind and low vision community. Initially, the idea for Accessible Pharmacy Services came while I was doing my doctoral work to get my PhD in Marketing from Drexel University. So as part of my dissertation and all of my subsequent research is about the market place experiences of the blind and low vision community and more importantly, how to create a more inclusive and welcoming market place experiences, both online and offline, for this frankly, underserved community. So initially, looking at the online market place within the pharmacy space, whether this was standalone pharmacies or in a big box, retailers or grocery stores, we found that most frequently, it would be very difficult or almost impossible for someone using a system technology to really access these websites and gain the information that they need.
Alex Cohen:
Further to that, we dove deeper into our research and exploration to find out what people's experiences were like in the physical market place, like when they actually go and try to navigate the store. And what we found in our research was that there was neither a comprehensive nor thorough or consistent method of accessible accommodations. Even if well-intentioned, this inconsistency and lack of thoroughness left blind and low vision patrons feeling unwelcome and discouraged and frustrated. So we decided that instead of exhaustingly trying to make the existing market place more accessible for our community, we decided to create our own market. And so there are two different tracks here at Accessible Pharmacy Services that converge into one. The first of course is a high degree of expert clinical care. The second is creating the most welcoming and authentically inclusive pharmacy experience for the blind and low vision community.
Alex Cohen:
So what do I mean by inclusion and welcome and accommodations? Well, for us accessibility isn't an afterthought. Things that we do, the programs that we have in place, the features and benefits that we offer to our patients are not an afterthought. It's not just in case the blind guy from the neighborhood comes in, this is our primary focus. Now that's not to say that we don't welcome anybody to join our community at Accessible Pharmacy, but we are specifically adept at working with the blind and low vision. Now part of that is we recognize that just because somebody is blind or low vision, its not a homogenous group. People have different ages, different incomes, education levels, have different levels of support, some people might be country mice, some people might be city mice, there's a variety of co-morbidities, meaning that people have different needs. And so we look at each one of our individual patients as just that, unique, and our customer care representative will work with that individual to find what solutions were best for them because certainly this is not a one-size-fits-all.
Alex Cohen:
Of course, medication management is difficult for everybody but if you throw in the extra variable of blindness or low vision, of course extra or additional challenges will come up and so here at Accessible Pharmacy, we alleviate that variable. For example, when you call us, the first thing we would do is, after getting your insurance information, we will contact your medical team. We will contact your primary care physician, your existing pharmacy, your endocrinologist, your cardiologist, your psychiatrist, and we will become part of your healthcare collaboration to ensure that you are on the best medication management regime and that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing or vice versa. We offer a variety of several, different packaging options either with braille labeling, large print, we also have high tech and low tech solutions that will read these labels, the packaging options can sort pills and vitamins and supplements into daily regimens for AM, lunchtime, PM, bedtime, whatever the patient might need.
Alex Cohen:
We also offer an active refill and reordering management and we offer free home delivery, which means once you sign up with us, we will manage your prescriptions, we will manage the refill and reordering, we'll be in constant communication with your physicians to make sure that the continuity of care is there, that you're never without your medications to be delivered to your home at the same time, in the same place each month, in the packaging that works best for you. There is a number of different features and benefits that we do offer, but I know our time is limited so at this point, I would like to turn over to our Chief Medical Officer and also, Co-founder of Accessible Pharmacy Services, Dr. Jason Barret.
Jason Barret:
Thanks [inaudible 00:17:55] everybody for being here and [inaudible 00:17:59] time. Its really a pleasure to work with both Be My Eyes and Prodigy but also the thing that we derive our greatest satisfaction from is helping people and providing them this environment. As the Director of Medicine for Accessible Pharmacy Services I want to have a very brief discussion on how we approach care because aside from the fact that Andy and Alex have done so much work in the accessible space, we're still dedicated to a premium level of care that's potentially not available to patients in any setting, let alone this community. So behind everything that we do, there's an awful lot of clinical pharmacy. So just keep in mind, when you come to us as a client or for questions or otherwise, we have a team of clinical professionals with specialties in behavioral health, geriatric pharmacy, diabetes, medication management and so on, and a number that are also experts in managed care, insurance coverage, Medicare and Medicaid. So we really do have a very comprehensive clinical and pharmacy administration staff that will work on your behalf. Without regard to anything else, you're going to get that from your experience with us.
Jason Barret:
The other thing that we're very proud of is the fact that we have tremendous patient access education and empowerment because one of the chief things that's involved in medication management and understanding drugs you're utilizing appropriately is the understanding from the patient's perspective as to why they're taking the medications, any kind of contraindications, concerns or otherwise. We want to be sure that everyone who comes in our contact understands why they're taking their drugs and has confidence. We want to provide for them an external mechanism to get information and understand everything about their drugs so they feel more comfortable. On top of all that, as Alex put so clearly here earlier, we offer concierge distribution and logistics management so we understand how difficult it is. Aside from what we've all said, the struggles of medication management, you bring in the patient's visual condition and add COVID to the mix just for fun, now all of a sudden accessibility and all of these challenges start to mount themselves. So our primary goal in that respect is to reduce the burden on our patients and on the caregivers who care for them.
