Pharmacy Marketplace | Omar Hassad of Rxeed

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

[00:00:12] Mike Koelzer, Host: Hello, Omar. Thanks for joining us. 

[00:00:15] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Oh, thanks for having me, Mike. 

[00:00:17] Mike Koelzer, Host: Uh, you've been patient, we're a relatively new podcast and, uh, and we're getting some kinks out, so that's okay. I'm thanking my guests here for being, for being patient, but that's part of the reality of things and, uh, And, uh, trial and error, but I'm, I'm, uh, I apologize that the Guinea pig is you, so it's okay, 

[00:00:39] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: man.

I know a thing or two about that. I know when I started my project, you know how it was, you know, so in the beginning, he's just trying to, you know, iron things out and make sure that everything is working correctly. 

[00:00:52] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, they say that, um, they say that, uh, you know, I don't know all the, all the cliches of the great inventors and so on, you know, it was what they learned from the thousands of failures that finally got them to, uh, to, well, it's a pleasure to have you 

[00:01:09] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: mark.

Thanks for having me, man. 

[00:01:11] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. So, um, you are in, you are in Illinois right now, 

[00:01:16] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: correct? I am. I'm in, uh, just south side of Chicago in Tinley park. 

[00:01:21] Mike Koelzer, Host: Okay. And, and I understand from, from off talking, uh, earlier, that you've sort. You've sort of been around Kentucky and different things like that. Take us through your, take us through your, um, uh, just, just where you've gone from schooling and where you bounced around a little bit to where you are now.

[00:01:39] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Absolutely. I actually went to farm school at St. Louis college pharmacy still called. I graduated in 1999. And I got recruited to work. One of, one of the big chains in, uh, Kentucky. So I worked in Eastern Kentucky for a year and I lived in Lexington, so I commuted back and forth. And then, after that I wanted to go back to Chicago.

They had convinced me to stay on board. So they moved me to Louisville being a large metropolitan area. So I'm more diverse. So they sent me there. I stayed there for six years. Then I came back to Chicago. In 2007 and I've been here in Chicago since then during my time in Louisville, I managed two big chains.

I was a pharmacy manager and a team leader for two big chains. And I learned quite a bit actually. And on one of the chains, uh, Have the number three and the number fourth store in the nation volume wise. And it was like super hectic, super busy, but I learned quickly how to manage and how, you know, I mean, as far as like time management and, you know, build up my leadership skills, then when I moved back to Chicago, I worked for another big chain also for a few years.

And during that time, you know, while working for retail, you know, I became a pharmacy manager. For that big chain. I had the urge to do something different. So I decided to get into hospitals, which is a challenge coming from a. Pharmacist to move them to the hospital. So after that was 2008, so I went ahead and decided like, okay, let me get into it because this is a different animal.

Hospitals are totally different from retail. And I jumped in and I picked it up quickly and I enjoyed it. So I started working around hospitals around the Chicago area and, uh, Northern Indiana area because I'm licensed in Indiana also. Gotcha. And I learned quite a bit of things about the hospital system.

I worked at a long term care facility, so that gave me a better perspective of what the pharmacy world was all about. So it was in my mind it was all retail, but in reality, it's not, there's so much more than that. Oh, so yeah, you got the whole picture correct. You know, so that, that actually, you know, that enlightened me to do things differently and changed my mindset.

And then I decided in 2015 to open my own pharmacy. Which is wow. And it in itself was a challenge. Yes 

[00:04:02] Mike Koelzer, Host: yeah, I guess it was. So that was in, so that was in 2000. It was late 

[00:04:07] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: 2015. Yes. All. 

[00:04:08] Mike Koelzer, Host: So, so, so in 2015, what I mean, how, how do you make that jump after all that time? Just say, all right, I'm gonna do this.

I mean, that seems okay. Seems a little scary. 

[00:04:18] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Well, it is, but I'll tell you what. I had a, I had a moment, you know, sometimes in life you have that one moment. And it just makes you realize that there's more to life than whatever you're doing. Yeah. I actually, you know, I, without naming the chain, but it was a big, big chain, you know, if it tells you anything being in Chicago, you should know the name of the chain that I worked for.

And I managed, I had my district manager call me up. And, and tell me that, uh, that

they were telling me that, uh,

he would, he, the district manager told me that I, even, when I, by myself, In the bathroom. I shouldn't think negatively of the company that I worked for. and, and then he is like, you gotta be kidding me. You're trying to brainwash me. And to think, you know, like, and I'm not trying to think negatively. I just always had that questioning attitude.

And 

[00:05:27] Mike Koelzer, Host: yeah. So they're telling you, so they're telling you, they're telling you how to think in, in 

[00:05:31] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: exactly. Yeah, so they, they, I had that questioning attitude and, uh, they did not like it. And, uh, and I, what my, you know, I, all I said is like, as a pharmacy manager, you're cutting my staff by two full time employees.

And I'm up 10% for the year. So that didn't make sense to me. So I started having that questioning attitude. So he said, I said, you are compromising patient care. He said to me, it's a business decision. I said, it's people's lives. We were filling seven to 800 prescriptions a day. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And I was in a 24 hour store.

I was the pharmacy manager. And, uh, and there was all, they had a double drive through and three cash registers. So most of the time it was just me doing everything and the tech was stuck at the cash register. So I was like, I was like, I want to lose my sanity. Yeah. And I kept complaining to them, like, I need more hours.

