We closed on the pharmacy yesterday and are now the official owner's of Abts Pharmacy and Gifts. It was actually a bit anticlimactic. We had so many errands to run while we were in Denver that we didn't even celebrate the moment. We did pick up "Nama" (Melissa's mom) from the airport and she entertained Sheinah for the whole ride home which was a blessing.
First day at the pharmacy was very, very bad courtesy of our friends as the insurance companies. Here's what happened, all pharmacies have to register with a place called NCPDP which gives the pharmacy a special number that identifies the pharmacy. We got our number assigned to us a few weeks ago. The application asks when the transfer of ownership of the pharmacy will be completed so that the old number can be "turned off" and the new one "turned on". Pharmacies cannot have two numbers so the switch date is very important. Insurance companies use this number to identify pharmacies for payment. When a pharmacy transfers ownership, the new owners have to renegotiate contracts with every insurance company. We've been working on that for over a month, but the companies all require a bill of sale to complete the transfer. Since we didn't have that until yesterday afternoon, all of our applications are pending.
Now, back to that all important switch date. We didn't understand what the form was asking when it wanted the date of the completion of the transfer so we put in the date of closing. This means they turned off the old number yesterday and turned on ours today. Doesn't seem like a problem until you realize that none of our contracts with the insurance companies are active!! This means we couldn't process any prescriptions (or get paid for them which is kind of an important thing). It took Melissa 3 hours on the phone before she figured out the problem. We got to pay $150 to get the old number turned back on...gotta love the government. Once we figured it all out and switched all the numbers back, all the insurance companies worked...except one called Humana. Melissa spent no less than 2 hours being bounced back and forth between different phone numbers at Humana and still never got a person who could fix the problem.
This probably doesn't sound all that bad still until you factor in the fact that Melissa hasn't filled a prescription in 4 years and had to learn an entirely new computer prescription processing system all while working in an environment that is stuck in 1989.
While Melissa was dealing with pharmacy payment issues, Travis was struggling with a fax machine that wouldn't work and trying to get us a State Sales Tax number so that we could order flowers for the flower shop. The application would take 3 weeks to get processed if we mailed it (they won't accept a fax) but could be processed instantly if we did it in person. The problem...the guy in Fort collins is on vacation for a week so Travis would have had to drive all the way back to Denver (6+ hours round trip). The supplier rep was in Julesburg to meet with Melissa (who hardly spoke to him because she was on the phone with insurance companies) and he volunteered to turn the application in for us. It ended up taking him 2+hours to deal with all the problems with that application. Poor guy was trying to help us and ended up spending his whole day at a government office.
Oh yeah, and every few minutes someone would come in to meet the new owners which neither of us could really enjoy because we were so distracted by all the problems. Did we mention that Melissa never left the pharmacy between 7:45am and 6:30pm...yuck! Luckily, Jackie did an amazing job with the girls. They had a blast with their Nama!!
All in all, it was one heck of a first day for us. A little margaritas has softened our memory of the day a bit but we figured we should chronicle the truth for posterity sake. We appreciate your prayers that our insurance problems will get resolved tomorrow and that we would be able to enjoy our second day much more than the first. All the folks who came in were so incredibly welcoming and Julesburg is a really wonderful place. Stay tuned for more installments of the saga of Julesburg.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Journey to Julesburg
We arrived in Julesburg, CO on last Saturday evening after an eventful journey. We thought that one week would be long enough to pack and get settled and even have like a little vacation. Boy were we wrong.
Let's start from the beginning (told from Melissa's perspective). We had intended to have the trailer packed up by the end of the day last Thursday so we could clean the house on Friday and head out in the late afternoon. The reality...on Friday morning we were still packing. We had also intended to leave our mini-van to be sold in Duluth. The pharmacy purchase includes a mini-van that is used for deliveries and we really wanted to travel together in one car. By 1pm, we had completely filled both the trailer and the truck and still had our suitcases and other small things to load. We decided to go ahead and pack the mini-van for me to drive. We had to pick up the girls from their last day at daycare by 5pm so at 4:30pm I drove off while Travis loaded up the last few things.
