RETAILERS EXPANDING HEALTH INFORMATION/COUPON SYSTEMS

CHRISTINA VEIDERS Additional reporting: Ramona Flood

Two pharmacy health information/coupon systems, introduced earlier this year and targeted to patients' specific disease state conditions, are being rolled out beyond test locations.

St. Louis-based Health Resource, a division of Catalina Marketing Corp., St. Petersburg, Fla., announced it would expand its original seven-chain, 40-store test, to more than 1,000 stores this month. Michael McClorey, the company's president, declined to say which chains planned to expand the system.

Supermarket chains originally testing the Health Resource system included Giant Food, Landover, Md., which has since pulled out of the program; Kroger Co., Cincinnati; Pathmark Stores, Woodbridge, N.J., and Vons Cos., Arcadia, Calif. In addition, drug chains testing the system are Genovese, Harco, Rite Aid and Super D.

Russ Fair, vice president, pharmacy operations at Giant Food, said the chain discontinued the program because "the reimbursement rate wasn't enough to justify the time and expense it would cost to deal with it." Fair added that Giant has implemented its own coupon program, and is doing well with it.

Michael Puccini, Cincinnati-area pharmacy merchandiser at Kroger, said the system is now in nine of the division's 58 stores.

"We are in phase two of our test mode. We are happy with the program. We'd like to measure the response that we are getting on the coupon redemptions. And, if we can make it a successful program that our pharmacists can work with everyday, then we'd like to roll it out," Puccini said.

He said the system has helped boost over-the-counter sales indicated by a comparison report done with a control store without the system. Also, consumer surveys showed that customers like the information that the system is producing, Puccini said. The Health Resource system produces a personalized newsletter containing relevant information on the patient's disease condition. It is printed on a laser printer when the pharmacist keys in the prescription's National Drug Code. In addition to the editorial, the newsletter contains four sections used by OTC and prescription drug manufacturers to promote and offer coupons on products that are appropriately related to the patient's condition. Another system that combines counseling with OTC coupons is the Medi-Link Pharmacy Coupon System from HealthCare Data Corp., Charlestown, R.I. This system produces a single information sheet on the prescription along with warning labels, a receipt and related OTC coupons that are tied to the patient's health condition.

Medi-Link has ended its test period at Wakefern Food Corp., Elizabeth, N.J., where the chain is now evaluating the system, said Dan Ramirez, vice president of the pharmacy division.

Medi-Link has also signed with A&P's Super Fresh Food Markets division, Florence, N.J.; Edwards Super Food Stores, Windsor Locks, Conn., and also Vons, which has decided to test Medi-Link along with the Health Resource system, said Robin Foote, Medi-Link's president.

Paul Knerr, director of pharmacy at Vons, declined to comment specifically on either of the systems being tested.

However, he said the program "creates customer loyalty and increases OTC business in products related to the prescription being dispensed."

The other supermarket chains using these systems either could not be reached, or declined to comment.