Jason Barret:
So summing up accessibility, concierge distribution, patient empowerment in clinical pharmacy, we believe that we've brought together the kind of environment that makes it much easier for anyone, and on top of all that, we have a tremendous continuity perspective as it pertains to the continuum. So whether its your physician, your nurse practitioner, your physician's assistant, the healthcare group or your caregiver, we have tremendous connectivity to all those people so that you're getting the one truth about your realization and any opportunity that we can interface with them and bring about a higher level of care for you without regard to your vision at all, we're going to do that. So if there are caregivers on the phone, if there are people who interface with patients across the continuum, understand we have a tremendous partnership with people like you. So we are here to help you, as well as the patients that you care for because we understand how difficult it is to get this done appropriately. We also understand the limitations of resources across the board.
Jason Barret:
So our ultimate goal is that any person that come in contact with us feels better for the experience, has a better understanding of their medications, if there's any kind of device or otherwise like we're going to hear from the folks from Prodigy, we can be there to assist you through the process so you have confidence in using it, use it appropriately, and get the outcome that's most desired. So thank you again all for being here, its a true pleasure to interact with all of you and I'm going to move it on to-
Andy Burstein:
Will, I think you're going to... why don't you drive now because I think the team from Prodigy is going to speak next?
Will Butler:
Okay. Beautiful. Yeah. And thanks everyone, for those of you who posted your locations for everyone to see. We all saw them on the panel but now the chat is publicly available so feel free to repost your locations or your questions if you want.
Andy Burstein:
Can I add to that, also? I see a lot of people are firing questions at Chat. If we run out of time, we have everyone's contact information so we will proactively follow up with everyone who still has a question if we don't answer them during this webinar.
Will Butler:
That's really great. Thank you, Andy because we do have a lot of questions coming in and hundreds of people on here asking them so its nice to have you guys backing us up here. So we've heard a little bit from Alex and from Jason about what a truly accessible pharmacy experience really should be like and should really look like, but the reason we're here today is really to focus in on talking glucose meters and how Prodigy Diabetes Care supports that. So I want to introduce Jeramie Rose, who is our National Sales Leader from Prodigy. Jeramie's actually been... This is his second run at Prodigy. He's been working, supporting the blind and low vision community in diabetes care for years now, great relationships with all of the major organizations and I want to give him the floor and also, his colleague Shardelle is joining us as well. Thank you for being here, Shardelle. Tell us a little bit about the talking glucose meter and maybe, just start with the thousand foot view for folks who might be new to all of this and not know the first thing about why you would need one of these devices and how to use it.
Jeramie Rose:
Great. Thank you for having us, it really is exciting for us here to work with Accessible Pharmacy because this is actually something, when I was talking to Andy weeks ago, that I've been trying to do since my first stint at Prodigy and then with BioSense Medical Devices, is to find a one-stop shop for accessibility. It's one long word, it seems like a simple concept, but nobody seemed to capture that until now. They have a one-stop shop, one place for people with visual impairments that need assistance and more accessibility for their meters. On the broader strokes of it, what we've had here at Prodigy for years, we've considered ourselves the leader in accessibility as far as blood glucose monitors go, is the Prodigy AutoCode, for one, it is a talking meter, it has many functions, extremely accurate and has been the most popular throughout the entire market since the mid '90s or late '90s as it be. And then the one that has... We've got an A+ award from the NFP for... I was with the company in the development of it, we were all trained to test blind-folded, et cetera, is the Prodigy Voice.
Jeramie Rose:
The biggest difference between these two, while they're both talking meters, there's a big difference between the two. Whereas the Voice is fully audible and all facets and functions as far as set up through the entire meter, the AutoCode is audible when it tells when you're in certain settings and your readings but that's essentially its only function there, it doesn't have as many audible prompts as the Voice. Both are going to be available with Accessible Pharmacy obviously. I'm working on some special promotions for the Voice, but I can already say right now that I saw some of the questions coming across about certain formularies, this is what's great about Accessible Pharmacy, some saying that they can't get it through this plan or that plan. We've got a price sold with strips at a certain price point, that we've circumnavigated the pharmacy benefit managers and those entities that make it tough for people to have their insurance cover it and also at the same time, make the AutoCode no charge. No charge to Accessible Pharmacy, and no charge to the patient.
