Latest / Pharmacy Podcast Network / Asembia’s Specialty Pharmacy Summit 2026 Rewind | Part 1/6

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Asembia’s Specialty Pharmacy Summit 2026 Rewind | Part 1/6 · Pharmacy Podcast Network

0:08
Speaker 1: The Pharmacy Podcast Network would like to thank our sponsor
0:11
Speaker 1: for supporting us at the twenty twenty six ASSEMBIA Summit.
0:14
Speaker 1: Clearway Health is transforming specialty pharmacy for hospitals, health systems,
0:18
Speaker 1: and the patients they serve. Clearway Health is more than
0:21
Speaker 1: a specialty pharmacy partner. They're an extension of the care team,
0:24
Speaker 1: working directly with hospitals and healthcare systems across the country.
0:28
Speaker 1: Clearway helps plan, design, build and optimize specialty pharmacy programs
0:34
Speaker 1: that improve access, reduce barriers, and deliver better outcomes for
0:38
Speaker 1: patients with complex medical conditions. Through their embedded care model,
0:42
Speaker 1: Clearway Health places pharmacists and patient liaisons directly into clinical workflows,
0:48
Speaker 1: supporting providers with prior authorizations, financial assistance, coordination, and patient
0:53
Speaker 1: education so care teams can focus on what matters most
0:56
Speaker 1: the patient. Powered by advancing technology in real time data insights,
1:00
Speaker 1: Clearway Health streamlines the entire medication journey from prescription to adherents,
1:05
Speaker 1: ensuring patients receive the right medications at the right time.
1:09
Speaker 1: Born out of Boston Medical Center Health System, Clearway Health
1:12
Speaker 1: brings real world experience and proven results, helping health systems
1:17
Speaker 1: unlock new revenue streams while expanding access to life changing
1:20
Speaker 1: specialty medications. Clearway Health is leading the way and refining
1:24
Speaker 1: specialty pharmacy where clinical excellence meets operational innovation. Learn more
1:29
Speaker 1: at clearwayhealth dot com.
1:44
Speaker 2: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
1:47
Speaker 2: to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
2:04
Speaker 1: Each year, Assembia's Specialty Pharmacy Summit is at the epicenter
2:07
Speaker 1: of the pharmacy industry, providing a unique opportunity for stakeholders
2:12
Speaker 1: throughout the industry to understand challenges, generate solutions, and define
2:16
Speaker 1: the future. This is the pharmacy podcast networks ASSEMBIA twenty
2:21
Speaker 1: twenty six rewind. We're dedicated to bringing you inside coverage
2:27
Speaker 1: of the pharmacy Nation's biggest events with on the street
2:30
Speaker 1: style interviews with keynote speakers, attendees, exhibitors, and recurring guests
2:36
Speaker 1: who make each year special. Stay tuned each week for
2:39
Speaker 1: a new episode of this special six part series on
2:42
Speaker 1: the ASSEMBIA twenty twenty sixth Summit, held this year in
2:45
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. We'd like to start this episode by thanking
2:48
Speaker 1: our sponsor, clear Way Health.
2:54
Speaker 3: Allison been waiting for this interview.
2:57
Speaker 4: For so long, since we had you on Twitter, I
3:00
Speaker 4: wanted you face to face. It's so much better to
3:02
Speaker 4: be in front of someone. Welcome to the Assembia Post Show.
3:06
Speaker 5: Thank you so thrilled to be here.
3:07
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me, Thanks for sponsoring our press coverage.
3:11
Speaker 4: This is so important to get us here and to
3:13
Speaker 4: be able to mingle with the super Bowl of specialty
3:17
Speaker 4: pharmacy leaders and the innovation. Clearway Health is a huge
3:22
Speaker 4: part of this. I was so excited that when we
3:24
Speaker 4: did your twerks, we did an announcement of a press
3:27
Speaker 4: release that came out within that same week, which was
3:30
Speaker 4: just amazing. And your relationship with another health system, if
3:34
Speaker 4: you've helped bring specialty pharmacy closer to their community. I
3:39
Speaker 4: want us to dig a little deeper today. Before when
3:42
Speaker 4: we were on twerks, we kind of just touched on it.
3:44
Speaker 4: Let's break into how to impact a health system. A
3:48
Speaker 4: hospital out there some part of the United States they
3:52
Speaker 4: want to get into specialty.
3:54
Speaker 3: They're overwhelmed.
3:55
Speaker 4: Their whole team is like, holy Kyle, this is going
3:57
Speaker 4: to be so expensive to do this by ourselves. Now,
4:00
Speaker 4: clear Way Health steps in and says time out. We
4:03
Speaker 4: know the standards, We know the accreditation, we know the tracks.
4:06
Speaker 4: Talk to our listeners about that whole ecosystem of how
4:09
Speaker 4: you bring that, how you bring that to life.
4:12
Speaker 6: It's a lot to navigate. I think it's because the
4:14
Speaker 6: ecosystem is so broad. There are so many different components
4:17
Speaker 6: that are demanded to create a successful specialty pharmacy program.
4:22
Speaker 6: And if you're a hospital, and no matter how big or
4:24
Speaker 6: small you are, you can be a small community hospital,
4:28
Speaker 6: a specialty hospital, you can be in a major urban
4:31
Speaker 6: core setting, and still you have to have the same
4:34
Speaker 6: level of expertise to create a strong program. And so
4:37
Speaker 6: when you think about what's required, oftentimes people start with
4:40
Speaker 6: the data, which is hard enough on its own to
4:42
Speaker 6: harness the data to understand the total opportunity. But then
4:45
Speaker 6: you take it and say, okay, now we know what
4:47
Speaker 6: our opportunity is, but how do we capture it? Then
4:50
Speaker 6: you think about how do we build a pharmacy, optimize it,
4:53
Speaker 6: accredit it, how do we navigate limited distribution drugs, manufacture restrictions,
4:58
Speaker 6: regulatory and compliance issues. So suddenly you have this need
5:02
Speaker 6: for a small army of people who are very specialized
5:06
Speaker 6: in many different areas. And oftentimes I think hospitals think
5:09
Speaker 6: that it becomes either impossible or cost prohibitive. But when
5:13
Speaker 6: you think about scale, how do you create compounding growth?
5:18
Speaker 6: How do you start now to not lose time? And
5:20
Speaker 6: then how do you pull in all of those experts
5:22
Speaker 6: so you're not left posting two dozen job requisitions and
5:27
Speaker 6: trying to hire for experts when you can really just
5:29
Speaker 6: rely on a pool of experts who can help you
5:31
Speaker 6: scale a little bit differently.
5:33
Speaker 4: So, how has clear Way Health identified the geographics of
5:38
Speaker 4: where is specialty missing inside a health system?
5:42
Speaker 3: How do you guys determine that?
5:44
Speaker 6: Yeah, so you know, hospitals have long had pharmacy only
5:49
Speaker 6: as an inpatient setting, and so that is where most
5:53
Speaker 6: people tend to focus. And so what we've started to
5:55
Speaker 6: look at is there are still more than fifty percent
5:58
Speaker 6: of hospitals across the US do you not have an
6:00
Speaker 6: outpatient pharmacy? So they've relied on this long standing and
6:03
Speaker 6: patient service line. And so where we start is to say,
6:08
Speaker 6: do you have an outpatient pharmacy and if so, are
6:10
Speaker 6: you providing specialty pharmacy services? And so that's kind of
6:13
Speaker 6: the first step, and then the next step is kind
6:16
Speaker 6: of this decision tree. Yes, you have one, and no
6:19
Speaker 6: you're not providing specialty services, or no, you don't have
6:21
Speaker 6: a pharmacy, and we have to help you figure out
6:23
Speaker 6: how to do it. The good news is there is
6:25
Speaker 6: a pathway for all of those. There is no right
6:27
Speaker 6: or wrong answer. I would say the only wrong answer
6:30
Speaker 6: is choosing not to do it right because there's just
6:32
Speaker 6: incredible opportunity for people to choose to provide these services
6:36
Speaker 6: to their community. But when we start down this path,
6:39
Speaker 6: those are some of the criteria that we look at,
6:41
Speaker 6: and then it helps to create the timeline. Oftentimes, there
6:45
Speaker 6: are strategies that we can implement in between not having
6:48
Speaker 6: a pharmacy and the opening of an outpatient or special
6:51
Speaker 6: T pharmacy, and that allows us to do things like
6:54
Speaker 6: perhaps alternate delivery models, relying or optimizing on contract pharmacy relationships,
7:00
Speaker 6: helping to grow patient awareness provider awareness, so that when
7:04
Speaker 6: the doors of that pharmacy open, it becomes a fast
7:08
Speaker 6: track to growing a program because you already have educated patients,
7:12
Speaker 6: providers and care teams who are expecting to provide a service.
