At its annual trade show for independent pharmacies in July, Cardinal Health introduced new services to improve reimbursement on third-party claims and marketing tools in order to do a better job of promoting the pharmacy and improving the customer experience.

According to Steve Lawrence, senior VP of independent sales for Cardinal, the new suite of marketing tools can be customized with the pharmacy's name in order to build its own brand within the community.

These include new Web site design templates that are easy to personalize, a new in-store radio system to control what music the pharmacy's customers hear, new and easier ways to order customizable in-store signage, custom TV and radio commercials tailored to the store's products and services, and outbound calling services to increase prescription refills and market special promotions and services.

With the reconciliation service, new features include reconciliation of claims from all payers, an online ability to review the status of claims from the past 15 weeks, a search tool that makes it easier to access and enter claim details, and a new centralized collections process for outstanding payments.