Jeramie Rose:
So nine times out of 10, we have their insurance if we're not on the formulary which is... That's a whole different webinar to talk about meters and things on formulary to reimbursements and PDMs. Nine times or nine and a half times out of 10, a patient would be able to Accessible Pharmacy, get their strips for two months and a meter for far less than what a code pay would be.
Will Butler:
That's amazing. And just a reminder that both can call Accessible Pharmacy through their regular phone line, or they can just find the Accessible Pharmacy profile on the Be My Eyes app and be connected directly. Can you tell us a little bit for those who may be totally unfamiliar, maybe we've got teachers of the visually impaired in the Chat, we've got people who are obviously experienced with diabetes care, how does this talking glucose meter work?
Jeramie Rose:
I'm going to turn it over to Shardelle for a few minutes here, and she can go over how... Do the AutoCode first, I guess, and the Voice and how they work and how they function, out here for the platform.
Shardelle Gass:
Hi, nice to meet you guys. So my name is Shardelle, I've been working with Prodigy as a rep for five years now. I'm happy to help on the phones, anybody who needs assistance with these glucometers, we are there. The amount of time that a patient would need to even get a test result from these meters, we will stay on the phone with you guys as long as it needs, as long as it takes to get to be able to assist you guys, as much as possible. But being that our glucometers are audible, that is the best and the number one feature that we are very proud of, it is fairly easier to work with them. What I'm going to basically be talking about first is the Prodigy AutoCode. The AutoCode is again, one of our most popular glucometers. It is very easy to use, there is only one button on the front, and then there's a button on the back for the settings, which you only have to take off the back cover for, that will lead you into the settings.
Shardelle Gass:
I will turn it on by just inserting a test strip, and that is the magic as well. No coding required with our glucometers so all you have to do to power it on is insert a test strip and the meter will power on and its basically like a guide. I'm going to go ahead and display now, and just go ahead and insert the test strip and this is the meter powering on.
Prodigy Voice:
Your meter is on, please wait.
Jeramie Rose:
So it notifies you it's ready to test.
Prodigy AutoCode:
Please apply blood into the test strip.
Shardelle Gass:
Now, its asking for the blood to be applied. The blood is applied and the results will come in in seven seconds. So this is very easy to use, the LCD screen is of course for the visually impaired, it's very legible. Again, this is one of our most popular but the one that we are of course most accessible in is the Voice. The Voice Meter, all it has is five buttons on the front of the meter. So there's actually, this is the amazing part of this meter, there's actually easy access for the blind being able to feel the letters on the buttons. So there's a button that powers it on. I'm going to power on the Voice Meter now.
Prodigy Voice:
Your Prodigy Meter is on. Today's date, February 12, 2021 at time 12:24 PM. Please insert the test strip.
Shardelle Gass:
So as you can see, this meter reads everything out loud. So you can hear it say the time and date, it will power on telling you that it's ready for blood, it's very, very easy to use. Again, the same method, just insert the test strip, apply the blood, and in seven seconds, the meter will read your result out loud. From there, there's also even a button on the meter that you can press and it will actually repeat the last test result that you've taken, in case you missed it, in case you didn't hear it for whatever reason, you can actually press that Repeat button, which is a beautiful feature as well. Now, is there any questions in regards to exactly how to test with the meters or any questions regarding the setup? [crosstalk 00:31:19]
Will Butler:
Shardelle, I don't know if you can speak to this but folks are wondering how do you make sure you hit the strip when you're getting that setup.
Shardelle Gass:
On the meters, yes, with the test strip insertion, there are two ports of the meter, on the meter. There's one at the very bottom of the meter, you'll be able to feel a port, but that's for a USB cable, in case you want to download your readings but you can actually feel an indentation at the very top of the meter. It's almost like a groove, it's like a small groove that you can feel when you're holding the meter in your hand, that's where the test strip goes into. So its very... You can definitely feel that indentation, very prominent. You'd be able to insert the test strip with ease.
Will Butler:
Amazing, and could you talk a little more about how [crosstalk 00:32:18]... Oh, sorry, go ahead, Jason.
Jason Barret:
I'm sorry, if I could just jump in real [crosstalk 00:32:23] once second, Will. We've been using these meters for a number of years and we've been supplying and providing for patients in the community for a number of years. For the most part, there's a very short learning curve to utilize these for patients in the low vision and the blind community. And part of our dedication to the partnership with Prodigy is that we can assist, through Be My Eyes, [inaudible 00:32:46] several runs at the [inaudible 00:32:48] but I think the majority of the patients are going to experience this, and they're going to be thankful of how easy the [inaudible 00:32:55] have made this. The other thing is that we have I guess what I'd call training and procedures, to help the repetition of the process itself. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of the folks who are participating in this webinar, will know how to do this by themselves in two or three days. Honestly, it's that good a product.