This is not right. So they pretty much, you know what I mean, called for a meaning and then had brought me up because I. Being vocal and those, uh, pharmacy manager meetings. So then I was told, listen, if you don't like it, leave it, because think about it this way, the house you live in is actually owned by our company because we pay your bills.

I said, I said, is that how it is? They said, that's how it is. Then I said, I resigned immediately. And I walked. And 

[00:07:02] Mike Koelzer, Host: yeah. So it wasn't the money. It wasn't the money that you earned. It was practically their house. Yeah. Yeah. That's, 

[00:07:09] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: That's very much what they want. Not only they wanna control me, the way, my way of thinking, they owned me, owned me.

I like, no, you don't, nobody owns me. You know what I mean? And, 

[00:07:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: uh, yeah, you, you should give them your mortgage. 

[00:07:22] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Yeah. And then, and I mind you, that store, that it took over. It was the, on the lowest toll of the district, as far as, you know, performance is a business store, but it was not doing well. You know what I mean?

As far as, you know, I mean, like meeting, you know, you know, all the numbers, you know, how they had set all these numbers to achieve, you know what I mean? You know, you wait time and all the other stuff, you know, and deletes and all that good stuff and inventory, I took it from the bottom to the number two in the district.

In the course of two years. And it was a very challenging store and that's how they treated me. I said, they're gonna treat everybody like that because they're just gonna use you to burn you and onto the next person. So, yeah, so that's when I had that moment when I was, you know, they called me for a second meeting one on one, just say, Hey, listen a quick.

Being vocal because you've, you know, you know, you're causing us some issues, you know, you know, you know, you're about to start a movement or something. It's like, yeah. Right. So then I realized these people are not gonna stop. They don't care if it's to them. It is a business decision. It's all about money and that's it, their people's lives don't matter to them.

So I was like, I'm, you know, at that moment I decided like, you know what, I'm not gonna live like this. I am gonna do something with my life. And I'm gonna prove to everybody that I can. Accomplish what I, you know, I'm set to do in this life. So I called my wife and I told her I quit my job. 

[00:08:40] Mike Koelzer, Host: She was crying.

[00:08:42] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: She was crying. We just had a baby the month before my second child. You know what I mean? And, and she was, uh, she was freaking out and I said, listen, Don't worry about it. They're not the one who provides God, it's the one who will take care of us. Yeah. And sure enough, within a week I had a job, you know what I mean?

Oh, is that right? Yeah. Within a week I had a job, you know what I mean? And soon after that, you know what I mean? I did, you know, when I had, and, uh, opened up the pharmacy a couple of years later, after that, you know, after I got my act together and, you know, had some equity, I had bought a place and opened a.

[00:09:17] Mike Koelzer, Host: Did you, um, Omar, start from scratch at the pharmacy? In other words, you didn't. We, we did, 

[00:09:23] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: The most challenging thing that you could ever do is to start from scratch. You know what I mean? It would've been, I didn't have the equity to buy an existing one. Right. So. So I started from scratch.

It took us three and a half years to get above water, but we are above water. Finally, Thank God. And we are, you know, profitable, you know, in a tough environment that we have, the way we have it. Now we are profitable. And part of the reason we're profitable is the marketplace that I created because I tested it on myself first to make sure it works.

When I realized it works. Then I said, if it works for me, I believe it works for every single independent pharmacy owner. 

[00:10:04] Mike Koelzer, Host: When you say it works for you. And so does this start you. You've one of the reasons we're talking is you've got a really interesting thing going on with, with a, a website. I want you to tell us about, and when you say works for others, is that part of this where you've reached out now with this website and, and, and is that part of the expansion?

[00:10:27] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: It is. Now I have a network and we only really went live back in February. At the end of February, we had our year, but we went for, you know, for lunch. Was it end of February. We went to PDs. But she's a pharmacy development services and yeah, in Orlando, yes. Back in Orlando. And I actually, I was a silver sponsor for the show and I went and told everybody about the, the, the marketplace r.com and I told 'em and everybody's job pretty much dropped because I was on the stage.

Like, what is this concept? Where do you come from? And actually I have a utility patent that just got published because what I'm doing the way I'm going about it has never been done. 

[00:11:14] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, tell us. Um, alright, so, so you were running your independent pharmacy for a couple years and then, and then you, you came up with the, the idea and then you got basically the website and, and the business to us to promote what you were doing to two other pharmacies.

Correct. And, the website is right. RX E E D do com. Correct. So tell us about that then. I mean, that's, that's, that's pretty that you've taken what you did then and expanded it. Tell us, tell us, um, tell us what, what your goal with this, what? 

[00:12:04] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Okay. Well, ultimately my goal is to have every pharmacy owner.

Join this, you know, marketplace because it costs them nothing. I created this out of pure frustration as a pharmacy owner. It became a survival game in the beginning. As we talked early on, you know, I started my pharmacy from scratch. So you encountered a lot of frustration. You know, so what I was doing initially is marketing.

And how do you market, as we know all of us. Okay. And you know, I wasn't an expert. This is my first firm you've ever owned. And so what you do, you go spend money on ads, the magazine, local magazine. Yeah. You know, and you go to, you know what I mean, restaurants, and be like placement ads and stuff like that.