We didn't even leave Duluth until sometime after 6pm. Now, we stayed up late and got up early every day that week so we were pretty exhausted. Now, I (who am a big sleeper and don't do well driving at night) knew that we would need to drive as far as we could while the girls were sleeping so I decided to use her pharmaceutical knowledge for assistance. That's right, I, in all my brilliance thought it would be good to take some caffeine pills. Those of you who know me know that I DO NOT drink caffeine...pretty much ever. Now I actually used to teach a lecture on insomnia and drowsiness. You would think that I would remember how much caffeine is in a regular beverage. I will blame my miscalculation on my extreme exhaustion. I was thinking that one cup of coffee had between 200 and 300mg of caffeine (in reality, it's about half that) Each caffeine tablet has 200mg. A standard dose is two tablets. I took two tablets at like 7pm. Thus, I had the equivalent of about 3 or 4 cups of coffee...in a person who is caffeine naive. Needless to say, I was wired, my heart was racing, and my hands were shaking; but I was totally awake. We drove until about midnight and found a hotel. No matter how hard I tried, I COULD NOT get to sleep. The last time I looked at the clock was 3am. The girls woke us up at 6am. NOT good.
We hit the road at 8am and pulled into Julesburg at 7pm Mountain time (12 hours later). We encountered bad weather, at least a hundred miles of road construction, stops for the dog to pee and the baby to eat, and one nervous breakdown on my part when grooved pavement made sounds that I thought meant something was wrong with the van. Travis was able to navigate traffic in Omaha while feeding the baby and talking to me on the walkie-talkie...amazingly talented!
When we arrived, Travis' folks were here along with the current owner's of the pharmacy and a few other people. I honestly don't remember much due to extreme exhaustion. I do know that the people who we are renting our house from were kind enough to put milk, eggs, and bread in the fridge for us because the grocery store closes at 7pm. They got half the trailer unloaded to get to the beds so we could put the girls and me to sleep. Unbelievablely, I couldn't sleep...laid there for three hours before Travis came to bed and I finally went to sleep.
We've spent the whole week getting settled and we are still not done unpacking. We've got inventory at the store tomorrow which will be all kinds of fun. David and Shannon and the kids are coming up to watch the girls while we are at the store. D-Day is Monday when we will sign on the dotted line to become the official owner's of Abts Pharmacy and Gifts.
Stay tuned for the next installment in the saga.
Let's start from the beginning (told from Melissa's perspective). We had intended to have the trailer packed up by the end of the day last Thursday so we could clean the house on Friday and head out in the late afternoon. The reality...on Friday morning we were still packing. We had also intended to leave our mini-van to be sold in Duluth. The pharmacy purchase includes a mini-van that is used for deliveries and we really wanted to travel together in one car. By 1pm, we had completely filled both the trailer and the truck and still had our suitcases and other small things to load. We decided to go ahead and pack the mini-van for me to drive. We had to pick up the girls from their last day at daycare by 5pm so at 4:30pm I drove off while Travis loaded up the last few things.
We didn't even leave Duluth until sometime after 6pm. Now, we stayed up late and got up early every day that week so we were pretty exhausted. Now, I (who am a big sleeper and don't do well driving at night) knew that we would need to drive as far as we could while the girls were sleeping so I decided to use her pharmaceutical knowledge for assistance. That's right, I, in all my brilliance thought it would be good to take some caffeine pills. Those of you who know me know that I DO NOT drink caffeine...pretty much ever. Now I actually used to teach a lecture on insomnia and drowsiness. You would think that I would remember how much caffeine is in a regular beverage. I will blame my miscalculation on my extreme exhaustion. I was thinking that one cup of coffee had between 200 and 300mg of caffeine (in reality, it's about half that) Each caffeine tablet has 200mg. A standard dose is two tablets. I took two tablets at like 7pm. Thus, I had the equivalent of about 3 or 4 cups of coffee...in a person who is caffeine naive. Needless to say, I was wired, my heart was racing, and my hands were shaking; but I was totally awake. We drove until about midnight and found a hotel. No matter how hard I tried, I COULD NOT get to sleep. The last time I looked at the clock was 3am. The girls woke us up at 6am. NOT good.