Jason Barret:
The simplicity of the usage, the dexterity or the tactile sensation of the buttons themselves, it's going to become like putting your ring on your finger or your watch, I promise you that, Folks. And there's tremendous support coming from Prodigy as it pertains to this, and we're certainly here to help you with our shortcuts and some of the education that we provide for this. So I'm sorry, Shardelle, go right ahead.
Shardelle Gass:
Yes, of course. The meter itself is very easy to use. From there, what the meter also does, it provides you and it reads out loud any error messages. So let's say you get an error message at all, it will say the message out loud for you to know what may be going on, but honestly, there is nothing that really needs coding. It does not require any coding. There is many things that are amazing on this meter, that would help the patients with being able to provide a blood test. I'm sorry. Again, there is a repeat button. It does have 450 test results stored in the meter, but there is a repeat button and being that it's fully audible, it'll read every result out loud. So let's say you need to go back into your memory of the meter, you could just, with ease, just press the S button. Again, you can feel the S raised up on the button so it's easy to navigate. When you press that, it basically will help you to... It'll walk you through the memory and it'll read the time and date and the last test that you took out loud, that way you'll be able to know where you are and be able to provide these results.
Jeramie Rose:
And beyond the technology of the meter too, all of our customer care representatives have been trained with organizations like the NFP, terminology, we have a full on manual on how to speak over the phone to a person with visual impairment on how to manipulate and use the meter. And again, there's no time limit on the phone calls, they'll stay on there until they figure it out, until everybody is comfortable using it. That's what they do and they train on this monthly. There's a monthly thing going on, every month to make sure that... And again, which is great with Accessible because we get visually impaired patients calling us, saying [inaudible 00:35:55] okay, great. And then like, "Oh, I need to more strips, this company [inaudible 00:36:01]", and it's hard for us to send somebody, to call one of our DMEs and say, "Hey, I've got this person who needs a little extra care who's visually impaired" [inaudible 00:36:11] send them over, but it's just a dollar sign to them.
Jeramie Rose:
Now, we have a place we can send them, to Accessible Pharmacy so we can feel good about saying, "Okay, we've captured this patient with this technology, now they have a home, they have a place to go that they know they're going to be taken care of". So that's what I think is great about this partnership, too.
Will Butler:
Wonderful. Jeramie and Shardelle, thank you for walking us through that step-by-step. There's 250 people in this meeting today who were all eager to see how those things work, so thank you for really giving us detail by detail.
Jeramie Rose:
And if you guys have questions, you get a lot of questions from a lot of these viewers here, you want to put them all together, email them to me and Shardelle, we'll sit down and we'll answer every one of them. To absolutely take the time to do that, I mean we'd be happy to.
Will Butler:
That's great. And we are going to save the chat so that we can make sure we get to everybody's questions. Jason and Andy, do either of you have anything to add before we jump into more of the Q&A of this webinar?
Andy Burstein:
I wanted to add one thing, which is we encourage... We're still learning, this is an ongoing pursuit of accessibility. We learn internally, everyone from Alex who is blind himself, through people who we employ, who are blind, at all facets of our company, we also learn from our patients. So as you're experiencing the Prodigy device, as you're managing your diabetes, as you're struggling with your diabetes, if you're a caregiver or a therapist working with patients, please contact us, give us your feedback so that we can continue to learn and continue to provide the most welcoming and accessible experience for our patients.
Will Butler:
Wonderful. I think it'd be good, before too long here, to jump into the questions because we did get a number of questions in advance of the webinar, which are some of the most common questions, and I think we should just address those because that is what everybody wants to know. So the first thing that everyone always asks is, "Do you support Medicare, Medi-Cal and Medicaid?", what's the deal with that? I know insurance is incredibly confusing to people, and can we put it simply for everyone to wrap their head around it?
Jason Barret:
I'll jump in here, Will. We do. We're able to bill Medicare and Medicaid for most covered items. There are patients who will be in what we would call a managed care environment, either through Medicare, Medicare or dual eligibility, and there'll be variations in what those particular coverages will be responsible for. The folks from Prodigy have been incredibly generous with the way that they handle poor coverage or no coverage, at the same time, we put forth every effort to get prior authorizations done or otherwise there are always going to be issues with managed care. That's just the environment that we live in but I can give you one guarantee, we leave no stone unturned in how we go about seeking out coverage and exploring every possibility to get all this paid for by a patient. And the most important thing is that we have complete transparency with whatever that is, so that the patient at least knows where they stand, what they can do and how we can go about helping them.
Jason Barret:
And as I said earlier, and I'll let Jer and Shard step in here, this is one of the companies that truly gives a who about patients, so they do work extraordinarily hard to put the right thing in patients' hands because the outcomes are what's most important.