And you have put your name places, but the traffic I was generating. It was costing me almost a thousand dollars per new customer, believe me. And I'm not making stuff up. I ended it up. And, you know, I say, so I was spending almost a thousand dollars for a new customer to come to my doorsteps. So I was like, there gotta be some other way.

And I was going, seeing doctors, mind you where my pharmacy is, we have 120 doctors within a three mile radius. So there's no lack of doctors. Sure. The problem. The lack of engagement with doctors, they don't give you the time to talk to you to try. So you could explain to them, how are you different, right?

And how are you better than the chains, the big box and how, what kind of services could you provide to them? So, that aspect of it, you know, I mean, direct c.com is a four dimensional platform. It's not a single, you know, dimension, it's four dimensional. So we're talking about the first dimension, which is the patients, the consumers.

So I figure it's like, I need to traffic these patients and these customers come to me because every pharmacy, what's their radius, you know what I mean? It's about what, four to six miles that is it. Most unlikely, maybe 10 maximum 10. That's all you're gonna attract patients from, from that, you know, six to 10 mile radius beyond that.

They're not gonna come to you most likely, right? They go somewhere else closer. But if you are offering a better price, People are willing to come. They're willing to drive. You'll be surprised. I have people right now drive an hour to come to me just because my price is so much better than others. So, what happened?

I ran reports, you know what I mean? Through my pharmacy management system that I have, and I was looking at, you know what I mean, what am I getting paid on? What I'm not getting paid, how much money I'm losing and which is as we. I just got an audit with, I mean, a big insurance company and we did find there were no issues, but my partner was freaking out.

She's like, oh my God, there's a lot of prescriptions to go through, which is about 5,000 prescriptions over a course of three years. They wanna look at, yeah. So I said, don't worry about it. You are focusing on the wrong thing. I said, why don't you go into the pharmacy management system and set it to be anything $50 and above, we will look at it.

Anything $50 and less. We don't. So mind you I'm running the number for you, but, uh, it, it was like 4,980 something. Sure. And, and actually when we did that, we only had 492 prescriptions to look at. So 90% of our business, we're not making money from the insurance company. So we get zero, zero reimbursement.

And, um, most of the time, actually you are talking negatively. Sure. Reimbursement too. So I was like, hold on. Every pharmacy owner needs to stop and think you are focusing on the wrong thing. The 90% is where your money is, the 10% is where the brands and all that stuff. That's where you're losing money on that deal.

Medicare part D the Dr. Fees. Yeah. Right. So, you know, so, and that's where I start channeling my thoughts. Like they've gotta be a solution. So let's attract those patients. The 90% and the 90% makes up 10% of the business for, uh, the big box because I'll work there and I've still remembered the numbers.

So let's call 'em the cash customers, underinsured uninsured high deductible. Okay. That's what we call those. The, the, the 90% that makes up 10% of the big chains. So my job is to create a marketplace for all of us to take away that 10% from the big chain. So if we take it away from them and they lose it, let them deal with that.

Sure. You know, with the insurance company, with other, other stuff and get audited all the time. So, and that's what I did. So, so the, the patent that I have is a utility pen. It allows the, the, the patient to auction off their pres. On exceed. So they register with us. They come to the marketplace, we have an API, they type a few letters of any name.

It comes up, you pick it, you put a quantity and you submit your bid. So, and there's two kinds of bidding sessions, one isn't urgent. And that gives you a four hour session. And give the pharmacy owner four hours to bid on it. And where there's one, non-urgent like, if you're on APRI maintenance medication, you have a week left, that's a 24 hour session.

The minute the bid is placed, it goes to all the pharmacies licensed in that state only. So if, for instance, Mike is licensed in California and the patient from Texas, you're not gonna get that. You're not gonna get an email notification. It's not gonna come up to the portal. We are not gonna see it. Cause it doesn't 

[00:17:45] Mike Koelzer, Host: pertain to you and, and the people, the people that get this, um, the pharmacies that get this, those are ones who, who have I'm imagining, who have signed up with your 

[00:17:56] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: program.

Exactly. They, yeah, exactly. I don't, I don't sign them up. They have to sign up. They have to go and register on the marketplace. It costs them nothing to be on the marketplace. So they have everything to gain and nothing to lose. You're gaining patients at no cost to you. You know what I mean? Which platform does that for pharmacy owners?

Sure. None says so far that I know. And, uh, so that, that's what happened and you know, and I give that pharmacy owner a key piece of information. I give them the zip code along with the, the, the status of the bid. If it's urgent, if it's not urgent and there's a clock that counts down. So you always know how many minutes, how many hours left in the session?

So, and you see the drug and the quantity. So you always, you're not in the dark totally because you know where your customers are coming from. So let's say I'm in here in Tinley park and somebody from Springfield ends up placing a bit. Well, I'm licensed in Illinois. I could buy it and I could ship.

And I could, you know, if I win the bid, I could tell the patients like, okay, it's $6 to ship through the United state postal office, which is some seven and 20 cents, no big deal. Or I could just opt out of it, you know, because I feel like it's too far from me. Sure. And let somebody else take the bid on it.

And even if I bid on it, you only get one chance as a pharmacy owner to bid, because I don't want it to become a TAC to drop you by a penny. I drop a penny. Yeah. Right. It's meant to be, give, give you the best price. If you win the bid, you win the patient, that's it. You know? And, uh, so that is how the bidding session works, you know, and that's how we traffic patients to pharmacies at no cost to them.