7:14
Speaker 5: So a lot of.
7:16
Speaker 6: Different criteria that flow into it. But that's where we start.
7:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm thinking if I'm a CEO of a hospital,
7:23
Speaker 4: and we know that we need this, We know that
7:26
Speaker 4: our community needs this. To rely on someone that's done
7:30
Speaker 4: it a hundred times with other health systems that bring
7:33
Speaker 4: a level of comfort, and then I would want it
7:36
Speaker 4: to be specific to.
7:38
Speaker 3: My hospital system. So what Sharon like.
7:42
Speaker 4: You don't have to give a certain name unless you
7:44
Speaker 4: want to, But what's been a success story out there
7:46
Speaker 4: that you've been really proud of.
7:49
Speaker 6: I could spend dates, I could spend days, and it's
7:52
Speaker 6: the best part of what we do getting to talk
7:54
Speaker 6: about the success stories of hospitals. But you know, you
7:57
Speaker 6: brought a good point, and I'll tell you a couple
7:59
Speaker 6: of stories. That we have to have this standardized approach
8:02
Speaker 6: because we know what works in specialty pharmacy. We are
8:06
Speaker 6: the specialty pharmacy experts, and we know how to scale
8:09
Speaker 6: successful programs for hospitals and health systems, and we know
8:12
Speaker 6: how to localize it based on the needs of that
8:15
Speaker 6: system or that community. There will always be factors that
8:19
Speaker 6: require different attention to make sure that it's a successful
8:22
Speaker 6: program for our partner, and when we do that, it
8:25
Speaker 6: drives the successes that we see. So we can take
8:29
Speaker 6: a couple of different pathways. We have had several different
8:32
Speaker 6: hospitals who have had retail pharmacy chains. If you think
8:36
Speaker 6: back over five or ten years, when hospitals were looking
8:40
Speaker 6: to brand into the retail pharmacy space, didn't quite know
8:44
Speaker 6: how to do it, and they looked to maybe some
8:46
Speaker 6: of the big box or retail chains to help them out. Well,
8:49
Speaker 6: ten years later, they've learned a lot and they have
8:51
Speaker 6: the ability to provide that service on their own, which
8:53
Speaker 6: provides care and a comfortable care setting and revenue margin
8:57
Speaker 6: generation that they should keep branding.
9:00
Speaker 3: Branding to the community part of it.
9:02
Speaker 6: Absolutely, you create more touch points and access points to care,
9:05
Speaker 6: and it accelerates the brand recognition and their ability to
9:08
Speaker 6: capture more of their market share.
9:10
Speaker 5: And so some of the success.
9:12
Speaker 6: Stories are where we've had these exact conversations with clients
9:16
Speaker 6: and hospitals and they've said, hey, we are very glad
9:19
Speaker 6: to have been able to provide pharmacy services in our
9:22
Speaker 6: retail setting, but we want our name on it. So
9:24
Speaker 6: how do we do that? And so, you know, you
9:26
Speaker 6: look at different organizations. I'll talk about two that are
9:30
Speaker 6: in the children's hospital space. We have Children's National Hospital
9:34
Speaker 6: in Washington, d c who serves the nation's children.
9:36
Speaker 5: We have LORI Children's Hospital in Chicago.
9:39
Speaker 6: Illinois, who are now looking to expand with their second
9:42
Speaker 6: hospital location serving the Chicago Land area. And you look
9:45
Speaker 6: at those successes and they are creating new access points
9:48
Speaker 6: for patients and families they have never had before in
9:51
Speaker 6: their markets. And so it's branding, Like you said, it's access,
9:56
Speaker 6: but it's also the ability to provide a service that
9:58
Speaker 6: they are the best equipped to provide to their patients.
10:02
Speaker 6: Why would they look to anyone else to provide pharmacy
10:05
Speaker 6: services to their patients and those families when they can
10:08
Speaker 6: do it on their own.
10:09
Speaker 4: When I think of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I think of agah
10:13
Speaker 4: Alighany Health General or Alleghany Health Network AHN, and then
10:19
Speaker 4: upmc I. If I knew that I had a rare disease,
10:25
Speaker 4: that I could trust one of those two organizations to
10:28
Speaker 4: service my health, there's a level of comfort for me
10:31
Speaker 4: than just going to someone that I wasn't recognizing or
10:35
Speaker 4: something that's outside.
10:36
Speaker 3: Of my community.
10:37
Speaker 4: Being community there, we tend we're so busy today, we
10:42
Speaker 4: have so much data, we have so many things going on.
10:45
Speaker 4: We've gotten I think that we've gotten away from community.
10:50
Speaker 4: Clearway Health embedding the best of the best practices brings
10:54
Speaker 4: community back to healthcare. And I really like that about Clearway.
10:58
Speaker 4: I've kind of stalked you guys since we started working
11:00
Speaker 4: with you, and I've now found other things about what
11:04
Speaker 4: you've done for empowering health systems and that ripples throughout
11:09
Speaker 4: the entire community to develop more trust, to demystifying something
11:13
Speaker 4: that's pretty scary for a family when they hear, hey,
11:16
Speaker 4: mom has cancer and now what do we do? Oh,
11:20
Speaker 4: don't worry upmc right in Pittsburgh has it covered and
11:24
Speaker 4: they have no idea that Clearway might be behind the scenes,
11:28
Speaker 4: but it is like that's an important part of health.
11:31
Speaker 6: It is, and I appreciate you saying that and the
11:34
Speaker 6: kind words about Clearway. And one of the things that
11:37
Speaker 6: I think is the most unique and precious about the
11:40
Speaker 6: work that we do is that we are the invisible
11:43
Speaker 6: extension of a care team in a community.
11:46
Speaker 5: And so if you think.
11:48
Speaker 6: About the work that Clearway Health does when we partner
11:50
Speaker 6: with a hospital or health system, we have two groups
11:53
Speaker 6: of people that we deploy to do this really hard
11:56
Speaker 6: and complex work. We have the on site team who
12:00
Speaker 6: we hire that are pharmacists, leaders, clinical pharmacists, pharmacy, patient liaisons.
12:06
Speaker 6: They are sitting inside of the outpatient specialty clinics, sitting
12:10
Speaker 6: right beside the provider, the nurse, the MA and the
12:13
Speaker 6: care team, and they look and feel just like the
12:17
Speaker 6: hospital team members that are employed by that health system.
12:19
Speaker 6: So they will often wear the same color scrubs. They
12:22
Speaker 6: are badged to look like those other employees and team members,
12:26
Speaker 6: and that's a critical part of our success.
12:28
Speaker 5: But it also means that.
12:29
Speaker 6: Is the highest level of trust that a hospital places
12:32
Speaker 6: with Clearway Health to provide the service that is truly
12:36
Speaker 6: an extension of their care team to serve their patients.
12:39
Speaker 6: You then have the second group of people that we deploy,
12:41
Speaker 6: who are the experts corporately who do all of that
12:44
Speaker 6: work that we talked about a little bit ago, where
12:45
Speaker 6: you have dozens of people that are required with different
12:48
Speaker 6: skill sets, and it is impossible often for a hospital
12:52
Speaker 6: to hire dozens of people with different skill sets to
12:56
Speaker 6: meet the scale and the speed and the expertise that's
12:58
Speaker 6: needed for a quality program. And so it is truly
13:02
Speaker 6: an honor when hospitals and health systems choose Clearly Health
13:05
Speaker 6: to be their specialty pharmacy partner because we become an
13:08
Speaker 6: extension of their team into their community to care for
13:12
Speaker 6: their patients. And there is no greater honor to do
13:14
Speaker 6: the work that we do.
13:15
Speaker 4: I see it in your eyes. That's why I like
13:17
Speaker 4: being in front of you. This is a mission for you,
13:19
Speaker 4: This is a mission for Clearway Health. I love being
13:22
Speaker 4: an amplifier for this. Thank you so much for your
13:26
Speaker 4: support at the ASSEMBIA twenty twenty six super Bowl, especially
13:29
Speaker 4: pharmacy event, and thank you so much for this interview.
13:33
Speaker 3: This has been great.
13:33
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me, Thanks for being a voice for pharmacy.
13:39
Speaker 4: Excessia Health is back on the ASSEMBIA twenty twenty six
13:44
Speaker 4: coverage show. My friend Jennifer Noonan, It's so good to
13:47
Speaker 4: see you.
13:48
Speaker 5: Good to see you too, Todd.