We hit the road at 8am and pulled into Julesburg at 7pm Mountain time (12 hours later). We encountered bad weather, at least a hundred miles of road construction, stops for the dog to pee and the baby to eat, and one nervous breakdown on my part when grooved pavement made sounds that I thought meant something was wrong with the van. Travis was able to navigate traffic in Omaha while feeding the baby and talking to me on the walkie-talkie...amazingly talented!
When we arrived, Travis' folks were here along with the current owner's of the pharmacy and a few other people. I honestly don't remember much due to extreme exhaustion. I do know that the people who we are renting our house from were kind enough to put milk, eggs, and bread in the fridge for us because the grocery store closes at 7pm. They got half the trailer unloaded to get to the beds so we could put the girls and me to sleep. Unbelievablely, I couldn't sleep...laid there for three hours before Travis came to bed and I finally went to sleep.
We've spent the whole week getting settled and we are still not done unpacking. We've got inventory at the store tomorrow which will be all kinds of fun. David and Shannon and the kids are coming up to watch the girls while we are at the store. D-Day is Monday when we will sign on the dotted line to become the official owner's of Abts Pharmacy and Gifts.
Stay tuned for the next installment in the saga.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
God and Money
Tonight on the way to church, Sheinah initiated a conversation about money that turned into a conversation about God. The conversation is recapped below as it was remembered to have transpired between Melissa and Sheinah. I am pretty sure that the conversation started because we gave her some spare change to put in the offering at kids church.
Sheinah: Mom, where does money come from?
Daddy and I get money from working.
Sheinah: How?
Well, we get hired by someone to do a certain job and then they pay us money for doing that job. Sheinah: And then you use that money to buy stuff for kids?
Sometimes, but we were thinking that you are getting old enough to earn your money.
Sheinah: What do you mean?
Well, we would give you a job to do and then give you money for doing the job.
Sheinah: I could help you do pharmacy jobs!
Yes, you could help at the pharmacy.
Sheinah: What do we do with our money?
Daddy and I spend it in three ways.
Sheinah: wait I know, we use money to buy stuff.....what are the other things we do mommy?
We use it to buy stuff we need. We save up money for bigger stuff like we want to buy a new car so we are saving up money for that and then we give money to God like how you give offering at church.
Sheinah: We need big stuff like a new house and a new car and a new pet.
What kind of pet do we need.
Sheinah: A pony...so do we throw the money up in the air (to get it to God)?
No, but that would be a good idea. We get the money to God by giving it to church. We also give money to people in other places who don't know about God yet. (Travis steps in), we give money to a little boy in Africa who is poor and his parents don't have a job.
Sheinah: His parents should get a job
Yes, so we give money to help them have a job, and food, and the little boy gets to go to school and learn about Jesus.
Sheinah: My school doesn't teach anyone about Jesus or God.
No, they don't, we go to church to learn about Jesus.
Sheinah: We like to pray for people who are sick or sad or at the hospital or if they got hurt or if they got eaten or if they have a cavity in their teeth.
If they got eaten?
Sheinah: Eaten is when an animal has big teeth and then it bites you
And then we arrived at church. How's that for a lesson about money and God.
Sheinah: Mom, where does money come from?
Daddy and I get money from working.
Sheinah: How?
Well, we get hired by someone to do a certain job and then they pay us money for doing that job. Sheinah: And then you use that money to buy stuff for kids?
Sometimes, but we were thinking that you are getting old enough to earn your money.
Sheinah: What do you mean?
Well, we would give you a job to do and then give you money for doing the job.
Sheinah: I could help you do pharmacy jobs!
Yes, you could help at the pharmacy.
Sheinah: What do we do with our money?
Daddy and I spend it in three ways.
Sheinah: wait I know, we use money to buy stuff.....what are the other things we do mommy?
We use it to buy stuff we need. We save up money for bigger stuff like we want to buy a new car so we are saving up money for that and then we give money to God like how you give offering at church.
Sheinah: We need big stuff like a new house and a new car and a new pet.
What kind of pet do we need.
Sheinah: A pony...so do we throw the money up in the air (to get it to God)?
No, but that would be a good idea. We get the money to God by giving it to church. We also give money to people in other places who don't know about God yet. (Travis steps in), we give money to a little boy in Africa who is poor and his parents don't have a job.