They're not paying for any of the advertisements at all. We are paying actually, there is another feature that we have on the, on the patient side. It's called locate my. So what it means exactly what it says. If a patient from the comfort, their home they log in from their phone or their desktop, they put their medication, a few letters, they type it.

And once they do and quantity and tell us if they're insured or they cash customers. And then explain the second. Why do I say that, then submit it immediately. Same thing goes for the independent pharmacy. They get an email alert and it says you have a patient trying to locate a medication log. So you log in, you see it, you have it in stock or you don't have it in stock.

You walk to your shelf, you said, yes. You, you know, you said, no, you said, no, you don't have it. At the end of the session, the patient will be able to see all the pharmacies that said yes with a distance from their house and they click on it and they'll be able to. To, uh, view pharmacy information, the name, address, and the phone number, and they could call and like, okay, listen, you are closest to my house.

The script is at this store. Please transfer it. The reason I'm asking, do you have insurance or you are, and I mean, a cash paying customer is to help the owner, the pharmacy owner know what kind of patient they're getting, especially at times as you know, when Val, like for instance, when I'm back order.

The price went through the roof because the backorder insurance company did not care if you have insurance. I mean, sorry. Uh, if it's back order, it's not back order. The price of reimbursement still was horrible. Anyway. So even if I had it in stock, honestly, do you think if somebody's insured, I'm gonna say yes to I'm sorry.

It's a business and I want the owner to thrive. So that is the opportunity for the pharmacy owner. To capitalize and get a cash 

[00:21:31] Mike Koelzer, Host: customer. How does that differ from the original part of, in other words, why would somebody use that function to find the drug versus finding it and wanting to get the best price on it?

Are those, it sounds like the first one's a little bit more like the price and the second one's a little bit more just like finding it. 

[00:21:53] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Okay. The difference is Mike and the first one. You know what I mean? People just wanna know the price. Sure. They just wanna be able to see it. The second one, it works when stuff is on the back.

Gotcha. On the EpiPen when attending law school, they just did it. A lot of people just did not care. They just wanted the medication. You wouldn't believe every time something is on backorder. There's a big chain down the street from me, everybody Flo back to me. Yeah. Right. And that is the chance for us as pharmacy owners.

To keep those patients and convince them that you are gonna get the best service and the best price at my local pharmacy. I will know you, I will know your family. I will know your dog's name. I will know everything about you. I'm the one who should, you should come. Sure. And that, that is the difference. You know, some people think it's the same feature in a way it is, you know, but the difference is.

One just wants to know the price. And one wants to know if you have it in stock. And when you, when you say, do you have the medication in stock, you're gonna get a list of all the pharmacies that said yes. In comparison, the bidding is only you get the one who wants I gotcha. And the 

[00:22:58] Mike Koelzer, Host: lowest price and Omar, tell me about, was there a component of the, I seem to think there was a component about the doctor on the site too.

How does that fit? 

[00:23:09] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Well, what, what we do, we actually promote to the doctors, you know what I mean? And, uh, on the patient side, there are two more features. Thanks for reminding me. One of them is called comprehensive medication review CMR, which is, you know, I got mad because all the MTMs we do, I've noticed it's all for Medicare part D patients.

I'm like, what about the rest of the people that fall through the crack? They're not a Medicare part. D So what happened? The patient could actually request a CMR, which is pretty much in a way it's a consultation. If you think about it, it's a brown bag. They get to put all the medication, they take herbs and everything.

They take over the counter in a basket, and then they put their medical condition and disease states. Once that happened. It comes to us. Of course, there's a fee for the consultation and, uh, you know, but they seek that consultation. They're trying to find out what's going on. So because they might be duplications, they might be drug interactions.

It comes to us. One of our licensed pharmacists will be doing it. The goal initially for us to take it on just in the beginning afterwards, once we pick up the pace. We don't wanna do the MTM, the, the CMR, the comprehensive medication review. Actually, we're gonna traffic it to a local pharmacy near their zip code where they live.

So this way, that pharmacy benefits by doing the CMR and they're getting a new patient too, from it. And, uh, there are criteria for that CMR, which is we gotta look up drug, drug, interaction, drug disease, duplication. We look at therapeutic substitution. If a patient is on, for instance, let's say, was taken, uh, Latuda, for instance, you know, and Latuda is very expensive.

It's about $1,250 and the copay, they can't afford it. What have you, we could talk to them say and make suggestions like, Hey, listen, you could talk to your doctor about a Bey. Cabify is much cheaper. you know, and it might work for you or somebody on Zan, you know, sorry, Lum again, I drop which suggests Xalatan somebody in the pool.

We could suggest temporal Excel and tell them what to take. Crestor. For instance, it used to be cheap. I mean, sorry, expensive now it's cheap, but when it was expensive, you could have auto SubT to Lipitor and what like Lipitor. Crestor five milligram goes to Lipitor 20, the ratios, four to one. So we will share that knowledge with them in a report, that report, they could take it to their doctor from their phone and show it to them.

They say, Hey doc, there's a pharmacist on the outside, who did a brown bag consultation for me and this looks like what they want. You got me on Lipitor and another doctor got me on XCOR. Well, he might. Now we caught a duplication or they were in a Coumadin and they were taking, uh, long term flag for instance, and it was affecting the, in R so then that that's a red flag then, you know, he needs to know either cut the dose or, or, you know, monitor more often for that INR, right.