Andy Burstein:
And the easiest way to actually learn about if your insurance is a good fit with us, is literally just pick up the phone and call, someone in our office will answer the call, they'll have a conversation with you, and they can very quickly let you know if, in fact, we're able to support you and your insurance and you can contact [crosstalk 00:40:24] through Be My Eyes. I'm sorry, Jason, go ahead.
Jason Barret:
And we'll help you with the pathway no matter what, our primary goal is to help and to provide you that service so we're able to contact your insurance, qualify the claim, get the prescription from the doctor, work with [inaudible 00:40:42] we're going to do it every time. If there has to be a different route for you, we'll help you with that also.
Will Butler:
Prodigy, do you folks have anything to add or should I jump to the next question?
Jeramie Rose:
No, as far as the insurances go, I'm sure Jason and all the other guys are far more well-versed than we are in the billings because we don't bill, but yeah, that's great.
Will Butler:
So what about the insulin? Can I get insulin from Accessible Pharmacy? Jason, maybe address this.
Andy Burstein:
Oh, that's a great question. Thank you for asking that. So just to put this all into context, we are a full service, home delivery pharmacy. So not only can you get your diabetes devices like the Prodigy devices from us, but you can get prescription medication, over-the-counter medication, vitamins, supplements, and a whole range of small medical devices. With all the medication and vitamins and supplements, we're able to co-mingle that and provide it in different kinds of packaging. Disposable pill organizers, individual pill packets, different types of bottles, and then add layers of labeling on top of that, braille labels, large font labels, we support the entire ScripTalk suite of products. We're also able to do this in both Spanish and English. All of those services are free, we just bill the insurance companies for the medication. So the punchline is yes, you can get your insulin from us, as well as all of the products that you need to manage your health.
Jason Barret:
And if I can jump in too, Andy, it'd be our goal to provide for you and experience and a concierge. So basically, while we support Prodigy and while we can help you utilize the devices, supply you with your test strips or otherwise, its a small part of medication management as it pertains to diabetes. So it would be great that you get the device, have it work for you and become part of your regimen, but you still have to take your medication, you still have to get insulin, you still have to know how to use an insulin pen and otherwise, and we're here to help you with all of those things. We would prefer to do everything for you, in that regard, so that you look at us the way you would an external provider and have all the education and the connectivity through Be My Eyes or through whatever your chosen pathway is, so absolutely, we support any kind of distribution but the whole idea is to make life easier for you and make medication management better.
Will Butler:
Well, if I never have to find a ride to the drug store again, I'll be happy. I'm wondering, guys, I heard free and I heard home delivery but what's the deal with packaging, labeling, freight? Are there charges for these sorts of things, I know a lot of people want to know the answers to those questions.
Andy Burstein:
Those are all value add... We think of ourselves as a concierge of delivery pharmacies, so all the packaging, labeling, and delivery is free of charge.
Jason Barret:
Under regular [inaudible 00:43:42] trying to manage your medication utilization. So on a monthly basis, we'd like to put in your hands everything that you need, as well as any kind of over-the-counter sundry item or otherwise. In other words, what we want to do is pull away as much burden as we can. If there's something emergent or out of the ordinary, we can facilitate that also. Sometimes there are overnight charges and that kind of thing, if somebody says, "Hey, I need this absolutely tomorrow. Can you pull this out of some strange place?", well work our hardest to get that done but packaging, labeling, everything that we do on a normal basis every day and every month is absolutely value add. We're trying to reduce costs, not increase them.
Jeramie Rose:
I saw a question under there from, on our end, about control solution. And yes, we have a control. You know, we're required by the FDA to have a high and low control solution, and I'll tell you this, as far as meter functionality, I've been in this industry for about 15 years, and it is the most underused product and under-ordered product from providers, in DMEs, pharmacies, and there's not a close second. I have customers that buy 20,000 bottles of strips a month, and there would be no control solution on that purchase order. Its a very valuable tool to make sure that your meter is testing right so that you're not testing over and over again getting odd numbers and then you know who you'd need to call. But yes, to answer the question, yes, control solution, and I highly recommend. In the Voice kit it does come with that, but in the meter normally, it doesn't. But we offer that to Accessible Pharmacy at an extremely aggressive rate. They just need to cover our costs.
Jeramie Rose:
Yes, that is an important part of it and I really appreciate that question because it often gets overlooked.
Will Butler:
What about the availability of support? When are you all available, both on the Prodigy side and on the Accessible Pharmacy side to answer questions and help out with these sorts of things.
Shardelle Gass:
We're open Monday through Friday. We open at 8:30 to 5:30 PM EST. Were available to help anybody, Monday through Friday. And again, the phone calls, it will not matter how long we need to take to answer all your questions about the meters and how they work.
Jeramie Rose:
They have to leave a message over the weekend, then we return it properly, first thing on Monday morning. If it's an emergent situation, we obviously would always prompt them to call 911 of course.