Sheinah: His parents should get a job
Yes, so we give money to help them have a job, and food, and the little boy gets to go to school and learn about Jesus.
Sheinah: My school doesn't teach anyone about Jesus or God.
No, they don't, we go to church to learn about Jesus.
Sheinah: We like to pray for people who are sick or sad or at the hospital or if they got hurt or if they got eaten or if they have a cavity in their teeth.
If they got eaten?
Sheinah: Eaten is when an animal has big teeth and then it bites you
And then we arrived at church. How's that for a lesson about money and God.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Abts Pharmacy and Gifts
It has been 2 months since our last post but we have a good excuse! As most of you know, we are moving back to Colorado. That in and of itself is likely a good reason to be too busy to post to our blog. However, the real reason we haven't posted anything is that we are purchasing an existing pharmacy in Julesburg, CO which is turning out to be more work than anything we've ever imagined.
When we tell people we are buying a pharmacy we usually get a jaw-dropping exclamation of some sort followed by a request for the story that led us to this new adventure. Thus, we've decided to post the saga here on the blog (which gets automatically uploaded to facebook) to save us from repeating ourselves hundreds of times. We've already told the story about a dozen times so this version here should be pretty accurate. It will, however, be very long.
Told from Melissa's perspective:
When we decided a year ago to move back to Colorado to be closer to family (and because we were sick of the MN cold weather), the assumption was always that I would find a teaching position at my alma mater: the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy. When I learned that Regis was opening a School of Pharmacy as well, I was excited to have the potential for more options. As the time to actually look for a job neared, we both realized that we just were not looking forward to living in Denver. We have grown accustomed to life in a smaller town. We were most definitely NOT eagerly anticipating sitting in traffic, having a long commute, living close to neighbors...the list goes on...but I really didn't want to go back to working for a big chain pharmacy and there aren't that many clinical pharmacist jobs outside of the hospital setting to choose from.
Now Travis is notorious for his ability to function normally (well, normal for Travis anyway), on relatively little sleep. He often puts me to bed and then gets up after I fall asleep and surfs the net. One night back in February he was doing just that when he got the idea to look for pharmacies for sale in Colorado. Those of you who know Travis should not be surprised by this idea as he is always thinking outside the box and coming up with all manner of crazy schemes. He discovered four pharmacies for sale in Colorado: one in a mountain town (too expensive to live there), one in a dying mining town (no explanation needed), one in southern Colorado (too far away and he is not a big fan of southern Colorado), and one out in the plains. Without talking to me about it, he filled out a brief form and signed a non-disclosure agreement to get more information on the pharmacy.
Fast-forward a day or two: I am very, very sick...sick enough to miss an entire week of work...when Travis decides to share his brilliant idea with me. He waits until I finish vomiting (so nice of him) and then says something along the lines of "What do you think about buying a pharmacy?" For all you pharmacy folks out there, you will understand why my immediate response was an emphatic NO. In fact, every time he opened his mouth to say anything, I just said NO. He graciously left me alone...for a few hours...before he tried again...and again...and again to talk to me about this idea. I think I finally gave in and agreed to at least see the information solely to get him to stop bugging me.
Fast-forward one week: I am convinced by Travis' irrepressible enthusiasm and optimism that we can actually own a pharmacy. I forget everything I've ever heard about independent pharmacy ownership: long hours, no vacations, you live and breath at the store. Instead, I embrace the dream of raising our girls in a small town, being able to leave doors unlocked, and "changing our family tree" (in the words of Dave Ramsey) through the financial benefits of owning this fiscally stable business. I imagine being able to take care of my patients in whatever way I think is best. I start talking to my trusted confidants. Everyone I tell thinks that this would be a perfect fit for both me and my family. No one tells me I am crazy. Maybe this could actually work.
Fast-forward one month (March 2009): We run into all kinds of trouble trying to find financing in the current economy. It doesn't help that our new president has changed the banking rules with regards to how much banks can loan on what they call "blue sky" under a small business loan. Basically, when you buy a pharmacy you are buying very little real property. Instead, you are trusting that the customers will continue to come there...hence the "blue sky." The new banking rules would make it such that we had to come up with a significant chunk of change on our own. We head out to Colorado so I can interview at Regis because we aren't sure if this whole pharmacy thing is going to work. We go to Julesburg to check out the pharmacy and meet the owners. We fall in love with the town, the store, everything. Yep, we definitely want to do this, but we are having a heck of a time finding a way to buy the place.
