What is
White Bagging?

What is White Bagging?

White bagging refers to the distribution of specialty medication from a specialty pharmacy or PBM, directly to the physician’s office, hospital, or clinic for administration to a specific patient.

White bagging is often used in oncology practices and other providers that care for chronic, high-cost patients, to obtain costly injectable or infusible medications that aren’t available in traditional pharmacies and must be administered by a health care provider.

What is a white bagging pharmacy?

A white bagging pharmacy is typically a specialty pharmacy outside of a health system and is seen by providers as more inflexible than the traditional system that distributes medication directly to a physician’s office, hospital, or clinic for administration.

What is brown bagging?

Brown bagging is a common term for the practice of patients picking up drugs through their pharmacy benefit. Brown-bagging requires the patient to purchase the specialty medication, and then take it to their provider for administration.

What is clear bagging?

Clear bagging is when a health care provider’s own specialty pharmacy delivers medication to the clinic, hospital suite or provider office for administration to a patient.

What is white bagging vs. brown bagging?

The biggest difference between white bagging vs. brown bagging is how the medication arrives at the physician’s office, hospital, or clinic. White bagging refers to medication sent from a specialty pharmacy directly to healthcare provider, whereas brown bagging refers to medication a patient has picked up and transported to the healthcare provider.

What is clear bagging vs. white bagging?

The difference between clear bagging vs. white bagging is whether a healthcare system has a specialty pharmacy. Clear bagged medications come directly from a healthcare system’s own specialty pharmacy. White bagged medications are dispensed and sent to a healthcare provider.

What is buy and bill?

Buy and bill means a process where a healthcare provider purchases, stores, and administers medication to a patient. After the patient receives the drug, the provider submits a claim for reimbursement to a third-party payer or specialty pharmacy. The provider is reimbursed for the drug, and receives an additional payment for administering the drugs, typically a percentage of the average sales price.

What is white bagging vs. buy and bill?

The difference between white bagging vs. buy and bill is that white bagged medication is distributed to the physician’s office, hospital, or clinic for administration typically from specialty pharmacy for a specific patient. With buy and bill the medication is already stored at the healthcare facility and the provider submits a claim for reimbursement after the patient receives the drug.