Or for, or therapeutic substitution. Like the Lu again is too expensive. They can't afford it. Then they could say, Hey doc, they said, Xalatan is in the same category. It does the same thing. Why don't you switch it for me? So that's how we get the doctors. Gotcha. Because we're gonna be doing something they're not doing.

And the last component quickly on the patient side, we have a compounding pharmacy section for the pharmacies that these patients will type in the compound, the name of the doctor and the phone number. And we will find a pharmacy that is willing to. For them because we know who they are because when they register, they say, yes, we cannot.

No, we don't. Then we pass that patient to them and we will tell them the name of the doctor. So all of a sudden you're gonna have a doctor that you never heard of that actually writes for compound. How would you hear about it? It's not for xi.com and they might not be from your local area. Now you could go to the market to see that doctor.

All that information is being given free to the pharmacy owner. So in order. Allow 'me to thrive. 

[00:27:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: That's interesting. Um, Omar, tell me about being, being the business of pharmacy podcasts. Tell me about as much as you're able or willing to share what have been the biggest headaches with getting an idea like this off the ground.

It, 

[00:27:36] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: It was challenging Mike to say the least, you know, so what happened is it actually took me two full years. The idea was in my head, keep thinking, how can I make it better? How can I, you know, then initially you have, I had to keep it for myself because I had to file for a patent. You know, I couldn't bounce it over other people.

So I waited till I filed the patent. Then the funds, it's a very costly project. It is not cheap. And it's self-funded, you know, and it's, self-funded for a reason, to be honest with you, because a lot of investors offered me money once they heard about it, but I turned him down. I turned him down because I thought it's gonna be no different than the day that I, that district manager, walked.

Sure. You know, I walked into his office and tried to brainwash me. I think investors are gonna try to do the same thing and try to influence it and make it just a money making machine instead of actually. Marketplace that is all inclusive. And the bottom line, it's there to help everybody throughout the process, the patient, the pharmacy, the wholesalers, and the reverse vendor, which is that's the four dimensions that we only discussed one, but we'll move on to the other three.

Sure. So that, that, that, that was the frustration that I had. And I'm not a tech savvy guy by no means that's another issue. So I hired a technology company here out of Chicago and they did most of the work. So mind you, I was running my own pharmacy, still working at a level one trauma center at a 900 bed hospital here in Chicago, you know, overnight.

And you know what I mean, trying to get this project to come to life and fund it with a wife and four kids. So that was huge. Huge challenge for me, but thank God I overcame it. You know? I'm and what does not kill you, make you 

[00:29:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: stronger? Yes. Um, speaking of funding, um, share what you can about your, um, your backend, um, money.

Uh, producing part of this, I'm assuming that we all, we all have to make money to, you know, feed our kids off and so on. So what, what is the, uh, how, how is the business set up as far as your, your return from it? 

[00:29:48] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Absolutely. From the patient side, for the bidding session, the patient gets to see the final price, which is like I say, a 10-50 milligram.

The final bed was. $7 for 90 day supply. For instance, let's just say that for the sake of argument. And if they want to know where to get that medication from, they have to pay us $2 service fee. And that is reasonable because you get to see the price, but only if you're serious about, you know, getting that medication, then you pay the $2.

Then the information between the patient and the pharmacy that won the bed instantaneously. Once they pay the $2, get, you know what I mean, swapped between the two. So they'll be able to see the pharmacy phone number, address, and, and name, and they'll, you'll be able to see the name of the patient email address and the phone number, so you can reach out to them.

So that's how we, we, which is not a lot of money, but think about it in the bigger picture when you start getting a lot of traffic, right. It does add, right. So, and the, and same with the bid, you know what I mean? And, and then the reason I, honestly, we charge the $2, we have no choice because. Nothing is free in life.

Anybody tell you that's free, they'll belong to you. Yeah. It cost me, it cost me money for the API running on the back end and they charge me per click anyway. So for every thousand, if we just get one that pays, you know, bid or locate yeah. It pays for itself. So it's a washout. So that end up 

[00:31:19] Mike Koelzer, Host: being a workshop.

So every thousand with every thousand. Um, if you get one that that's a wash, if you get more, 

[00:31:26] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: then it's better. They said exactly that, because it cost me, they're charging me a set access fee, you know, I mean like 500 bucks a month. And, uh, just the access fee. Then after that, After the first hundred thousand, you know, inquiries called like an API call.

Cause you don't have an API call. Yeah. They charge me for every thousand. They charge me $2. So in order for me to break even, I need one out of that thousand in order for me to make profit, I need two. So once I get above one, the second one, I make money, you know? So that's how we make our money from the patient side.

Beside the M the CMR is $20. But that barely covers the pharmacist time. So it really doesn't. There's no money. We have to charge because I'm paying a pharmacist to do the CMO. Yeah. Right. And eventually, eventually I'm gonna traffic that to the local pharmacies. Once we have enough to take care of everybody in the United States, I'm gonna, I don't wanna do it then I'd much rather push it to where the patient looks live, match 'em with a zip code, with a closer Pharmac.

And give that pharmacy an opportunity to win that patient over. Sure. From the big chain. What, 

[00:32:34] Mike Koelzer, Host: what, what other, um, what other income sources? And I know, I know if you get a, if you get, you know, 200 million customers and the $2 is, is plenty. Do you have any other, um, income sources from it? 