13:49
Speaker 4: It's been a while, I know, but we keep meeting
13:52
Speaker 4: through the microphones, so we always meet over microphones.
13:55
Speaker 3: Would you like to meet me over a microphone?
13:57
Speaker 5: That sounds lovely?
13:59
Speaker 4: A microphone, a mic, a microphone meeting. Hey, Eccessa Health
14:05
Speaker 4: has been very busy. You show up at all the
14:08
Speaker 4: right conferences. You show up at some conferences that are
14:10
Speaker 4: outside of pharmacy that you should be getting the patient's
14:13
Speaker 4: voice out there, advocacy of that patient's voice, health equity.
14:18
Speaker 3: These are all fabric.
14:20
Speaker 4: This is all part of the fibers of what builds
14:23
Speaker 4: and what accessia is all about. Talk to us, our listeners,
14:27
Speaker 4: share the updates on excess health and some of your successes.
14:32
Speaker 7: Yeah, thanks Todd. First, for those that might be listening
14:35
Speaker 7: that aren't familiar with excessia health, where are five to
14:38
Speaker 7: oh one c three patient assistance organizations? So we can
14:42
Speaker 7: help patients with cops but also a lot more than that. Now,
14:48
Speaker 7: if you remember, back in twenty three, we updated our
14:52
Speaker 7: model for patient assistance to be called your Assistance, Your Choice.
14:56
Speaker 8: It allowed flexibility within.
14:58
Speaker 7: The grants so that patients who might not need all
15:01
Speaker 7: of that funding to go towards copay, but they really
15:04
Speaker 7: needed assistance in say premiums, in order to have an
15:07
Speaker 7: affordable copay, they didn't have to continue applying for separate
15:11
Speaker 7: grants for those types of funding. Our grants are now
15:15
Speaker 7: set up with one amount, and within that amount, a
15:18
Speaker 7: patient can use their funding for copay, premiums, travel, or
15:24
Speaker 7: even think about some durable medical equipments that patients require,
15:28
Speaker 7: such as pulmonary fibrosis patients needing oxygen in order to
15:33
Speaker 7: be able to leave their home to go to the
15:35
Speaker 7: doctor's visits. So it really does all tie back to
15:38
Speaker 7: patient's adherents. It removed that layer of burden to apply
15:44
Speaker 7: again and again and again for different things, and they
15:47
Speaker 7: might not even realize that they had options to apply
15:50
Speaker 7: for those different opportunities. So we're just working hard at
15:53
Speaker 7: educating our patients on how to spend their money, and
15:57
Speaker 7: sometimes that means looking at ways to allocate money towards
16:00
Speaker 7: one area they might not have realized so that they
16:03
Speaker 7: can afford another area. And we also have started really
16:09
Speaker 7: paying attention to what needs a patient might have outside
16:14
Speaker 7: of just that direct treatment, because what we found was
16:17
Speaker 7: that individuals who are hungry are unhoused, they're not really
16:22
Speaker 7: able to think about a treatment much less try to
16:25
Speaker 7: be adherent to it or find all the different pathways
16:28
Speaker 7: they have to go through to get enough money to
16:31
Speaker 7: pay for it.
16:33
Speaker 4: Your team made an investment and took a trip Washington, DC.
16:38
Speaker 4: Building more attention to the patient's voice. And we're all
16:44
Speaker 4: so busy. I look at the hundreds thousands of people
16:48
Speaker 4: that are here at ASSEMBIA. The patient sometimes gets left
16:52
Speaker 4: out in some of the excitement.
16:54
Speaker 3: I'm guilty of that where.
16:55
Speaker 4: I love to talk to innovators and I get raped
17:00
Speaker 4: up in the AI and I get wrapped up in
17:02
Speaker 4: the technology, but then all of a sudden, there's the patient.
17:05
Speaker 4: So you guys are the exact opposite. You're constantly bringing
17:09
Speaker 4: light to the patient's story.
17:11
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's very exciting for us this year to have
17:15
Speaker 7: our first again in quite a few years. I think
17:18
Speaker 7: it's been almost ten years since our organization was able
17:21
Speaker 7: to gather together, take patients and staff together with HMC
17:29
Speaker 7: to Washington, DC in person with several patients that are
17:33
Speaker 7: either active on service or have used our services in
17:37
Speaker 7: the past, to.
17:37
Speaker 5: Tell their stories directly. I believe we had a total
17:40
Speaker 5: of five groups.
17:42
Speaker 7: One of those groups had a rare disease child with
17:45
Speaker 7: them and it was a really good experience for him
17:49
Speaker 7: for his mother to be able to sit in front
17:51
Speaker 7: of legislators and tell them exactly how some of these
17:55
Speaker 7: different impactful laws are keeping her from getting the appropriate
18:03
Speaker 7: care for her child when he's sick, or being able
18:06
Speaker 7: to afford his treatments when he needs to get them.
18:10
Speaker 7: Then we followed that back up just a few weeks
18:12
Speaker 7: ago with an all week advocacy week by phone, and
18:17
Speaker 7: I was able to sit in on a few of
18:19
Speaker 7: those calls and it was just great the energy that
18:22
Speaker 7: you got to feel between say, these House representative speakers
18:27
Speaker 7: who had never heard the story played out that way
18:31
Speaker 7: from a real person, and it was absolutely changing in
18:36
Speaker 7: his You could see he suddenly understood like something that
18:39
Speaker 7: maybe before was just some data or figures turned into
18:43
Speaker 7: a little boy instead of just something that was the
18:48
Speaker 7: next law to look at and think about. So being
18:51
Speaker 7: able to bring patients directly to Capitol Hill and tell
18:56
Speaker 7: their story so that changes can be made and we
18:58
Speaker 7: don't have to have one more patient that goes without treatment,
19:02
Speaker 7: that is.
19:02
Speaker 4: So powerful being here at a SMBIA. How how do
19:07
Speaker 4: you get specialty pharmacies to plug into these programs? What
19:12
Speaker 4: what systems are in place that you're like, hey, specially
19:16
Speaker 4: pharmacy ABC.
19:18
Speaker 3: Where access the of health?
19:19
Speaker 4: Here's what we do, What's what's the process, what happens
19:23
Speaker 4: at that point?
19:23
Speaker 3: How do you get them? How do you get them
19:25
Speaker 3: plugged in?
19:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a great question.
19:27
Speaker 7: As you know, many access gaps are discovered in the
19:30
Speaker 7: specialty pharmacy.
19:31
Speaker 5: Patient maybe has.
19:33
Speaker 7: Received a diagnosis, has a provider of care and they
19:36
Speaker 7: now have a prescription if you will, of a treatment,
19:39
Speaker 7: and then the sps are often the first ones that
19:42
Speaker 7: find out that the patient has an access gap and
19:45
Speaker 7: then have to try to lead them to that. So
19:48
Speaker 7: what we do is try to network with any and
19:50
Speaker 7: all specialty pharmacies and bring them into the network that
19:54
Speaker 7: we know they're there, and then offer to provide education
19:58
Speaker 7: around how to sign patients up or how to educate
20:02
Speaker 7: patients to sign up for our grants. We're also working
20:05
Speaker 7: on some systems internally right now to speed up that
20:09
Speaker 7: part of the process for providers, because we recognize that
20:13
Speaker 7: they are often one of the first entry points for
20:16
Speaker 7: discovering a patient who has a need.
20:19
Speaker 4: So what is your what is your shout out to
20:24
Speaker 4: listeners who are didn't get to come to sembia their
20:28
Speaker 4: in specialty. What are the steps that they can take
20:31
Speaker 4: to learn more about excess Help but then also partner.
20:34
Speaker 5: With you absolutely well.
20:36
Speaker 7: First and foremost, just navigating to our website at excessia
20:40
Speaker 7: health dot org and going directly to the program's page
20:44
Speaker 7: is where anyone can see what actual programs we have
20:47
Speaker 7: available for patients to sign up for. One big call out,
20:52
Speaker 7: I always like to share that isn't necessarily true across
20:56
Speaker 7: all of the organizations like mine, and so I just
20:59
Speaker 7: want to make sure people understand that we have a
21:01
Speaker 7: first come.
21:02
Speaker 5: First serve weight list.
21:04
Speaker 7: So if a program isn't fully open in green saying
21:08
Speaker 7: that a patient could apply that day and be accepted
21:11
Speaker 7: because there's no weightlist. If it says at capacity, that
21:15
Speaker 7: means there's a wait list, but it could be only
21:17
Speaker 7: one person, it could be five. And so I always
21:20
Speaker 7: suggest that if someone thinks even that there's going to
21:24
Speaker 7: be a need for a patient in specialty, we already
21:26
Speaker 7: know there's delays that come with prior offs and where
21:30
Speaker 7: are you going to get this and who's going to administer?
