How a Leading U.S. Pharmacy Chain Streamlined Fraud Detection and Mitigated Risk with Agilence

About

This national pharmacy and healthcare retailer is a healthcare and retail pharmacy company headquartered in the Northeastern United States, with over 9,900 retail locations, 1,100+ walk-in health clinics, and a nationwide network of prescription drug services.

The Challenge

As one of the largest pharmacy chains in the United States, the pharmacy company’s Asset Protection team has consistently used technology to safeguard assets and ensure operational efficiency across their thousands of locations. In the past, the company relied on legacy EBR and POS reporting systems to monitor and address Asset Protection, particularly focusing on internal theft and fraudulent activities. While these legacy tools served them well in particular areas, they began to reveal limitations as both the business and fraud tactics evolved.

The rigidity of the older systems became a growing concern as they were unable to keep pace with the evolving tactics of internal theft and complex fraudulent schemes. The large pharmacy chain needed more flexibility to adapt quickly, identify emerging patterns, and effectively mitigate risks. To overcome this, they turned to Agilence, a platform designed to meet these evolving needs and strengthen their ability to combat fraud.

The Solution

To address the limitations of their legacy EBR systems and enhance their Asset Protection strategy, the pharmacy retailer implemented Agilence, a more flexible and robust platform designed to adapt to evolving fraud tactics. Agilence provided the insights and reporting capabilities that the team needed to identify patterns of fraudulent behavior and internal theft without the delays caused by relying on software engineers for system modifications.

Agilence’s ability to create customizable dashboards and alerts gave both store managers and the Asset Protection team greater visibility into (POS) transactions. This allowed them to monitor key areas such as voids, price modifications, and fraudulent transactions with greater precision, responding faster to suspicious activities. The platform’s flexibility enabled the company to refine its reporting structure and adapt to the complexity of employee behavior swiftly. According to one Asset Protection leader, “with Agilence, if we know there was an exposure yesterday, we then can analyze the exposure today and understand what happened and how to react. That we didn’t have before.”

Ultimately, the Asset Protection team has identified 60+ areas of fraud and built specialized dashboards around these instances within Agilence. Each week, Field Analysts examine 6 of these dashboards for cases of fraud. This ensures that every known abuse method gets examined at least once per month. Additionally, alerts have been set up for extreme cases in each fraud method to ensure prompt intervention. This proactive approach allows the company to consistently address fraud swiftly and effectively while ensuring all areas are explored.

The Results

Since implementing Agilence, this pharmacy retailer has significantly enhanced its ability to detect and respond to fraudulent activities across its thousands of locations. The platform’s flexibility has allowed the Asset Protection team to stay ahead of evolving fraud tactics. By leveraging Agilence’s advanced reporting capabilities, the team can now monitor and analyze suspicious transactions with greater accuracy, ensuring that potential risks are identified and addressed promptly.

The improved detection capabilities have enabled the organization to maintain tighter control over internal theft and fraudulent activities without the delays that previously hindered their efforts. According to the same team leader, “[We are] addressing more and more problems. And that, in turn, is saving us more and more money.” Agilence has empowered this major pharmacy chain to be more proactive, giving the company the tools to continuously adapt and refine their approach to Asset Protection, ultimately leading to a more secure and efficient operation across all locations.