[00:32:48] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Yes, we do. There's two more income sources.

There's the pharmacy component. Pharmacy to pharmacy sales. The law is clear. You could, as a pharmacy, sell up to 5% of your total sales to another pharmacy. Otherwise you have to be a licensed wholesaler in certain states. The rules are different too. Like in New York it is different because it doesn't look at the dollar.

It looks at the transactions, 600 single sales. Sure. So if you sold one bottle, that's a sale of two bottles, that's another sale. So they look at 600 if you exceed that. Sure. So what we did, we programmed it. We coded the portal and the marketplace. It's not allowed in every state, Mike, believe it or not, it's allowed in most states and I'm gonna own the list, but I, I could share this much with you.

32 states. All 32 states in the United States allowed, which is two thirds of the United States allowed. Right. And the, the, the feature where you have the ability to buy and sell, you know, to other pharmacies in the United States, uh, is enabled based on the communication that I had with the board of pharmacy who said yes or said no.

And if the border found said not allowed big fentanyl, then that feature would be blocked. You can do it because it is not allowed in your state. Gotcha. You. And I just wanna, there's two states that are special circumstances out of the 32, and I'm gonna mention them because people need to know them. Ohio and Colorado, Ohio, and Colorado will allow that pharmacy to sell out to any other pharmacy that the board of pharmacy allows.

But only allow the pharmacy in those states to buy from another pharmacy in that state, which makes sense, because they're regulated. Gotcha. They have control over it. So those two states, that's how it works. And the program and the marketplace is coded as such. Now some of the, some 

[00:34:41] Mike Koelzer, Host: of the new, so your products, some of the new rules don't have something like, um, only if, only if it's for a current need or something like.

[00:34:51] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Yeah. And, and we, it, it is, it's actually true. It has to be, uh, because it's very clear with the, with the DS CSA, you know what I mean? Yeah. The dispensive dispensary transaction. Yeah. It has to be for a patient specific need. And that's what we, we tell all our pharmacies, when they're selling their stuff, they're pretty much selling their stuff because of a number.

They, if you have aids medication, the patient is no longer on it, right. Or the patient passed away or the patient moved or you bought a brand name and it like, you know, I mean, and it happened to have 20 tablets for instance, in that bottle. And it's a $2,000 medication and you only use 10 of them and you have no need for the other 10.

Another pharmacy could take those other tents off of your hand and you could just lose like 20, 30 bucks, whatever it is. But you got rid of it. Bottle that max sits on your shelf for a long time. So it's a win-win, it's a win for you. You, you helped your patient and you moved the other tent. So you, that bottle is no longer sitting on the shelf, dead money, collecting dust.

Sure. And the other pharmacy buys it for that patient specific need because they have a patient who has a need for it also. Gotcha. So, yeah, it's, it is to satisfy that. That is what it's there for. So it's not 

[00:36:07] Mike Koelzer, Host: intended for you. Okay. So we talked about, we talked about this to the patient and this among, among pharmacy to pharmacy, are there?

Yes. Is there, are there others, um, I, I think you might have mentioned four. Does that, are those two of the four? 

[00:36:25] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Yeah, these are two of them, OK. What's what? Correct. What's three and four. I'll, I'll tell you three or four quickly, but I just wanna mention to the pharmacy owners that were listening, the fee is a flat fee for us.

It's three and a half percent. Gotcha. That's all we charge you. And there's no limit to how many you could list. You know what I mean? We don't tell you how to price it. You price it. If you price high, you're not gonna sell it. You know what I mean? It's obvious, sure. People know what the prices are, you know, so that's to help the pharmacy owners and narcotics are not allowed three 40 B items are not allowed.

So if you list those, you know what I mean? You don't don't list them because we're gonna just cancel 'em. Gotcha. All right. What's three and four? So, and that third, the third one is the wholesaler. We have wholesalers on the marketplace and we have about like 18 right now, wholesale on the marketplace.

It's like a virtual place. They put their inventory, pharmacy owners see their inventory. Of course they only. For licensed wholesalers in their state. If you're not licensed in their state, you don't see their products. It's pointless for you. Why would you see it? So then you could buy from them, fill out the application online.

And if you already have an application, just approve yourself. If you already purchased from them and start buying, they pay us two and a half percent out of that two and a half percent. I reward the pharmacy owners. With half a percent, which is one fifth of what I make. I reward them for their generic and on the generics okay.

Side, because the brand, we don't make money, so they're getting rewarded. So that's another line of income for us. Okay. Number four. And the number four is we have a reverse vendor, which is, uh, called express RX return. I actually personally dealt with 14 different reverse vendors. And I've had experience with all of them.

They were most of them for the most part, they were horrible and they charge you fees based on estimated value. Sure. And they end up giving you nothing. This particular reverse vendor. Think of it this way. They're in bed with you. If they get you money, they take their percentage. If they get nothing. They get nothing.

If you get zero, they get zero, they get a hundred dollars, they get $11, which is fair. That means they're gonna fight for you. And that's the reason it worked for me for the past two years. And that's the reason I chose to be a strategic partner. 

[00:38:32] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, that's, that's interesting. So we got, we got patient to patient, uh, pharmacy to pharmacy, to wholesaler and pharmacy to, uh, a return.

Omar. What have you been doing all of this? What would you tell another pharmacist that had maybe not okay. Not your same visions, but visions of doing something. Let's say, let's say through, um, a.com, but, but, but doing some of this, where, what would you tell them or where did you go wrong that you would've changed from what you did?