Enter my amazing boss, Randy Seifert. He knows someone in everyone area of pharmacy, including the folks who help pharmacists buy pharmacies. He connects me with a consulting company that eventually gets us a loan (but that whole process takes two months). The consultant has us fill out forms (the first of many) and says he'll get back to us in a day or two to let us know if we are pre-approved. He calls us in an hour saying we would be crazy NOT to buy the place and he we are approved! Yes, it is THAT good of a store (I think that is bad English but you get the point).
Fast forward two months (May 2009): We have a trip to Mexico planned for over a year that gets cancelled thanks to H1N1 flu. No worries, we just book ourselves some tickets to Colorado for a 12 day trip. We hang out in Breckenridge for awhile waiting for one tiny piece of paper that will allow us to go to Julesburg and meet everyone at the store. The paper finally comes and we are off. Murl, the owner, finally tells his staff that he is selling the pharmacy (it had been a secret the whole time). We arrive with the girls knowing that our kids will pave the way! Sure enough, they are a hit and we are instant celebrities! By the end of day one, we've looked at a bunch of houses, met the county commissioner, and got the girls registered at school. By day two, the local paper has contacted Murl for a story and we found a place to rent. There is a whole nother story about the rental house, but we'll save that for another post. We are actually going to do this!!
Fast forward to today: So there is a RIDICULOUS amount of paperwork involved with purchasing a pharmacy. We basically spend every night filling out forms and then play phone tag with various folks during the day. We have barely started packing and we are set to leave on June 19th...just 10 days! We are so excited to start this new adventure and a bit nervous about small town life as business owners. We appreciate your prayers during this busy time or just happy thoughts if you're not the praying type. We will most definitely miss our Vineyard family, the College of Pharmacy and the beauty of Lake Superior. We will most definitely NOT miss sub-zero temperatures and forty degree weather on June 8th!
I almost forgot to give the scoop on the town! It is the county seat so it actually has quite a bit of stuff: county courthouse, library, elementary/jr.high/high school, nursing home, assisted living facility, and critical access hospital with a helipad. There are somewhere between 1247 and 1500 people in the town depending on which website you look at. The website for the town is: http://www.townofjulesburg.com/.
Thanks for reading this first installation of the Abts Pharmacy saga.
When we tell people we are buying a pharmacy we usually get a jaw-dropping exclamation of some sort followed by a request for the story that led us to this new adventure. Thus, we've decided to post the saga here on the blog (which gets automatically uploaded to facebook) to save us from repeating ourselves hundreds of times. We've already told the story about a dozen times so this version here should be pretty accurate. It will, however, be very long.
Told from Melissa's perspective:
When we decided a year ago to move back to Colorado to be closer to family (and because we were sick of the MN cold weather), the assumption was always that I would find a teaching position at my alma mater: the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy. When I learned that Regis was opening a School of Pharmacy as well, I was excited to have the potential for more options. As the time to actually look for a job neared, we both realized that we just were not looking forward to living in Denver. We have grown accustomed to life in a smaller town. We were most definitely NOT eagerly anticipating sitting in traffic, having a long commute, living close to neighbors...the list goes on...but I really didn't want to go back to working for a big chain pharmacy and there aren't that many clinical pharmacist jobs outside of the hospital setting to choose from.
Now Travis is notorious for his ability to function normally (well, normal for Travis anyway), on relatively little sleep. He often puts me to bed and then gets up after I fall asleep and surfs the net. One night back in February he was doing just that when he got the idea to look for pharmacies for sale in Colorado. Those of you who know Travis should not be surprised by this idea as he is always thinking outside the box and coming up with all manner of crazy schemes. He discovered four pharmacies for sale in Colorado: one in a mountain town (too expensive to live there), one in a dying mining town (no explanation needed), one in southern Colorado (too far away and he is not a big fan of southern Colorado), and one out in the plains. Without talking to me about it, he filled out a brief form and signed a non-disclosure agreement to get more information on the pharmacy.
