Prime Therapeutics experts share their brilliance at annual specialty pharmacy event

This week at AXS23, the brightest minds in specialty pharmacy took the stage to share their insights into industry trends, best practices and innovations.

Show Highlights

Prime + Magellan Rx Reimagine Specialty Pharmacy Delivery

Prime’s Nathan Downhour, Senior Vice President of Health Care Services, kicked off the biggest day of programming as a key contributor on a leadership panel moderated by Forbes’ Bruce Japsen. Downhour shared that the evolving role of pharmacists – from consulting and dispensing to administering and prescribing –  is a positive to come out of the pandemic. Nathan illuminated the thousand-person audience with a fresh take on specialty pharmacy delivery. He shared Prime + Magellan Rx’s next-generation approach and its cornerstone of aligning stakeholder groups for success to ultimately deliver whole person care. Downhour added that in the current ecosystem, there’s access to an unprecedented level of data that Prime will leverage to improve patient outcomes. Finally, Nathan spoke of a consumer’s need for transparency, given that drug pricing information is flooding the marketplace. Therefore, Prime’s aim is to deliver a patient experience that removes confusion and other barriers and provides a high level of confidence to clients and members focused on getting to the lowest available drug cost.

Improving Access To Underserved Populations Through Data Sharing

Magellan Rx’s Meredith Delk, Senior Vice President and General Manager, State Government Solutions, shone brightly as she shared her rich experience and passion for better meeting the needs of those served by Medicaid. Meredith served as a panelist for a lively discussion on challenges to sharing data among industry players and collaborative solutions to break through barriers with the ultimate goal of greater access for patients. Though Delk has extensive experience with underserved populations and oversees more than 40 state government contracts, she noted that the industry is still challenged by “cracking the code” to patient access, especially for those living in poverty and dealing with other health conditions including mental illness. Delk advocates for bringing together payers, providers, manufacturers and others to innovate using data-driven, whole person solutions that wrap around a patient. Rich data sets can illuminate the gaps in access to traditional and new, curative therapies and identify social determinants of health preventing a person living in poverty from receiving care. Working together, stakeholders can decrease cost in the overall health care delivery system and improve people’s lives. Delk said, “We need to come together to think differently and appreciate each other’s brilliance.”

Patient-centered accreditation for medically integrated dispensing pharmacies

Prime’s Senior Vice President and Chief Medical officer, Joseph Leach, MD, joined NCODA to present the merits of a patient-centered accreditation program tailored to meet the needs of medically integrated dispensing pharmacies. NCODA’s accreditation standards focus on improved patient experience, better outcomes, improved clinician experience and optimized drug utilization. Dr. Leach has worked with NCODA to inform its standards, as the specialized accreditation readies dispensing pharmacies to adopt Prime’s IntegratedRx® – Oncology program.

More bright minds illuminate managed care approaches for high-cost therapies

More of Prime and Magellan Rx experts inspired the 6,000 specialty pharmacy professionals in attendance, including:

• Magellan Rx’s Michelle Booth, Senior Director, Specialty Clinical Solutions, and Laura Walters, Director, Specialty Clinical Solutions presented on medical pharmacy spend and trend by lines of business and reviewed potentially impactful pipeline therapies, including the oncology category and emerging gene therapies. Booth noted that each year Magellan Rx publishes its Medical Pharmacy Trend Report to keep the industry updated on the latest trends for medical benefit drugs.
• Yuqian Liu, Senior Director, Specialty Clinical Solutions for Magellan Rx, presented a continuing education session titled, “The Promising Role of Novel Targeted Therapies in Addressing Clinical and Economic Burdens in Diabetic Macular Edema (DME).” Yuqian examined the efficacy and safety of recently approved therapies for DME and identified the roles of the specialty pharmacist and managed care pharmacist in managing DME through patient education and tailored therapy to meet individual patient needs.

Follow Prime’s experts as they share industry insights and reimagine the pharmacy delivery experience.