21:33
Speaker 7: So in order to try to smooth that out a
21:36
Speaker 7: little bit more, you know, we hope that they understand
21:39
Speaker 7: to go ahead and apply. You can say no when
21:41
Speaker 7: the money comes available if it's not a need any longer.
21:44
Speaker 7: But if people don't get on the wait list, then
21:47
Speaker 7: they'll never see that green light of you know, being
21:49
Speaker 7: accepted into the program for evaluation.
21:53
Speaker 4: Jennifer noonan patient of Advocate, Patient, Voice Protector and Support
22:00
Speaker 4: or I've been very proud of your organization. It was
22:02
Speaker 4: so much fun having you on the show, and I
22:05
Speaker 4: appreciate your time here.
22:06
Speaker 7: Thanks a bunch.
22:07
Speaker 5: Sean Talksing.
22:11
Speaker 9: Hi, this is a lead up Postelle with Cinewell, and
22:13
Speaker 9: you're listening to the Pharmacy.
22:14
Speaker 3: Podcast, Alida.
22:19
Speaker 4: I don't want to like say I have favorites, but
22:22
Speaker 4: I was really looking forward to this interview.
22:24
Speaker 3: So thank you so much.
22:24
Speaker 4: I know how busy you are, been tracking your career
22:28
Speaker 4: now for five or six years, and just the passion
22:34
Speaker 4: and the commitment and the team orientation, everything that you
22:40
Speaker 4: get to be integrated into becomes better because you believe
22:46
Speaker 4: in teams and you believe in building people.
22:48
Speaker 3: So thanks for being here.
22:50
Speaker 5: Thank you.
22:50
Speaker 9: And I think you know this and I've shared this
22:52
Speaker 9: with you. I am passionate about pharmacy. I'm passionate about healthcare.
22:56
Speaker 9: I have my wise and it's really about helping people
22:59
Speaker 9: a team their best health health outcomes. And then for
23:02
Speaker 9: me personally too, with family members that have had those
23:06
Speaker 9: life threatening illnesses. I've lost people to cancer, I've lost
23:10
Speaker 9: friends to HIV.
23:12
Speaker 5: I think I've shared that before.
23:13
Speaker 9: So being able to be in a position to really
23:16
Speaker 9: change the dynamics of how access is done, how we
23:20
Speaker 9: can change our models. That is where I get really
23:23
Speaker 9: excited and I love that I get to have a
23:26
Speaker 9: career where I get to do great work.
23:28
Speaker 4: Well, this is your first time back in the new
23:32
Speaker 4: role that you're with with Center Well, talk to us
23:34
Speaker 4: about your role and what you're doing at Center Row.
23:37
Speaker 5: Yes.
23:38
Speaker 9: So in my role, I'm leading growth for centerwal pharmacy business.
23:42
Speaker 9: But we're doing some really great things with direct to
23:45
Speaker 9: patient programs and direct to employer. One of the things
23:48
Speaker 9: that we've been focusing on is how do we really
23:51
Speaker 9: dive into transparency and what does that mean?
23:54
Speaker 5: And then what are the tools.
23:55
Speaker 9: That we can create to enable models from manufacturers to
23:58
Speaker 9: continue to lower the price of drugs to get it
24:00
Speaker 9: out to consumers. Jim Our CEO has talked about, you know,
24:05
Speaker 9: our organization being a consumer driven healthcare organization and at CINAWHEL,
24:10
Speaker 9: we have been living that our patients have to choose us,
24:13
Speaker 9: so we listen to them, we understand their needs, whether
24:17
Speaker 9: it's financial, our care needs. We are creating the right
24:20
Speaker 9: space for them to be able to navigate their care
24:22
Speaker 9: journey and that excites me.
24:24
Speaker 4: Well, practicing what you preach I've looked up to over
24:27
Speaker 4: the years because every time I see something on LinkedIn
24:30
Speaker 4: post and I follow through it. I stalk you a
24:32
Speaker 4: little bit, look up on Google what's going on. I
24:35
Speaker 4: can find something else that's like, here's the outcome.
24:37
Speaker 10: Of what you're what.
24:39
Speaker 4: You're talking about, what you're posting about. So part of
24:42
Speaker 4: that is coming together. At ACEMBIA, you were part of
24:47
Speaker 4: a panel discussion that really digging down into what does
24:50
Speaker 4: tran what does transparency truly mean for the end user,
24:54
Speaker 4: which is our patients. It's the most important people in healthcare.
24:58
Speaker 4: Talk to us about that panel you guys talked about.
25:01
Speaker 9: Yes, So when you hear the word transparency, I think
25:05
Speaker 9: one of the things that I shared was it really
25:07
Speaker 9: means I want to know what I'm paying for. I
25:09
Speaker 9: want to understand what may be hidden underneath. Make me
25:13
Speaker 9: trust you, right, So let's have that conversation. So when
25:17
Speaker 9: we were discussing on their panel, one of the things
25:19
Speaker 9: that I felt was important is to me, transparency is
25:22
Speaker 9: the entry fee. It's not the end right to really
25:26
Speaker 9: be transparent. Are you willing and open to especially at
25:30
Speaker 9: least talk from the angle PBM. Are you willing and
25:32
Speaker 9: open to allow whoever your clients are that you're serving
25:36
Speaker 9: to understand what they're paying for, what their fees are
25:38
Speaker 9: audit with you, but also allow innovation. We also talked
25:42
Speaker 9: about the employer perspective as well. I don't think that
25:46
Speaker 9: employers are against innovation, they're against volatility. So from their standpoint,
25:51
Speaker 9: they want to be able to offer life saving therapies
25:56
Speaker 9: to their employees, but they also need to be able
25:59
Speaker 9: to predict what that will cost, right, and so how
26:02
Speaker 9: do you balance that in a real transparent model is
26:05
Speaker 9: some of the themes that we.
26:06
Speaker 5: Were talking about. We also talked about policy.
26:08
Speaker 9: I think you have been following policy a lot, and
26:11
Speaker 9: I know that you're a huge advocate for doing the
26:14
Speaker 9: right things, and so as we look at policy shifts
26:17
Speaker 9: and some of the changes there, we had another panel
26:19
Speaker 9: where we discussed that and talked about what do we
26:21
Speaker 9: need to do, you know, in the private market to really,
26:25
Speaker 9: you know, meet the changes that are coming with some
26:27
Speaker 9: of the policy things that we see.
26:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, and talk to us about how you guys are
26:32
Speaker 4: paying attention to what's really working. One of the things
26:35
Speaker 4: that is shaking up the market is mark Cuban costs
26:39
Speaker 4: plus drugs and how there's a flat fee on top
26:43
Speaker 4: of you know, the cost of the product, and it
26:48
Speaker 4: simplifies it. So the consumers like, wow, it's that easy.
26:52
Speaker 4: I've seen comments and in Mark Cuban has been interviewed
26:57
Speaker 4: doctor Alex who runs that organization. He's also said it
27:02
Speaker 4: the people will comment, I almost don't trust this because
27:06
Speaker 4: it's so simple, but it's such a low cost, Like
27:08
Speaker 4: why not trust it?
27:09
Speaker 3: And it is. It's simplifying this.
27:11
Speaker 4: This is getting away from four different rebate systems or
27:16
Speaker 4: this formulay or this situation. And and then that demystification
27:20
Speaker 4: builds trust because the transparency that there, you know, it
27:25
Speaker 4: pulls away that I'm not mysteriously wondering why is this
27:29
Speaker 4: medication so expensive? Now it's so I think that that's important.
27:34
Speaker 4: What do you see in the evolution of You've been
27:36
Speaker 4: around long enough to see it where it was, how
27:39
Speaker 4: bad it got, and now all of a sudden, I
27:41
Speaker 4: feel like we're I feel like there's light now that
27:43
Speaker 4: we're seeing at the end of this tunnel.
27:45
Speaker 5: Yeah.
27:46
Speaker 9: So I actually had on one of my panels, Paul
27:49
Speaker 9: Vasquez from Costlus Drugs joined us, and the importance of
27:52
Speaker 9: having him on was because Mark Cuban such an innovator,
27:57
Speaker 9: a disruptor. So going back to one of the first
27:59
Speaker 9: things you said, you see on his website, it's simple,
28:01
Speaker 9: it's clear, you know what you're paying for. Again, one
28:04
Speaker 9: of the definitions the foundation of transparency, really understanding what
28:08
Speaker 9: this means. And so I think he has done a
28:11
Speaker 9: really great job of shifting and making things more visible.