Fast-forward a day or two: I am very, very sick...sick enough to miss an entire week of work...when Travis decides to share his brilliant idea with me. He waits until I finish vomiting (so nice of him) and then says something along the lines of "What do you think about buying a pharmacy?" For all you pharmacy folks out there, you will understand why my immediate response was an emphatic NO. In fact, every time he opened his mouth to say anything, I just said NO. He graciously left me alone...for a few hours...before he tried again...and again...and again to talk to me about this idea. I think I finally gave in and agreed to at least see the information solely to get him to stop bugging me.
Fast-forward one week: I am convinced by Travis' irrepressible enthusiasm and optimism that we can actually own a pharmacy. I forget everything I've ever heard about independent pharmacy ownership: long hours, no vacations, you live and breath at the store. Instead, I embrace the dream of raising our girls in a small town, being able to leave doors unlocked, and "changing our family tree" (in the words of Dave Ramsey) through the financial benefits of owning this fiscally stable business. I imagine being able to take care of my patients in whatever way I think is best. I start talking to my trusted confidants. Everyone I tell thinks that this would be a perfect fit for both me and my family. No one tells me I am crazy. Maybe this could actually work.
Fast-forward one month (March 2009): We run into all kinds of trouble trying to find financing in the current economy. It doesn't help that our new president has changed the banking rules with regards to how much banks can loan on what they call "blue sky" under a small business loan. Basically, when you buy a pharmacy you are buying very little real property. Instead, you are trusting that the customers will continue to come there...hence the "blue sky." The new banking rules would make it such that we had to come up with a significant chunk of change on our own. We head out to Colorado so I can interview at Regis because we aren't sure if this whole pharmacy thing is going to work. We go to Julesburg to check out the pharmacy and meet the owners. We fall in love with the town, the store, everything. Yep, we definitely want to do this, but we are having a heck of a time finding a way to buy the place.
Enter my amazing boss, Randy Seifert. He knows someone in everyone area of pharmacy, including the folks who help pharmacists buy pharmacies. He connects me with a consulting company that eventually gets us a loan (but that whole process takes two months). The consultant has us fill out forms (the first of many) and says he'll get back to us in a day or two to let us know if we are pre-approved. He calls us in an hour saying we would be crazy NOT to buy the place and he we are approved! Yes, it is THAT good of a store (I think that is bad English but you get the point).
Fast forward two months (May 2009): We have a trip to Mexico planned for over a year that gets cancelled thanks to H1N1 flu. No worries, we just book ourselves some tickets to Colorado for a 12 day trip. We hang out in Breckenridge for awhile waiting for one tiny piece of paper that will allow us to go to Julesburg and meet everyone at the store. The paper finally comes and we are off. Murl, the owner, finally tells his staff that he is selling the pharmacy (it had been a secret the whole time). We arrive with the girls knowing that our kids will pave the way! Sure enough, they are a hit and we are instant celebrities! By the end of day one, we've looked at a bunch of houses, met the county commissioner, and got the girls registered at school. By day two, the local paper has contacted Murl for a story and we found a place to rent. There is a whole nother story about the rental house, but we'll save that for another post. We are actually going to do this!!
Fast forward to today: So there is a RIDICULOUS amount of paperwork involved with purchasing a pharmacy. We basically spend every night filling out forms and then play phone tag with various folks during the day. We have barely started packing and we are set to leave on June 19th...just 10 days! We are so excited to start this new adventure and a bit nervous about small town life as business owners. We appreciate your prayers during this busy time or just happy thoughts if you're not the praying type. We will most definitely miss our Vineyard family, the College of Pharmacy and the beauty of Lake Superior. We will most definitely NOT miss sub-zero temperatures and forty degree weather on June 8th!
I almost forgot to give the scoop on the town! It is the county seat so it actually has quite a bit of stuff: county courthouse, library, elementary/jr.high/high school, nursing home, assisted living facility, and critical access hospital with a helipad. There are somewhere between 1247 and 1500 people in the town depending on which website you look at. The website for the town is: http://www.townofjulesburg.com/.
Thanks for reading this first installation of the Abts Pharmacy saga.
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