Andy Burstein:
And with us, our phones are open Monday through Friday, from early in the morning to late at night. We have limited hours on the weekend but at Be My Eyes, we have people manning, overseeing the Be My Eyes app between the hours of 22:00 and 04:00, Monday through Friday, eastern time. If the patient does need to engage with us through Be My Eyes in hours that are not during that window, they just simply need to schedule an appointment with us and someone will make themselves available, after hours or at different times to be able to support a patient.
Jason Barret:
Andy, that's extraordinarily important. As it pertains to this kind of application, we always want to be sure that you will have all of the access to resources that[inaudible 00:47:33], so that appointment idea is very, very powerful because it'll provide us with the opportunity to spend as much time as you need, and then I guess what I would call, prioritize the specialist to talk to you, depending on the nature of your call. So for some people, the call might be, "Hey, listen, I just want to know how to use this device". Well, we have people that use it over and over again, myself, I'm one of them, understand it fully and then maybe the question or the discussion is, "Hey, listen, I'm getting this sugar result and I wanted to see if you think that I'm doing it appropriately and then tell me more about what [inaudible 00:48:03]" and we can put the clinical people on your way, when it comes to that kind of question.
Jason Barret:
So we're available almost every single day of the year, it's [inaudible 00:48:11]. The Prodigy folks are available all the time, and if you want something special and if you need something that's more personal, we're happy to do that for you as well.
Will Butler:
Thanks Jason, I want to put you guys on the spot just for a second. We have folks wondering if they want to get a demonstration on what the best what is to get the strip in there correctly, blue side up or blood sample side. Is there a best way to train folks on this, or is this the type of thing that you would call up Accessible Pharmacy for or Prodigy [crosstalk 00:48:52]
Jason Barret:
Its been my experience and this has been something which in my previous company that I helped found, we went through clay things, these blocks to try and isolate the finger and put a strip in this thing and try to manufacture those so that you're on all the time and it just became... It's kind of like, I'm really good friends with Chris Gray who is the former President of the ACB and he's in the Missouri Chapter now and I spent a lot of time with him, he's never had sight. He told me, he said, "Jeremy, you can come up with a way, but for you guys, its hard for you to come up with a way because you're sighted". And we talked extensively about it, and then he goes, "Its like me counting me, putting money in my wallet, I have a way that I know what's what, the way I get dressed et cetera." And we did come back with a few ways that would make it easier for somebody and I think with that question, because that's going to come up all the time, I need to hear with our Media Department. We can to make a video and then we can put it on our website, for the CDEs and the RNs, and anybody else of everybody over at Accessible to be able to be able to review that and then be able to teach that. Do you have another way?
Shardelle Gass:
Yes. Again, as a rep, we do get this question as well on the phones. So my way of recommendation of being able to insert the test strip is I ask the patient to go ahead and grab a test strip. The patient grabs a test strip. From there, I guide them through it, so what I let them know is that there are two sides on the strip of course, the front and the back, and its a small rectangle. What I had asked them to do is to go ahead and just run their finger across the test strip, familiarize yourself with the test strip and all it's features. So I let them know that actually, on the strip you'd be able to feel one side is just completely smooth and flat, so there's nothing on one side. You cannot feel anything, its just completely straight and smooth and flat. Now, when you turn the test strip over to the "correct side" or the "blue side" where its supposed to be, being inserted. When you turn it that way, you can actually feel almost like a silky feeling so you can tell the difference between the front and the back of the test strip that way.
Shardelle Gass:
Also, there is a small indentation on the test strip itself where you're supposed to insert this small area. So there's two ends of course so that's another question is, "Which end do I know to insert into the meter?". So what I let them know is that there is a small indentation to where that blue part, you could feel it, there's no indentation, you can feel. Now that one small indentation, you can actually, I let them know that small indentation is the part that goes inside the glucometer. Now of course, they will test it out several ways so trying to insert it different ways. It won't damage the meter if you put it in incorrectly or the opposite way, but the meter will power on automatically once it's inserted fully and correctly. So that's one of the best recommendations I can provide on the phones with them and just walk them through it, exactly like I said before, we're just going to take our time until we get this.
Will Butler:
That's amazing, Shardelle, thank you. Go ahead.
Jason Barret:
To back that up, we'd also be very happy to do a demonstration and provide it on our website for all of our clients so they could just simply click on it and watch myself or one of the other pharmacists actually execute it. But the meter will tell you when you get it right, that's the beautiful part about it. The meter provides its own immediate recognition that you have the process done. From there, we have some, I guess we call them hacks, that's the word, we have a couple of hacks and shortcuts just in terms of hand position, with where the meter is in your hand, where the strip is in your hand. And that way, we help you with the workflow or the planning of loading the lancet device, having a lancet device being present and close, you alcohol test swab, and you swipe through your finger prior to hitting your finger with the lancet.