28:15
Speaker 5: Right.
28:16
Speaker 9: You have someone with his platform that is bringing to
28:18
Speaker 9: light issues within healthcare.
28:21
Speaker 5: So for us is how do you respond to that? Right?
28:24
Speaker 5: And then the other thing.
28:25
Speaker 9: That I really appreciate about the cost Plus team is
28:29
Speaker 9: their innovation, and so part of our partnership with them
28:32
Speaker 9: is that their technology is swift Rx, which will enable things
28:35
Speaker 9: for us automated leveraging AI to really remove some of
28:40
Speaker 9: the non value added processes of workflows and the systems
28:45
Speaker 9: that attributes to costs. And so our I think, you know,
28:49
Speaker 9: when you look at the model, and to end, it's
28:52
Speaker 9: finding like partners like the cost Plus Team, manufacturers, employers
28:57
Speaker 9: that are willing to come together and really have the
29:00
Speaker 9: hard conversations to say, all right, we need to redesign
29:03
Speaker 9: this model. It's not working. You know, it's been built
29:06
Speaker 9: decades ago, but we have new therapies that are now
29:09
Speaker 9: coming on that is forcing us to rethink how we
29:13
Speaker 9: deliver care, right, and we know DLP ones. You think
29:16
Speaker 9: about that, right, and how that has really exploded and
29:19
Speaker 9: consumers are saying, I want this therapy, give it to
29:23
Speaker 9: me and the way that I need to receive it.
29:25
Speaker 9: And so now we're forced to provide choice. And that's
29:28
Speaker 9: why you have partners like cost Plus Drugs that will
29:31
Speaker 9: work with you to be able to enable those things.
29:33
Speaker 4: All right, let's talk about the knife edge of direct
29:36
Speaker 4: to consumer. And when I say knife edge.
29:39
Speaker 11: I mean.
29:41
Speaker 4: Losing the physician communication and the pharmacist communication and the
29:47
Speaker 4: pharmacist touch for convenience. Where's the balance in direct to
29:53
Speaker 4: consumer when it's becoming so popular and there's definitely transparency
30:00
Speaker 4: and there's definitely cost savings in it because you're eliminating
30:04
Speaker 4: middlemen and middle people and middle organizations. Talk to us
30:08
Speaker 4: in your opinion of direct to consumer, how we keep
30:11
Speaker 4: the patient safe, how we keep them engaged in communicating
30:14
Speaker 4: with their providers, but making it more direct to the consumer.
30:20
Speaker 9: Yeah, so hard, It is hard, but I will I'm
30:22
Speaker 9: going to talk to you from our angle.
30:24
Speaker 5: Right.
30:25
Speaker 9: The role of the pharmacist is important and so at Cinerwell,
30:29
Speaker 9: when we're doing so We have our Noblecare program, so
30:33
Speaker 9: I'll share with you how that goes. The prescriber has
30:37
Speaker 9: the authority to write the script into us. Once they
30:40
Speaker 9: write that script and it comes into the pharmacy, the
30:42
Speaker 9: pharmacy is doing what they do every single day. And
30:44
Speaker 9: you know how passionate I am about pharmacists. So they're
30:48
Speaker 9: providing clinical care. They're talking to the patient about their nutrition,
30:52
Speaker 9: they're making sure that they're adherent, they're talking to them
30:54
Speaker 9: about their side effects that can't be lost. They still
30:57
Speaker 9: need their pharmacists in that journey. I think you and
31:00
Speaker 9: I both know how many times a patient actually sees
31:03
Speaker 9: their pharmacists versus their doctors. So that relationship continues, and
31:07
Speaker 9: so in our model, the pharmacist is very well engaged.
31:10
Speaker 9: I will also say we have nurses that could talk
31:12
Speaker 9: about their overall condition. Sometimes it's not about just their obesity.
31:16
Speaker 9: You have to think about the comabidities that they have
31:18
Speaker 9: as well, and so I think that is really important
31:20
Speaker 9: in the consumer model as well.
31:22
Speaker 5: It can't just be an AI driven workflow.
31:26
Speaker 9: You still need some sort of touch and you still
31:28
Speaker 9: need to be able to deliver care in the way
31:30
Speaker 9: that the patient needs. Some are more savvy and maybe
31:32
Speaker 9: that works for them and they don't want all of
31:34
Speaker 9: that conversation and others do, right, and they started the
31:37
Speaker 9: therapy for a reason, and so how do you make
31:40
Speaker 9: sure that they're successful and get the outcomes that they're
31:42
Speaker 9: looking for. And that's where those clinical programs still play
31:45
Speaker 9: a part.
31:46
Speaker 4: Leader post Tel Center, Well, congratulations by the way, and
31:50
Speaker 4: promise you're going to come back to send me a
31:52
Speaker 4: twenty twenty seven on the show I will you know?
31:54
Speaker 5: I love you Todd, love to.
31:56
Speaker 11: See you back, all right, see it.
31:59
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32:15
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33:33
Speaker 12: Hey, this is Derek Dennis with Clearway Health and you're
33:35
Speaker 12: listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
33:40
Speaker 4: Derek, Welcome to the coverage of the ASSEMBIA twenty twenty
33:44
Speaker 4: six Specialty Pharmacy event. This is the super Bowl of
33:47
Speaker 4: specialty pharmacy. It's my favorite event in specialty. I'm excited
33:52
Speaker 4: that you're here. Welcome to the show.
33:54
Speaker 11: Yeah, I appreciate that.
33:55
Speaker 12: Very excited to be here and talk about some of
33:57
Speaker 12: the you know, the great things we have going on
33:58
Speaker 12: at Clearway Health, So yeah, appreciate the time.
34:01
Speaker 4: Something that's special to us is Clearway Health has helped
34:05
Speaker 4: us with our sponsorship for pressing pushing out our press conference,
34:10
Speaker 4: and we are focused on three specific segments and one
34:14
Speaker 4: of those is women's health, and I kind of want
34:16
Speaker 4: to talk to you about women's health and different facets
34:19
Speaker 4: of focus that Clearway Health has dug into and you've
34:24
Speaker 4: really made an impact, So tell our listeners about that.
34:28
Speaker 12: You know, women's health within specialty pharmacy offers you know,
34:32
Speaker 12: great opportunity to impact people. One of the areas specifically
34:37
Speaker 12: that we've had some strong success and improving the way
34:40
Speaker 12: that you know, women receive healthcare is in the reproductive
34:43
Speaker 12: health space. You know, if we have time, we could
34:46
Speaker 12: possibly talk a little bit about rheumatology and some other
34:49
Speaker 12: other areas where there's a disproportionate impact on women, but
34:52
Speaker 12: certainly we'd like to talk talk through some of the
34:54
Speaker 12: reproductive health programs we've built out with our with our
34:56
Speaker 12: clients across the country.
34:58
Speaker 3: So let's dig into that.
35:00
Speaker 4: From a specialty pharmacy perspective, how do we get more
35:05
Speaker 4: women to pay attention to their health with these complex
35:09
Speaker 4: therapies that are in place, and then marry that with
35:12
Speaker 4: an ecosystem that surrounds them and supports them and keeps
35:16
Speaker 4: them adherent. Like, talk to us about those experiences based
35:19
Speaker 4: on what Clearway Health has helped in.
35:21
Speaker 12: Right, I think, you know, the complexity of care first
35:25
Speaker 12: of all, is one of the barriers. And putting together
35:29
Speaker 12: a program where you have specific support people that are
35:32
Speaker 12: connected to the clinics, connected to the pharmacies to reduce
35:36
Speaker 12: that mary is really important.
35:38
Speaker 11: And I'll give an example.
35:39
Speaker 12: You know, when we were looking at reproductive health and
35:43
Speaker 12: how do we help more women and more families, you know,
35:46
Speaker 12: achieve success in that area, we found that there were
35:50
Speaker 12: gaps in how the folks in the clinic were able
35:54
Speaker 12: to communicate with the pharmacy and meet very specific timing
35:57
Speaker 12: that that's related to IVF and those types of procedures
36:01
Speaker 12: and so kind of our first entry into that was
36:05
Speaker 12: around cost. Those are very expensive you know, therapy sometimes
36:09
Speaker 12: up to twenty five thirty thousand dollars. Coverage is very
36:13
Speaker 12: limited or mixed across the board, and so we started
36:16
Speaker 12: with some some liaisons and folks to help specifically with
36:20
Speaker 12: with cost and access to drugs, and that was one
36:23
Speaker 12: of the first steps helped a lot. It was broke
36:25
Speaker 12: down sort of the ways that these patients can go
36:28
Speaker 12: about getting their medications, specific pharmacies that they need to
36:32
Speaker 12: interact with, specific foundations and coverage help in that way,
36:35
Speaker 12: and so that was the first step we took. That
36:40
Speaker 12: in as ofsult was very successful. You know, I think
36:42
Speaker 12: one of our clients we saw in the first four
36:44
Speaker 12: to five months almost close to half a million dollars
36:46
Speaker 12: in savings for patients, which is just unreal because, you know,
36:49
Speaker 12: for folks that are going through this very emotional sort
36:54
Speaker 12: of journey in an effort to have a child, cost
36:57
Speaker 12: is the last thing that you want kind of adding
36:59
Speaker 12: to that wit.
