Kate Sharry’s relationship with CANARX worked much the same way as her relationships with her clients. It’s one of mutual trust.
Sharry was previously Area Vice President of Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc. a municipal health care consulting firm under Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) that exclusively serves Massachusetts cities and towns. During her time with Gallagher, she helped implement CANARX’s prescription medication program across the state for many years.
We found that working with CANARX, it’s a very simple, straightforward solution with full transparency.
“There’s a mutual trust on both sides. They trusted that we were going to make introductions with our clients whenever possible and they were very open to listening to what the needs of our clients were,” Sharry said.
CANARX was founded in 2002 as a group benefit program that facilitates personal importation of brand-name drugs from international sources that include Canada, the U.K. and Australia. For decades, the program offers significant savings to both individuals and municipalities.
The city of Fall River, Massachusetts, for example, has enjoyed average savings of over 80% over the life of the program – all while its employees enjoy zero copays.
“Any time we can put a benefit in place for employees that is a cost savings overall for employers and employees, then it’s really a no-brainer,” Sharry said. “There’s really no downside to this program and obviously that makes it easy to implement.”
That’s important for Gallagher, which consults with hundreds of municipal organizations. CANARX’s assistance with implementation is another plus, particularly when it comes to communications that encourage employees to utilize the program.
CANARX’s safety protocol, one that includes sourcing maintenance medications only from Tier 1 countries and regular inspection of all licensed pharmacies, also factored into Sharry’s comfort level recommending the program to her clients.
“The relationships that I’d built with my clients over the years, I’d always been very careful about making introductions to any vendors or carriers that we don’t feel would be a good fit for them either financially or for the well-being of their employees,” Sharry says. “I don’t have any concerns, any doubts whatsoever, that CANARX delivers a safe program.”
It’s not only a win-win for municipalities and employees, but for Gallagher as well.
“We showed our value by bringing solutions like this to the table to help control prescription costs and we’ve found that CANARX is really the best partner out there.”