I'm not imp I'm noting you went wrong anywhere. I'm just saying what? 

[00:39:20] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: No, no, I know we do. We all do yeah, yeah, no, there's no, there's no doubt. Okay. Yeah. Well, I would tell them, trust your God. Go for it, you know, in your heart. What's right? And what works or what doesn't work be, you know, be persistent, you know, don't give up.

It does take time. If you have an idea. Don't let that idea just live in your mind, make it a reality. You know what I mean? You know, it's a free market, you know what I mean? Anybody could do anything. You could really do anything you wanna do, you know? So, and, and don't, don't be restricted. You know what I mean?

Even if it takes a little bit of time, you know what I mean? If you don't, you don't have investors, you can't be self-funded. Just, you know, reach out. You'd be surprised in the pharmacy community. There's a lot of good, good, you know, people and great pharmacists with really, you know, great brains. They really know what's going on in the field and they could help you.

You'll be surprised if you asked the question, how many people will reach out and try to help you. It's amazing in the pharmacy community, where, where, where you 

[00:40:24] Mike Koelzer, Host: find and that's, where do you find you? You ask those questions with. 

[00:40:28] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: I, I, yeah, I I've actually, you know, I mean, I have a know on my LinkedIn accounts, I have over 1600 people that I pick their brains, you know, I mean, I talk to 'em yourself included, you know, and I, you know, listen to them, I read their thoughts, you know what I mean?

And I re brainstorm with them and I throw ideas out there, you know, and, uh, to make it a reality, because think of it this way, when you, when I thought about Rxeed.com I had tunnel vision, because I only see it in my brain, in my eyes. and, and my wife is not a pharmacist, so she couldn't help me, you know, as much as I tried.

Right. But when I ran it by other pharmacists it was just like, it was amazing. They just opened up my eye to a whole entire different, you know what I mean, level that then things start getting tweaked things got, you know, changing. Now it's much more efficient than the marketplace, you know? And I'm open for ideas.

There's always room for improvement. You know, you know, and then speaking of that, coming up soon, we're working on something called my list, which is like a, your virtual clipboard. It's amazing because pharmacy owners don't have to worry anymore about sticky notes on a computer, on a fax, a note on a, taking a picture on their screen, on their phone.

No, they could actually, you know, add their items, ideas, and one convenient, secure virtual clipboard with 24 7 access. They could save tons of time. Like you put a, you wanna, for instance, you wanna, you know, generic Metron items, almost stuff, for instance, you know what I mean for, and you wanna buy it. You put that, you put the NDC, you put where you wanna buy it from.

And you could update that note. You could, your technician could put comments for you or your partner. You could access it from anytime, anywhere. You don't have to be in the. So that's coming up soon. This enhancement that we have. So, like I said, have an open mind, always listen to other people and you'll do well.

What, 

[00:42:15] Mike Koelzer, Host: um, that's really good advice. What, what dreams, what, what, what dream do you have that you think if you had one, because it sounds like you're doing it all. What dream would you have if you say, you know, that's just that. I don't see a way to get there and don't give away your secrets. But I mean, is there anything that you said, boy, it'd be really cool if this, but, but you're not able to make that leap.

[00:42:43] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Mm-hmm well, my dream for us as pharmacy owners to stick together, really, I really hope one day that we all, because I, as much as you think we are together, but you know what I mean? We might be together in one place, but togetherness does not exist. You know, just because we are there standing physically, it means nothing.

We are about to lose our souls. You know, what it means seriously in the next year or two, if we all don't get together and fight for the cause. And the cause is not just us actually it's patient because eventually if we are gone, so is patient care, I worked for four retailers. Big chains. I manage them, you know, on, on a corporate level.

Some of them I've seen. All these people are money hungry, driven by profit shareholders, board members. Some of them make $8,000 an hour. It's insane. That's all they think about. We are the layer between, you know what I mean, between them and the patient and we have to stay, we are here to stay and if we.

We are doomed and that's my, my dream is actually to make sure that we do stay in business. Okay. Now let's, you know, for the sake 

[00:44:02] Mike Koelzer, Host: of all of us devil's advocate, Omar devil's advocate here. Mm-hmm I'm imagining that you are taking steps to this dream and you think. Recede is the way to get there. What, what if somebody, I mean, I'm assuming there's other people that have not, you have a patent there, but I'm sure there's other people that say my way is the best way that we're, that we become one.

I just don't see a hundred people. Like you. Ideas, different patents, different, different dreams or not different dreams, but different ways they think they should get there. I don't see 99 of them, um, dropping their idea to go with the one. What would your, how do you, how do you balance that, that, that, because we're all independent.

We all think we have really good ideas. I don't see the 99% saying, all right, we'll go with this. 

[00:45:00] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: No by no means. And I tell 'em, please do not drop your idea. And that's what I was referring to. It's just like being, you know what I mean? We could be physically in one place, but we need to be one soul. You know, I don't, and I don't put anybody down by any means.

I hope everybody has an idea. It matured and became reality. I really do. And because of it, you know, I only could think of one way they could think of different ways they could thrive and do well also. So I wish him nothing but the best, but what I'm saying. All these people actually, that could come up with these great ideas.