37:00
Speaker 11: And so some great success.
37:02
Speaker 3: There that is awesome to you.
37:04
Speaker 10: Here.
37:04
Speaker 4: I've also understood that your support of health systems and
37:09
Speaker 4: hospitals that don't want to get into it all by themselves,
37:13
Speaker 4: you've really removed the barriers to becoming a specialty pharmacy
37:19
Speaker 4: outlet for that community, and you've had some success stories recently.
37:23
Speaker 4: How does that play into women's health as well?
37:26
Speaker 11: Yeah?
37:26
Speaker 12: Absolutely. You know, our partners when we joined with them,
37:30
Speaker 12: they're at all the various stages of ability to offer
37:33
Speaker 12: some specialty pharmacy services. In some cases, they may not
37:37
Speaker 12: even have a specialty pharmacy they need support around building that.
37:40
Speaker 12: In other cases, they may have started that journey but
37:43
Speaker 12: are having trouble connecting the clinical work and the clinic
37:47
Speaker 12: teams to kind of growing those specialty pharmacy programs. And
37:52
Speaker 12: I'll continue on this path of Like reproductive health, that
37:54
Speaker 12: was one of them.
37:55
Speaker 11: We were with a client that had begun the journal and.
38:00
Speaker 12: Specialty pharmacy, but they were focused obviously on the oncology.
38:03
Speaker 11: Space and some of those areas that are maybe a.
38:05
Speaker 12: Bit more common. But we saw this opportunity in the
38:10
Speaker 12: reproductive health clinic. They were using all pharmacies outside of
38:14
Speaker 12: the health system, yet they had the opportunity to bring
38:17
Speaker 12: that under that same roof. And so with the liaison
38:20
Speaker 12: placement and then we follow that up with clinical pharmacists
38:23
Speaker 12: in that clinic, we were able to move most of
38:25
Speaker 12: that support in house.
38:27
Speaker 11: At this at this particular hospital.
38:29
Speaker 12: And if you're familiar at all with these therapies, timing
38:34
Speaker 12: is so important. Patients are coming in, you know, throughout
38:37
Speaker 12: the week for ultrasounds and lab work and all of
38:41
Speaker 12: that really indicates when they take specific parts of these medications.
38:46
Speaker 11: It's very complicated.
38:47
Speaker 12: There's injectables involved, and for a lot of patients that
38:50
Speaker 12: can be you know, intimidating. But having the clinical pharmacist
38:54
Speaker 12: lead that care journey in terms of medication administration really
38:59
Speaker 12: broke down that barrier and we saw that patients wanted
39:02
Speaker 12: to use the specialty pharmacy that was local with people
39:05
Speaker 12: that they had met in the clinic and had talked
39:07
Speaker 12: to about their you know, their goals of having a
39:11
Speaker 12: family and and really that that's been a you know,
39:14
Speaker 12: it's a great example of a unique way that this
39:17
Speaker 12: is impacting women's health.
39:19
Speaker 11: With some of our.
39:19
Speaker 4: Partners, Why is the clear Way Health team invested in
39:25
Speaker 4: coming to ASSEMBIA? What is it about this conference that
39:28
Speaker 4: draws you and your consultant team in? Oh?
39:30
Speaker 12: Yeah, you know, SMBIA is a great conference, great, great
39:34
Speaker 12: place to meet a network with a lot of the
39:36
Speaker 12: folks that are players in this industry. You know, I
39:40
Speaker 12: tended a couple of sessions yesterday. It's always good to
39:43
Speaker 12: hear the different points of view because you know, if
39:45
Speaker 12: there's one word to describe specialty pharmacy, it's complex, and
39:50
Speaker 12: if you're not staying current on what all those drivers
39:52
Speaker 12: are related to these programs and the opportunity their help
39:57
Speaker 12: providers with issues that they have, or it's pay your
40:00
Speaker 12: access or you know, it's the manufacturer relationships to make
40:03
Speaker 12: sure that again, in the best scenario, our partners at
40:08
Speaker 12: these hospitals can take care of as many of their
40:10
Speaker 12: patients from like start to finish, you know, getting those
40:13
Speaker 12: medications in hand and seeing those great outcomes.
40:15
Speaker 11: That's sort of the draw on.
40:16
Speaker 12: A Cindia just to stay connected see the various the
40:19
Speaker 12: vendors and the folks leading the way in this in
40:22
Speaker 12: specialty pharmacy.
40:23
Speaker 4: Derek, this has been a special opportunity to work with you.
40:26
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for being on the Assembia twenty
40:29
Speaker 4: twenty six post show.
40:30
Speaker 11: Awesome, thanks, I appreciate the time.
40:35
Speaker 13: Hey, this is doctor schavap Parani, chief clinical officer for
40:37
Speaker 13: Well Just six Health and you are listening to the
40:39
Speaker 13: Pharmacy podcast.
40:43
Speaker 11: Chabad.
40:44
Speaker 4: It is so good to see you. Assembia twenty twenty six.
40:47
Speaker 13: Absolutely, Todd, Absolutely, I know we've been coming to these
40:50
Speaker 13: these shows and for quite a few years, and you know,
40:54
Speaker 13: it's really great bringing all of these different stakeholders together.
40:57
Speaker 13: It's been a phenomenal show so far and really energized
41:00
Speaker 13: and excited about where the industry is moving towards.
41:03
Speaker 3: Is this where we met. Did we meet at ASSEMBIA
41:05
Speaker 3: years ago?
41:06
Speaker 10: I think so. I want to say maybe six to
41:08
Speaker 10: seven assembias.
41:08
Speaker 13: No, or it might have even been at a different
41:11
Speaker 13: trade show, but most likely it was Ascendia.
41:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, Assembia.
41:14
Speaker 4: The whole wording I remember when they did the reband
41:17
Speaker 4: It's about assembling a whole bunch of people together who
41:21
Speaker 4: are passionate and focused on elevating patient care through specialty
41:25
Speaker 4: pharmacy services. That has been the mission of Wellgistics over
41:31
Speaker 4: so many different parts of pharmacy, not just specialty. Logistics
41:36
Speaker 4: has a strength as independent pharmacy partners, long term care,
41:41
Speaker 4: now specialty. But you started out as a very aggressive
41:46
Speaker 4: secondary wholesaler, but.
41:47
Speaker 3: Now that's not it anymore.
41:49
Speaker 4: You guys are more of an infrastructure system, an ecosystem.
41:52
Speaker 4: Talk to us about logistics and how we logistics has
41:56
Speaker 4: really grown.
41:57
Speaker 10: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, thank you for that.
41:59
Speaker 13: You know we've again, yeah, we spun out of you know,
42:02
Speaker 13: well Dying back in like twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen. People
42:05
Speaker 13: know Wellgistics as you know, the secondary drug wholesale distributor.
42:09
Speaker 10: Right with three PL capability.
42:10
Speaker 13: You know, we've made some recent advancements into some coal chain,
42:13
Speaker 13: but really kind of where we see the market going
42:16
Speaker 13: and you know, the business model kind of evolving to
42:19
Speaker 13: support you know, patient needs, pharma needs, payer needs and
42:24
Speaker 13: pharmacy needs. Really right, is leveraging you know, technology solutions
42:29
Speaker 13: to build more of an integrated healthcare ecosystem, right, And
42:33
Speaker 13: so I think a lot of the buzz and traction
42:36
Speaker 13: that you're really kind of seeing out of us now
42:38
Speaker 13: is how can we implement technology solutions to be you know,
42:43
Speaker 13: modular technology solutions to help kind of improve that access,
42:47
Speaker 13: that affordability, and that transparency that the you know, the
42:50
Speaker 13: industry is really really desperately looking for. So, you know,
42:53
Speaker 13: we're pretty excited about kind of shifting the business model
42:57
Speaker 13: distribution three PL. That will still be kind of you know,
43:00
Speaker 13: part of it as we're supporting pharma brands, but it's
43:03
Speaker 13: really going to be leaning into technology solutions and how
43:06
Speaker 13: can we leverage that technology to drive value.
