Affordability is a concern with Medication. Understanding the need to address the rising cost of medication Baybridge Pharmacy is changing the landscape of pharmaceutical services. Greg Savino – Founder & CEO opened Baybridge in 2015 with the idea of change pushing him forward. “If everyone in healthcare was truly committed to patient care, the industry will be able to provide more cost-effective care with better healthcare outcomes”, guides Greg. Greg asks healthcare leaders to operate under this principle.
Strong, Calculative, Persistent, & Realistic
Making a decision at 16 or 17 years old that potentially paves one’s career path is not easy. Fortunately, Greg Savino had guidance from his family to decide to pursue a degree in pharmacy. Although having no healthcare personnel in the family whatsoever, selecting a career that can provide financial stability for his future was very influential. He knew little to nothing about pharmacy until after starting at St John’s University College of Pharmacy for a 6-year doctorate degree. Only then did Greg start to work in a pharmacy and learn all that goes unseen.
During school as a Pharmacy Technician and Pharmacy Intern and post-school as a Pharmacist, Greg Savino spent 10 years with Walgreens. Despite rapid growth to managing and operating the front store and pharmacy of their high revenue specialty pharmacy in the Bronx, the limitations and restrictions enacted by Walgreens didn’t allow him the control he desired. In 2015, after just a few short years as a pharmacist, Greg opened Baybridge. Although starting small, he knew what it would eventually grow into.
Putting Customer-first
Greg asserts “I am driven by change and the process of enabling that change is building something from the ground up, exceeding expectations, and creating disbelief. These are all tied together.”
Greg typically does not look within the healthcare sector for inspiration. He looks to his childhood. His parents are a huge part of the reason he has learned to become the person he is today; kind, but strong, calculative, but adventurous, and persistent, but realistic.
“A little story I like to tell people about myself is that as a child, the day after Halloween, every year I would set up a table outside on the sidewalk and sell all the candy I received the day before. I was a businessman before I even know what that meant. In addition, I have also had two professional mentors throughout my career that have taught me the value of pharmacy and providing healthcare. One of which was my pharmacy manager when I worked in a corporate retail chain and still remain friends with today. At present, I constantly surround myself with like-minded individuals from whom I am always learning”, narrates Greg.
Successful Program
Greg Savino is always searching for solutions for a constant issue in healthcare – cost. In December of 2019, he rolled out Sparta Rx Programs, a series of programs designed to give the patient’s a fixed low-price assurance on their out-of-pocket cost. Baybridge Pharmacy’s most dominant revenue stream stems from Sparta Dermatology, its program specifically for the Dermatology market.
Greg’s team has successfully created this program for every patient – young, elder, insured, uninsured, etc. – where they can receive any medication from the program for no more than $24. That list currently offers over 60 medications that can treat some of the most prevalent conditions within dermatology, including acne, psoriasis, eczema, and rosacea. Baybridge Pharmacy has a large sales team and takes a classic, boots-on-the-ground approach in marketing its program to physicians. The response has been outstanding, with over a thousand active prescribers at any given time.
Communication with Every Patient
Baybridge Pharmacy does not operate with an abundance of advanced technology. That’s just not how it works with them. The company operates with the same electronics equipment that most other pharmacies also operate. The difference is the level of service they provide. The organization is attentive, communicative, responsible, and honest. These attributes combined with a thorough business plan have created substantial outcomes.
Baybridge Pharmacy communicates with every patient by either phone, text, or in person. It also maintains good relationships with the prescribers that actively use the service for its patients.
Time-efficient and Interpersonal Skills
Taking Greg Savino’s knowledge and experience from the retail pharmacy and applying it to a technology company that will have a vaster impact has been in progress for a few years already. Greg loves retail pharmacy, but his reach is limited. He wants to create change in healthcare in a positive way and he will achieve that through InfinityRx, an emerging PBA (Pharmacy Benefits Administrator) with advanced proprietary technology. Although Baybridge Pharmacy is not a technologically advanced company, Greg sees the value of technology in healthcare and is drawn to those looking to better the industry.
InfinityRx is a multi-faceted company offering:
- Data, via vast reporting solutions for pharmaceutical manufacturers and other payors to ensure proper financial assistance program management and legal compliance.
- Fraud, waste, and abuse monitoring to ensure program participants are abiding to program guidelines.
- A suite of options, for pharmaceutical manufacturers, with medication distribution channels and pharmacy networks.
Classic Approach with Modern Thought Process
Over the years, Baybridge Pharmacy underwent 3 renovations; 2 – within the current walls and 1 – taking over a neighboring storefront. With this growth in business, came a growth in staff. Culturing a team to be committed and focused on patient care, while also being conscious of the monetary success of the business is the greatest achievement to date. Adapting during extremely volatile years in the retail pharmacy industry was essential. Profit margins were cut razor-thin, audits from pharmacy benefit managers (the very profitable middlemen in pharmacy) were relentless, and the competition was attempting to copy and implement Baybridge’s marketing ideology into their businesses.
Despite all that, Baybridge Pharmacy’s ability to execute is the primary reason it continued to grow. By 2019, it was ranked the 46th fastest growing health care company in the United States. It was then that the attention on the company started to build. By late 2019, the company entered an acquisition agreement with an emerging private equity firm’s pharmacy division, Optio Rx that would close in June of 2020.
Baybridge Pharmacy rolled out its latest marketing endeavor in December of 2019, Sparta Dermatology, to Baybridge Pharmacy as well as two other NY pharmacies undergoing acquisition by Optio Rx. This gives its program greater geographic reach, now spanning 3 states and over 30 counties. The company’s next move is taking Sparta Dermatology to the West Coast and implementing the program in Optio’s California pharmacies.
