Front-end share

Definition

Revenue from everything that is not a prescription, at a margin the prescriptions do not carry.

Why It Matters

Dispensing margins are set by contracts a small pharmacy does not negotiate, so the part of the business the owner actually controls is the front end and the clinical services beside it. Two pharmacies filling the same script count can therefore earn very differently. Split revenue and margin into dispensing, front end, and services for three years, because a shrinking front end under a flat script count is a business quietly becoming a contract.