Jason Barret:
And then having the strip in the device, in an appropriate proximity to the finger that you're going to hit, and once you hit it it's easy to pull the finger straight over to the tip of the strip which is sticking out of the device. The device has already told you that it's appropriately done. So, it's not that difficult, especially once you get into what I would call the Zen of it, but the meter does really help you, it does a lot of the work for you.
Will Butler:
That's great and I think this is the exact reason why people come to webinars like this, it's because I know a lot of folks haven't been exposed to this information before or have it tailored so directly to their needs so I know there's a lot of appreciation in the Chat and I'm getting messages. We have lots of questions coming in, so forgive us if we don't get to all the questions and of course we will follow up with everyone but before we try to answer any last questions, the important part, how do folks get access to their complimentary talking glucose meters? This is a huge amazing thing that Prodigy has provided for everyone today, for joining us. I know they can call on Be My Eyes, either for Prodigy or for the Accessible Pharmacy folks, how can folks get these in, and are there any costs associated with them, do they have to return them if they don't like them? What's going on here?
Jeramie Rose:
Okay, yeah, there's the two levels of it and obviously, there's a lot of [inaudible 00:55:18]. I can offer the AutoCode Talking Meter at no charge to Accessible Pharmacy. So if a patient wants an AutoCode talking meter, we don't distribute to patients, we want the patients to go to Accessible Pharmacy to get their product. That would be the Prodigy AutoCode Talking Meter. The Prodigy Voice, a little more extensive, a little costs prohibited for us to make it but it's still again probably cheaper than anything that you would buy off the shelf at a Target or a Walmart or a Walgreens pharmacy. I am going to work on getting a promotional deal for this one done. It's pretty standard that for the fellows at Accessible Pharmacy, it'd be $25 cost to them. That's covering ours that's got the fully audible chip in it and everything. But I'm going to work on something for the Voice, I'm currently working with my CFO, which we've never done before, we've never discounted this thing ever but I'm going to get a discount for this thing to the fellows at Accessible Pharmacy so that this can be more accessible.
Jeramie Rose:
I'll give these away all day, day long. You tell me how many you need, I'll send them to you. A little bit different story here but I'm going to work on... We've never, and I promise you, we've never given one of these away or discounted it and I'm going to do that this time. Trying not to sound like a used car salesman right there. We're stacking them deep, and selling them cheap. No, but yeah I'm going to get something done on this because this is... accessibility has always been near and dear to my heart and that's something. We're so excited about working with Accessible Pharmacy and Be My Eyes so that we can make these things accessible to the patients.
Andy Burstein:
That's awesome. Can I just add something? First of all, Jeramie and Shardelle, you guys are awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us today, thanks for your explanations, thanks for your generosity. I do notice, this is good, we're getting slammed with all these questions so we're going to learn [crosstalk 00:57:29]. There are a collection of questions that focused on reinforcing how do we get the blood on the strip, and I think we're going to regroup with Jeramie and Shardelle, we're going to come up with some easy strategies around that, it may be a recording, a video, or some text. We'll add it to our website and we'll share all that information with everyone. In addition, you can call us, we'll explain everything to you. There's also one other variable which I'm not sure if we emphasized, which is, each of these devices requires some programming before you actually use them. We at Accessible Pharmacy, we'll pre-program for everyone the device. All you need to do is when you call us, things like setting up your time-zone, we'll do that all for you so you don't have to worry about that.
Jeramie Rose:
That is huge, that is huge. We have to be honest, the most common call that we get from patients are, "I need help setting up my meter" or, "Fixing my time". So if you can do that for patients, I know this in my experience of 15 years, is if that's done, half of that frustration is already gone for testing. So it encourages compliance too, when its already setup.
Andy Burstein:
Awesome.
Jason Barret:
Anyone that comes to us [inaudible 00:58:44] can expect that kind of service across the board. And yes, it's a sales pitch but its also part of the commitment. It does not make any sense for us to hand anything to you, and put you in a position of compromise. So, I know its going to sound silly but its not a hard thing to do this, to set the devices up, its nothing for us to do this for you, we're happy to do it and then any follow-up afterwards. What's most important is that you like the device, it works for you, it does what its supposed to do, and its one less thing to worry about, one less bit of burden that we can pull away.
Will Butler:
Speaking from... I'm legally blind myself, and speaking from Alex's... Alex sure can speak to this as well. Walking into a store, walking into a pharmacy is not always the easiest experience, so the fact that you guys take so much attention and care to making sure that people with all types of vision can have a good experience, you know, we've got to get our pharmacy products from somewhere, right? So we might as well be picking the one that is actually putting some thought and some care into this. I want to also comment the folks at Prodigy for making this happen and just remind folks that the reason Be My Eyes got involved is because we do video support. We allow you to take your smartphone camera, point it at your problem, and have an expert describe to you how to fix the problem or how to educate you about whatever it is you're looking at. How to give you access to that visual information that you're struggling to see. So its a free service, there's no cost to you going to the Be My Eyes app and call Accessible Pharmacy and have a chat.
