Webinar: Your RxAssist setup, step by step 

Introduction

Andrea Desmarais: It looks like we’re staying steady, so let’s go ahead and kick off. My name is Andrea Desmarais. I’m a senior product director for Covetrus, and today I’m here to walk you through a setup for Gmail and our new feature, RxAssist. RxAssist is a new dashboard in vRxPro that lets you compile prescription requests from any pharmacy provider, so you have one place to view and manage those requests and determine next steps for your clients and their pets.

Let’s get started with a walkthrough of how to enable RxAssist with Gmail.

Before you begin

To do this, you need access to a few things. First, you need to log in to vRxPro. You also need to log in to your practice’s Gmail account. If you use multifactor authentication, you’ll want access to that device. If you don’t use it, that’s fine, and you’ll be able to follow the steps with me directly. We’ll also have this video recorded and the webinar available so you can go back through the steps if you’re unable to follow along today.

Step 1: Copy your RxAssist request address

The very first thing to do is, in vRxPro, you’ll have a new left navigation item for RxAssist. Navigate to RxAssist. Your screen should be empty. Mine is set up to show some future requests, but yours should have no items coming in. Click the Request address button on the right side. This shows your practice’s unique vRxPro RxAssist email address. Click Copy.

Now your practice’s unique RxAssist email address is copied to your clipboard, and we can start the setup process in Gmail.

Step 2: Add the forwarding address in Gmail

Log in to your practice’s Gmail account. Click the gear icon, click See all settings, and go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP section. For most of you, there likely won’t be a forwarding address added yet. Click Add a forwarding address and paste in the email address you copied from vRxPro. If you forgot to copy it, go to RxAssist in vRxPro, where it’s on the right side of the screen under Request address.

Once you click Next, you’ll be asked to authenticate with Google, and then you’ll see a message to verify the request for your vRxPro address. An email is sent for this. It’s an added security step for Gmail customers, so Gmail can make sure you really want emails forwarded to this address. You approve it back inside vRxPro.

Step 3: Verify the forwarding address

Once you’ve added the forwarding address, go back to vRxPro and refresh the screen. This can take anywhere from three to five minutes, but you should then see a tab that says Forwarding verification. If you don’t see it, refresh. I’ve seen it take a little longer for some practices, depending on email settings and speed.

Click on that tab, and you’ll see the verification email. Click the clipboard icon to copy the link out of the forwarding verification email, and paste it into a new browser window. It will ask you to confirm that you want to forward mail from your practice’s email address to your practice’s vRxPro RxAssist email address. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to forward everything. Our next step is setting up a specific rule so you can tailor exactly what is copied to vRxPro. From here, click Confirm.

Step 4: Create a filter

Go back to your settings in Gmail, to See all settings and then Filters and Blocked Addresses. This is where we set up rules for which emails get sent to vRxPro. One thing I want to call out: this doesn’t move anything out of your practice’s inbox. All of the original copies stay in your inbox. This just forwards a copy to vRxPro so we can present it inside RxAssist.

Click Create a new filter. In the From field, put who the request is from. If you get prescription requests from specific pharmacies, put in their email addresses. I recommend setting up your rules based on the email addresses the requests come from. If you set up a general rule, like anything with the word “prescription” in it, you may inadvertently forward things Covetrus sends you for client requests, or other things you don’t want coming into vRxPro. So I recommend using the email addresses of the other pharmacies or providers you get requests from.

Then click Create filter, check the box for Forward it to, and select the vRxPro forwarding address we just set up. If you don’t see the address, refresh Gmail. Click Create filter, and any request that comes from that email address will now also be forwarded to vRxPro. You can set up as many filters as you want, and you can edit or delete them directly in Gmail as things change.

I recommend setting up a rule for every online pharmacy provider or retailer you get prescription requests from. The only things we receive in vRxPro are the emails you set up and forward to us. We have no access to your Gmail account.

Using the RxAssist dashboard

Once all of this is set up, you’ll start to see prescription requests populate in the RxAssist dashboard. Right now, everything is facilitated by email. We have instructions on how to set up eFax so those faxes convert into emails and come over to us. It works with all different pharmacy providers.