You know what I mean? Yeah. And, mine might be just okay. Ideas at, you know, but I'm saying they could come to one place where we could have a good discussion. We could all end up just figuring out as a community. How could we move forward? How could we fight the, you know, the, you know, pharmacy benefit managers, how do we get better patient care?

How do we get better prices? You know what I mean? From our primary? What have you. So that's what it is. It has to be a community. Okay. So it's not just so 

[00:45:59] Mike Koelzer, Host: devil's advocate again, how, and you're a technology guy and I'm assuming that this has this, this is the best. One of the best gifts that, uh, a goal like this would have is the communication across the United States.

How, how do they actually come together? Even technology wise to become one voice? Is that through rec, is that through something else? 

[00:46:25] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Might be just one of the outlets of many, you know, you know, I'm pretty sure they, I'm confident they'll be the next person who's gonna come up with a much, much better idea.

Thane, you know, So, so I I'm, I'm all for it. And it'll be just exceedingly one of the channels, you know, and what we have on RCE. We have a communication method and we could actually talk. Any independent pharmacy individually, or all independent pharmacies through our like, uh, alert system, we could talk back and forth.

So that's what we, we, we could do that, you know, we could, you know, if something happened in New York, we could just target those New York pharmacies, make him aware of changes or something coming up, or a bill being passed. What have you, so we're gonna keep them in the loop and tell them, oh, there's better deals on something.

For instance, for a particular drug, they could get it for a far better deal. We let them. You know, and if there's any, you know, any conference or something, we'll bring some awareness to our efforts to be there. And if they wanna meet up with us, we could talk and brainstorm ideas. How could we do better for the community?

[00:47:28] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, that sounds, that sounds great. It sounds like, uh, it's definitely something that has to, um, have to take place because we have to speak as we, we have to go into one voice. It seems. And, 

[00:47:41] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: And then that's what I'm hoping for. Yeah. And, uh, not to let the cat out of the hat. And I'm praying that in October, the end of October, actually, I'm launching a pharmacy magazine, a digital pharmacy magazine.

and that the pharmacy magazine and I'm about to launch the technology is already working on a technology team. It's actually, it's all inclusive. It brings the doctors in one place. It brings the patient in, it brings every pharmacist in the United States, whether you're retail, pharmacist, hospital, long term care, any kind of pharmacist really you're gonna be in that marketplace.

I'm sorry. In the magazine. You'll get all kinds of information. We are getting students involved, PGY one, PGY, two involved with their article submission videos. What have you. So it is something that you have never seen before. Hopefully when that time come, will come around and I'll get a chance to explain it to, to, yeah, 

[00:48:39] Mike Koelzer, Host: exactly.

All the listeners. Omar, tell me, tell, uh, tell the listeners, um, they, they obviously can follow what's going on on Ree. Tell them how they can mm-hmm get a little bit more of your. Of your day to day thinking, is that gonna be through LinkedIn? 

[00:48:57] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Yeah, it's mainly through LinkedIn and Facebook groups. We have a Facebook group and it's called my independent pharmacy.

And, uh, on LinkedIn, you could find my page wonderful and you could, yeah, you could actually link me in and I, you, you could to hear every day, you hear my thoughts about what's going on, what things. Please feel your thoughts? I've actually, I've had people actually, you know what I mean? You know, given me some feedback, you know, even though it was negative feedback, but I took it and honestly it was, it ended up being positive.

Believe me, I, it wasn't, it was a negative feedback and I sat down after an hour or so. And that'll 

[00:49:40] Mike Koelzer, Host: yes. She was right. She was actually right. Yeah. It's so hard. It's so hard because even the people that, you know, even the people that not only negative feedback, but like almost hurtful feedback, it's like, you know what?

You took time out of your day to spend on me. Mm-hmm . And so I know there's still something there. I'm you know, one is like, I'm still important to you because you're taking cash out the precious time to do something. So there's something, I don't know if it's worth much, but there is something there.

Yeah. 

[00:50:14] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Yeah. And then, and that's the other advice that I could give the pharmacy owners when somebody gives you key feedback and you know what I mean? And it's negative. Don't take it personally. Yeah. See what the feedback is about. Sit back for another, for a second and think about what they said. And see if it's within your ability or your power to do something about it.

Yes. If it is do it, if it's not, I understand. Yeah. And this lady, what she said was within my ability to do so I actually changed things, the flow and all that to accommodate what she said, because it 

made 

[00:50:43] Mike Koelzer, Host: sense. Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense. Well, Omar, it's been fantastic talking to you and, and like keep in touch because we want to get you on again, as soon as the magazine comes out, because that sounds like a, a fantastic, 

[00:50:59] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: you'll be very pleased.

Mike, as a pharmacist, you will be very, very pleased. All right. With a magazine launch. That sounds cool. But for the. For the time being all, all the pharmacy owners. I just wanna let 'em know. We appreciate all your hard work. We know how tough it is. I'm one of you. I am one of you. So, I created this marketplace out of pure frustration.

So I feel your pain. I feel your agony. I know what you're going through. Yeah. And exceeding it is a solution for a problem. 

[00:51:24] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. It costs you nothing to be that RX RED dot. 

[00:51:29] Omar Hassad, Pharmacist: Correct. And they go to the pharmacy and register it. It takes three minutes to not even two minutes to register at your end. Oh, very cool.

And it's that 

[00:51:36] Mike Koelzer, Host: simple. Very cool. Well, God bless Omar. Nice talking to you. Thanks.