43:09
Speaker 4: Well, I'm excited to announce on the show there are
43:12
Speaker 4: three specific systems and approaches that Logistics has invested heavily
43:18
Speaker 4: into and it's to fix a broken system where you know,
43:24
Speaker 4: we have these distribution models and talk to us about
43:28
Speaker 4: Einstein RX and hob our XAI and the integrated distribution
43:31
Speaker 4: network that you guys have built.
43:33
Speaker 11: Yeah.
43:33
Speaker 13: Absolutely, So I'll kind of start off with the integrated
43:37
Speaker 13: distribution network because that's what most people know logistics for.
43:40
Speaker 13: So again, that wholesale network, you know, sixty five hundred
43:44
Speaker 13: independent pharmacies, primarily independent pharmacies, you know, going to look
43:49
Speaker 13: to start bringing in some grocery chains into that as well,
43:51
Speaker 13: regional grocery chains. But that's really kind of the layer
43:54
Speaker 13: right as we think about what's happening in the market.
43:57
Speaker 10: You know, there's about.
43:58
Speaker 13: Eight thousand pharmacies that have shut down the last five
44:00
Speaker 13: six years, and really you know you're starting to have
44:04
Speaker 13: the creation of pharmacy deserts, and you know, other organizations
44:08
Speaker 13: do a really good job talking about all of that
44:10
Speaker 13: and how there's you know, access related issues to just
44:14
Speaker 13: even getting care. It's not just even the product side.
44:16
Speaker 13: So really, when I think about kind of what we're
44:19
Speaker 13: doing in some of these services and pieces you've brought up,
44:22
Speaker 13: it's really kind of inter It's the intersection of this
44:25
Speaker 13: physical and digital infrastructure.
44:27
Speaker 10: That we're bringing.
44:28
Speaker 13: So, you know, the backbone of logistics was kind of
44:30
Speaker 13: like that physical infrastructure, and then these newer platforms that
44:35
Speaker 13: we've kind of brought to the market. Einstein Rx and
44:38
Speaker 13: hub our xai were very, very excited about unleashing the
44:41
Speaker 13: full capabilities of those proprietary platforms. Einstein rx is kind
44:47
Speaker 13: of like this intelligence layer. It's it takes a myriad
44:50
Speaker 13: of different variables, analyzes it all together to you know,
44:54
Speaker 13: drive routing smart routing capabilities, and then when you lay
45:00
Speaker 13: in the hub our xai, which we've actually started using
45:03
Speaker 13: this now in our distribution model, it's just amazing to
45:05
Speaker 13: see all of the value you're able to unlock where
45:09
Speaker 13: you know, you can now have these AI agents that
45:12
Speaker 13: are making these outbound sales calls, so you start to
45:15
Speaker 13: get so much more operational efficiency. But really hub rx
45:19
Speaker 13: hub our xai will lean into bringing that into the
45:21
Speaker 13: hub model. Right, So, how can we streamline you know,
45:24
Speaker 13: patient follow ups, that engagement piece right, connecting with the
45:28
Speaker 13: patient to make sure therapy initiation is done adequately, appropriately,
45:33
Speaker 13: on time, right.
45:34
Speaker 10: Reducing friction in the system.
45:36
Speaker 13: How do we speed up prior authorizations right with the
45:39
Speaker 13: use with the use of AI right, connecting upstream to
45:42
Speaker 13: payers and to the PBMs, and so really we're really
45:46
Speaker 13: really excited about, you know, bringing these technology solutions into
45:50
Speaker 13: the fold and really creating this unified you know, healthcare ecosystem.
45:54
Speaker 13: And last, but not least, I would just be remiss
45:57
Speaker 13: to say to not include this at Einstein RX as
46:01
Speaker 13: we start to kind of lean into some DTP and DTE, right,
46:05
Speaker 13: we're really looking at analyzing claims data and being able
46:09
Speaker 13: to say, hey, where are the opportunities that where we
46:12
Speaker 13: can drive value right from a cost mitigation perspective, et cetera.
46:16
Speaker 10: So it's it's.
46:18
Speaker 13: Really it's an exciting time that we're in this age
46:22
Speaker 13: of AI and how fast technology is changing. And so
46:25
Speaker 13: you know, the future leaders of tomorrow, right, will be
46:28
Speaker 13: the folks that are investing heavily into the space and
46:32
Speaker 13: trying to drive value to all stakeholders in the in
46:35
Speaker 13: the healthcare value chain.
46:37
Speaker 4: You mentioned direct to direct patient access and how does
46:43
Speaker 4: that fit in how does that fit into a logistics model?
46:46
Speaker 13: Yeah, so I think you know, many of the you know,
46:50
Speaker 13: many of the folks in the healthcare industry, specifically the
46:53
Speaker 13: pharmaceutical manufacturers, right, they're seeing you know, issues with the
47:00
Speaker 13: with their product being able to you know, receive the
47:02
Speaker 13: appropriate formulary coverage really to get that market access. And
47:08
Speaker 13: you know, when you bring a drug to the market,
47:10
Speaker 13: you're investing ten to twelve billion dollars right on average,
47:14
Speaker 13: and there's such a long lead time, right for the
47:16
Speaker 13: development of these molecules and then going through phase one,
47:20
Speaker 13: phase two, phase three, you know, clinical studies, and so
47:25
Speaker 13: when you have issues with access, you know, that's particularly
47:30
Speaker 13: problematic for pharmaceutical manufacturers. Right when there when there's rebates
47:35
Speaker 13: of you know, fifty sixty seventy percent being given to
47:38
Speaker 13: you know, some of the PBMs to get access to
47:40
Speaker 13: the formulary. And then when you look at the traditional
47:43
Speaker 13: you know, distribution models of of of how much goes
47:48
Speaker 13: into being able to handle the logistics of all of that,
47:51
Speaker 13: you know, there really isn't a lot of margin out there, right,
47:54
Speaker 13: you know for people complemented with the access issues, that
47:57
Speaker 13: creates a lot of problems and so really kind of
48:00
Speaker 13: you know, what we're looking at from a direct to
48:02
Speaker 13: patient lens is how can we operate in more of
48:06
Speaker 13: a net net model, right, how can we help you
48:08
Speaker 13: accelerate access to therapies for these folks that critically need it,
48:14
Speaker 13: you know, much much much cleaner, much faster better, right
48:19
Speaker 13: in terms of the engagement strategies with patients. And so
48:22
Speaker 13: you'll see us continue to kind of lean in onto
48:25
Speaker 13: this DTP with kind of the fulfillment capabilities that we
48:27
Speaker 13: offer from a net model, but then also from the
48:30
Speaker 13: technology solutions that we're bringing in, you know, to help
48:34
Speaker 13: with the commercialization strategy.
48:36
Speaker 4: All right, So this is just opinion, and I'd love
48:39
Speaker 4: to hear from you on this, but eliminating steps, eliminating
48:44
Speaker 4: parts in the process, definitely eliminating unnecessary middleman aka some
48:50
Speaker 4: of the players in the PBM space who I'd love
48:54
Speaker 4: to just completely gut out of it. But the direct
48:57
Speaker 4: to patient, do you know? It concerns me. It makes
49:02
Speaker 4: me think is there enough touch? Is there enough communication
49:06
Speaker 4: happening with the pharmacists? Is there enough touch in communication
49:10
Speaker 4: happening with our physicians who are becoming the specialist in
49:13
Speaker 4: these disease states and looking to the pharmacists to execute
49:16
Speaker 4: on the treatment and keep the patient engaged and asking
49:20
Speaker 4: good questions. So is that a concern that you see
49:26
Speaker 4: in place for the d TP model, like or am
49:30
Speaker 4: I just being too worried about directed to patient No.
49:34
Speaker 13: I think traditionally, I think it's a fair point. I
49:36
Speaker 13: think traditionally, when you think of the prescription journey, right,
49:40
Speaker 13: you know, that is kind of cumbersome.
49:41
Speaker 10: There's a lot of steps involved in it, you know, from.
49:44
Speaker 13: The eligibility perspective and trying to get a prior authorization,
49:48
Speaker 13: the amount of time that it takes to get a
49:50
Speaker 13: therapy kind of approved, or the step up in therapy,
49:53
Speaker 13: and so there are a lot of steps that happen
49:55
Speaker 13: in the system, and patients are often kind of confused, right,
49:59
Speaker 13: and why why are their delays you know, in my treatment?