Will Butler:
There's so many visual, printed materials in health, you know. There's things that come in the mail, there's instructions on a box, Be My Eyes is there to close those gaps for you. I want to toss it up a bit and maybe Alex, we haven't heard from you in a little while, we have five for minutes.
Alex Cohen:
I'll throw one thing at you real quick, Will. I just happened to look down from hiding talking about insulin management, if there's talking options. We didn't know how much time we would have today, but we have something that you put your insulin pen in, and your syringe and your bottle of insulin, and what's it called again?
Shardelle Gass:
So we have a product named the Count-a-Dose. Now, the Count-a-Dose is for visually impaired or blind patients that need to take insulin on a day-to-day basis. Of course, the number one struggle with that is being able to tell how much insulin you are putting into your syringe.
Alex Cohen:
So that option's there, we can do a whole webinar probably, we can probably take it 15 minutes time going over the Count-a-Dose and it doesn't talk but it has loud clicking and large tactile functions on the object itself. Andy and I had talked about that, that we would just wait and get this out of control, then we can get to the Count-a-Dose but... And there's some people saying they've used it for years, its wonderful.
Jason Barret:
And just one quick little bit, that's typically the kind of device or tool that we use in the process and offer support with because again, that is another mechanism to help patients with insulin management, and there's a series of opportunities there and to find the right pick for you or the right option is one thing that we're happy to take a journey with you on. Just as a global perspective, we're looking at all of this, right? So, we love [inaudible 01:03:03] we want you to use it appropriately, we want you to get it in your hands, we want to make sure you're taking your insulin too, because if you test your sugar and you know what your sugar is but you don't do something about it then what are we really doing? In the bolder perspective, there are a number of mechanisms to help you with this and we'd be happy to do it, we'd be happy to introduce you to anything like this, its really good a product to think about also.
Will Butler:
Andy, can you post the 1800 number for Accessible Pharmacy in the Chat?
Andy Burstein:
I already added the website, everything is there on the website, but I'll add the information now as well. One final thing, Alex wants to chime in but, we will be circulating an email at the end of this webinar that'll have a few things on it. One, we welcome anyone's feedback about things that we can do to make this more engaging, more interesting going forward, we're also interested in learning about other topics that you may want to be discussing on future webinars, we have the Save The Date for our next webinar, which is March 19th, but we may actually do some more work between now and then but we have one day on the calendar. We will also be circulating a recording of this entire conversation, so that you can listen to it again, or share it with people who may also be interested.
Will Butler:
Beautiful. Alex Cohen, our fearless Co-founder here, any final words on the folks who are fed up with inaccessible experiences?
Alex Cohen:
You know, we are here, now. We promote inclusion and accessibility and you are welcome, and you will be accepted and as a patient, you'll have our highest quality of care guaranteed. Its no risk to sign up to become the patient of Accessible Pharmacy Services. We invite you to find out more information about us, either at our website at accessiblepharmacy.com, you can always contact us through Be My Eyes or telephone number through our website, but we are here. We are part of this community. We are proud of the partnerships that we have and that we're continuing to foster, and we look forward to the opportunity to serve and welcome more people into our community, into our inclusion, and welcome.
Will Butler:
Thank you, thank you so much, Alex. I know that, speaking from Be My Eyes' perspective, there's nothing quite like having someone with a visual impairment, someone who knows that experience on your founding team. In my opinion, from what I have observed, it directs the whole course of a company so I can't emphasize that enough. Jeramie Rose and Shardelle Gass, thank you so much for all of this, this is incredible, and I hope that we get to have you back on a future event, and do more between Prodigy and all of us.
Jeramie Rose:
Absolutely, thank you so much for having us. Anytime you need us, we'll carve out the time and make ourselves available, anytime. We appreciate it.
Shardelle Gass:
Thank you so much, you guys.
Andy Burstein:
Awesome. Thank you, both. Thank you, Will. Thank you, Jason and Alex. Thank you, everyone for joining us and taking time in your day to hear what we have to say. As we've mentioned, we have a ton of comments, we will chip away and follow up with everyone. And please feel free to reach out to us, even if you have any other thoughts afterwards
Will Butler:
All right. And with that I'm going to [crosstalk 01:06:52] Thanks everyone.
Jeramie Rose:
Thank you.
Jason Barret:
Bye everyone.
Jeramie Rose:
Have a great weekend.
Will Butler:
You too.