This is my RxAssist dashboard in one of our demo sites. Almost every patient here is under my last name. As requests come in, we track them in different statuses. For Sammy, the status is Ready to submit. That means we were able to validate the client, the patient, and the product. When you click the Rx button on a Ready to submit request, you can make a prescription directly in vRxPro. Fill in the units per fill, refills, and directions, then authorize it to send a prescription recommendation to your client to purchase through your online storefront. It includes discounts for your client, and you can track it throughout the process. You can always look at the attachment from the original email to make sure everything is correct.

You can also dismiss and manage requests for different reasons. For Rex, say you’re not going to do the NexGard. You can dismiss it because you already prescribed it, because you approved it through the original pharmacy, or because the patient needs an exam. Dismissed requests are tracked in your dismissed list so you can go back and see them.

There will be times when we can’t match everything about the client, patient, or product. Take this one for Skittles, where we couldn’t match the exact patient or product. If we look at what came in, there’s a request for a client with my last name for Skittles, for Apoquel. When I click the Rx button, it takes me as far as it can. For this demonstration, I added the number two to my last name to make it a little different from the email. We’re trying to get you as far as we can for efficiency, but when we see differences or nuances, we want you to confirm that we have the right client and patient. All you need to do is select Skittles, and then you can look for the product you want to provide. This wasn’t a good example because this particular product isn’t meant for a cat, which is why we weren’t matching it. There was an issue with the request from the third party.

Anytime we can match things, we get them ready to submit. Anytime something is questionable about the prescription, we leave it up to you to review. For example, Skittles shouldn’t be getting Apoquel, or maybe there are a couple of different products it could be. It’s a way for you to track and manage prescriptions coming from any online pharmacy and offer your client the option to purchase from your storefront, facilitated through Covetrus.

You can still approve a request through the other online pharmacy. You can print these emails to keep for your records or to fax somewhere. As you go, you can track the ones you’ve sent, see which ones you’ve dismissed, view the dismissal reason, and see who at your practice dismissed it.

Questions and answers

Attendee question: Can you show again what the email looks like in RxAssist?

Andrea Desmarais: This is what the originating email looks like. This is my test environment, so I’ve been sending most of these to myself. If there were an attachment you got from another pharmacy, that attachment is what you would see here.

Attendee question: Can we set up eFax?

Andrea Desmarais: Yes. We can send you instructions on how we’ve been setting up eFax.

Attendee question: Can I forward the emails my clients use to request prescriptions?

Andrea Desmarais: If you have specific emails that clients use to request prescriptions, or emails for other online pharmacies, you can set up a rule to forward those emails to RxAssist so they show in this dashboard. Emails don’t get deleted from your Gmail. They’re just forwarded so we can show them here.

Attendee question: Can I use RxAssist if vRxPro isn’t integrated with my practice management system?

Andrea Desmarais: Absolutely. As long as the client and patient are in vRxPro, we can match the request. If they aren’t, for example a client you’ve recently seen who hasn’t used the online pharmacy yet, the request will tell you nothing could be matched. When you click Rx, it lets you add them in. Without a PIMS integration, you add the client manually and then add the pet.

Attendee question: Which forwarding setting should I use in Gmail?

Andrea Desmarais: Keep this set to Disable forwarding. If you change it to Forward a copy of incoming mail, that is a flat-out rule and it will forward every email you get. You don’t want everything coming to us, so keep it on Disable forwarding and add filters that allow the forwarding you want.

Closing

I think we’ve gotten all of our questions answered. This walkthrough will be shared for everyone in case you couldn’t do it live with us. I really appreciate everyone taking time out of their day to join this webinar and walk through this setup. If you have any questions, please reach out to your VRM or your Clinical Growth Adviser, or our practice support team, and we can work through getting you all set up and moving forward.

Introduction

Andrea Desmarais: Alright. I think we can go ahead and get started. Today, we’re going to walk through RxAssist and getting it set up with your Outlook so that you can have prescription requests come into a single location in vRxPro. We make it easy to view and manage all of your requests in one place, so you’re not going to different portals, looking at fax machines, looking at emails, and trying to figure out what requests you have for your clients that you need to manage.

The things you need access to are vRxPro and your Outlook. I’ll walk through the steps one at a time on how to get that email set up. If you can’t follow along live, we’ll send out a link to this webinar as well as our instructions on how to set up email forwarding for Outlook.

Step 1: Copy your RxAssist request address

First, log in to vRxPro. You’ll notice the new RxAssist functionality in your left navigation. When you click it, it should be blank, because we haven’t set that up on my demo account. I do have some things I’ll walk through after we get it all set up. Click the Request address button on the right side. This lets you copy your practice’s distinct vRxPro RxAssist email address.

Step 2: Create a forwarding rule in Outlook

Once you have it copied, go to Outlook. Go to your settings and down to Rules. Add a rule, and you can name it anything you like. I’ll name mine Rx requests. Then set your conditions. The one we recommend is to focus on where your emails are coming from. I’ll set a condition that any email from that Rx platform, and I’ll pick an email address, goes to a specific place. Then I add an action: any email coming from this address, forward it to, and I put in the vRxPro email address I copied. That means any email that comes into my mailbox from that platform stays in my Outlook, but is also forwarded to vRxPro, where those emails are consumed and put into your dashboard.

Once you’ve done that, click Save. You can add more and more rules. I recommend setting up your rules based on the email addresses that prescription requests come from, and not something blanket like any email that has the word “prescription” or “refill,” because then other emails you want for your practice will come into RxAssist. Again, emails always stay in your Outlook, but they come over to RxAssist as well.

Using the RxAssist dashboard

Once you have those rules set up, go back to vRxPro. In RxAssist, you’ll start seeing emails come in for your practice to look at. Based on the email content, we put them in this dashboard. Sometimes we’re able to fully validate everything about the prescription. Sometimes there are some questions, and not everything could be parsed fully.

When we can fully validate a prescription request, like this one for Sammy, you can click the Rx button. That takes you to your vRxPro prescription pad, where you enter refills, max quantity, and directions. Then you can authorize the request and send it to your client, letting them know you received their request for that product, that you have an online pharmacy partnership with Covetrus, and giving them the opportunity to purchase the prescription through your online pharmacy. It comes with a discount for your pet parent to apply to that order. It’s super simple for you to review and decide what to do with the requests coming in.

When we aren’t sure we know everything, like this one where we couldn’t get to the exact food requested for Max, we take you as far as we can in the prescription. I’ll delete some of the information so we can get to the food, add it in, choose the canned version, and send this request over to your pet parent as well.

There are also times you may need to manage requests in a different way. Let’s look at this one for Max. Maybe you already prescribed it, or they came into the practice to pick it up, or you’re going to approve it through the originating pharmacy. Maybe you can’t authorize the prescription because they need an exam and their heartworm test. Maybe it was the wrong product, or you don’t know who the client is because they haven’t come to your practice yet. You can click to dismiss these requests. I’ll say Max is due for an exam, select the veterinarian assigned to Max, and dismiss the request, which puts it in the Dismissed section where you can always access and track it.

So setting up vRxPro with Outlook is very simple. It lets prescription requests come in so you’re managing everything in one place, and it gives you the opportunity to suggest purchasing through your online pharmacy, or to manage the request through the originating pharmacy or other provider or retailer that brought it in.

Recap

If there are no questions, I can go through the steps again, because it’s pretty quick with Outlook. In RxAssist, click the request email address and copy it. Go to Outlook, go to your settings, click Rules, and add a rule. Name the rule and set your condition. I strongly recommend always basing it on the address the email is coming from. Then select your action to forward, and paste in the RxAssist email address. Once that’s done, those emails will start being forwarded to vRxPro for you to look at in the dashboard and manage.

As a reminder, if you weren’t able to walk through this with me, we’ll be sending out a recording, and we also have steps for setting up Outlook that we’ll send so you have everything you need to get started with RxAssist in vRxPro. Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to join me today. I look forward to having you all set this up and joining a future webinar that I may be on. Thank you.