50:02
Speaker 13: Why can I got why can I not get access
50:04
Speaker 13: to this therapy? And so that causes a lot of
50:07
Speaker 13: concern in the market because you know, then they call
50:09
Speaker 13: their pharmacies, they're calling their physicians, you know, the advent
50:12
Speaker 13: of telehealth, and when we think about the GPS, that's
50:15
Speaker 13: been extremely disruptive right where you see you know, Novo
50:19
Speaker 13: and Lily and now a plethora of other manufacturers looking
50:22
Speaker 13: at more of these dtp DT models, right, And in
50:26
Speaker 13: terms of trying to provide access, the role of the
50:29
Speaker 13: provider and the role of the pharmacist fundamentally does not change.
50:35
Speaker 13: In fact, I think it gets enhanced, right because now
50:39
Speaker 13: instead of dealing with some of the administrative burden, you know,
50:43
Speaker 13: the issues that are kind of blocking, you know, that
50:46
Speaker 13: are basically kind of delaying the system a bit. Now
50:50
Speaker 13: you're unlocking more time for that pharmacist to be able
50:53
Speaker 13: to participate in their care. And with the newer models
50:58
Speaker 13: right over on the horizon, when we think of like
51:00
Speaker 13: RPM and RTM, which is not something that we're currently in,
51:04
Speaker 13: but if you start to think about the market more generally,
51:08
Speaker 13: you know, those create additional touch points and you're operating
51:12
Speaker 13: more in kind of a direct model. So I'll argue that,
51:15
Speaker 13: you know, there's a little bit of a trade off,
51:17
Speaker 13: if you will, but I think it'll be much beneficial
51:20
Speaker 13: for the system because as the consumer becomes more aware
51:24
Speaker 13: and conscientious of their health decisions and wanting to be
51:28
Speaker 13: more proactive versus reactive, there's a lot of opportunity there.
51:34
Speaker 4: I want to just thank you Shavat for being part
51:38
Speaker 4: of the Assembia twenty twenty sixth show. This has been
51:40
Speaker 4: an important inclusion in our coverage.
51:45
Speaker 3: Logistics is such.
51:46
Speaker 4: An innovative company, You're never standing still. I got to
51:49
Speaker 4: have you back on this week in Pharmacy and we
51:51
Speaker 4: can dig into some of the future plans for logistics
51:54
Speaker 4: and the impact that's going to have on our privately
51:56
Speaker 4: owned pharmacies and the impact that's going to have on
51:58
Speaker 4: specialty pharmacy care.
52:00
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
52:01
Speaker 10: Awesome, thank you so much. Great to be with you, Todd.
52:03
Speaker 13: Thank you for everything that you do for you know,
52:05
Speaker 13: the industry of pharmacy, very very much appreciated. It was
52:09
Speaker 13: a pleasure to be with you today.
52:13
Speaker 14: This is mcnami Struck from claratas Aux and you are
52:16
Speaker 14: listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
52:21
Speaker 4: Hey, welcome Clara TOAs Rix has been an organization that
52:25
Speaker 4: I've watched from afar. I've never had an opportunity to
52:29
Speaker 4: talk with anybody, so Magna, it is so good to
52:32
Speaker 4: see you.
52:33
Speaker 3: Thanks for being on the show.
52:34
Speaker 8: Thanks for having me, Todd.
52:36
Speaker 3: All right, Assembia.
52:37
Speaker 4: I called this, I started nicknaming this about five years ago,
52:41
Speaker 4: the super Bowl of specialty pharmacy and it really is.
52:44
Speaker 4: It's it's I remember when Armada Health they were Armada
52:49
Speaker 4: Healthcare but for Assembia, and they renamed it to Assembia
52:52
Speaker 4: to assemble people together, coming together as one organization. One
52:57
Speaker 4: big industry to do nothing but focus on the patient.
53:02
Speaker 4: In specialty pharmacy, talk to us about claritos RX. You
53:07
Speaker 4: have AI that's reshaping how decisions get made in healthcare.
53:12
Speaker 4: Where do you see it having the biggest impact on
53:14
Speaker 4: patient visibility?
53:16
Speaker 14: That's a great question, Todd. So I tend to think
53:19
Speaker 14: of AI as a force multiplier in healthcare. It's helping
53:23
Speaker 14: bring together pieces of the patient journey that have traditionally
53:27
Speaker 14: been pretty fragmented and siloed. It brings it all together
53:31
Speaker 14: into one clear picture, for example, clinical data, pharmacy activity, access,
53:38
Speaker 14: and affordability. And once you have that kind of visibility,
53:42
Speaker 14: you can start to catch risks much earlier.
53:45
Speaker 8: So things like a delay.
53:47
Speaker 14: Trefill, or a coverage issue, or even early science that
53:50
Speaker 14: a patient is disengaging, all really critical signals that show
53:55
Speaker 14: up sooner than they would and so the shift is
53:58
Speaker 14: really from reacting after something goes wrong to getting ahead
54:02
Speaker 14: of it. But to me, the most important part is
54:05
Speaker 14: that AI does not replace the human side. It gets
54:09
Speaker 14: care teams, you know, better insights so they can step
54:12
Speaker 14: in earlier.
54:13
Speaker 8: And react earlier.
54:15
Speaker 14: And support patients in a more thoughtful and personalized way.
54:19
Speaker 14: Because That is what we do at Cloutosotics. We really
54:22
Speaker 14: help bring access to the patients.
54:27
Speaker 4: That makes a lot of sense, and we have to
54:30
Speaker 4: have the patient always at the front of everything that
54:34
Speaker 4: we're doing. Out front the vision of the patient, the
54:37
Speaker 4: vision of what we have to be empathetic of thinking
54:40
Speaker 4: what does that patient go through to every day in
54:43
Speaker 4: their lives and the obstacles that they're facing with payment
54:48
Speaker 4: or prior authorization behind the scenes, and they don't really
54:51
Speaker 4: want to put up with that. They just want to
54:52
Speaker 4: be able to take their medication and go on with
54:54
Speaker 4: their lives, especially when we're all as busy as we are.
54:57
Speaker 3: I want to go back to something.
54:59
Speaker 4: You said about A and the teams that are integrating that. So,
55:03
Speaker 4: teams that integrate AI into patient care, what's the one
55:06
Speaker 4: piece of advice that you'd give to those teams.
55:10
Speaker 8: My advice is pretty simple.
55:12
Speaker 14: It is start with the problem and not the technology.
55:16
Speaker 8: So really fall in love with the problem itself.
55:19
Speaker 14: Pick a clear, high impact pain point, for example, why
55:23
Speaker 14: are patients dropping off therapy? Why are prior arts getting denied?
55:27
Speaker 14: And then let AI be the tool the technology that
55:31
Speaker 14: helps you answer it.
55:33
Speaker 8: So don't start with, oh, we.
55:35
Speaker 14: Need an AI strategy or we need to bring AI
55:38
Speaker 14: into our product. Start with here's the outcome we are
55:41
Speaker 14: trying to achieve, and then leverage AI to achieve that outcome.
55:46
Speaker 8: So two things that.
55:47
Speaker 14: I would say are also non negotiable when you start
55:52
Speaker 14: bringing AI into your product. So first is explainability, and
55:56
Speaker 14: what I mean by that is if a user really
55:58
Speaker 14: can't understand why the model is recommending something, they won't
56:02
Speaker 14: trust it, and honestly they shouldn't. And second, make sure
56:07
Speaker 14: you keep your users in the loop. The goal isn't
56:10
Speaker 14: to replace judgment, it is to amplify it. That's what
56:13
Speaker 14: AI does, and.
56:14
Speaker 8: The best systems, the best systems surface insights.
56:18
Speaker 14: They highlight trade offs and make it much easier to act,
56:22
Speaker 14: but they still leave room for that additional context, that nuance.
56:26
Speaker 8: And of course you talked about empathy earlier.
56:29
Speaker 4: Like empathy all right, So Claritas RX has invested so
56:35
Speaker 4: much from time from obviously investment and money to develop
56:40
Speaker 4: product leaders that know how to get implementation and how
56:44
Speaker 4: to implement AI and do it the right way. And
56:47
Speaker 4: you broke it into pieces and you're leading those teams.
56:51
Speaker 4: So talk to us about how do you drive your
56:54
Speaker 4: own efficiency and to embed AI into your products. What
56:58
Speaker 4: do you think is the place where teams are missing?
57:01
Speaker 4: Where are they missing that right now? Again, that's an
57:05
Speaker 4: awesome question.
57:06
Speaker 14: So you know, everyone's using AI to be more efficient,
57:09
Speaker 14: and that's great. I do think that's a very very
57:12
Speaker 14: important use case. But as a product leader, I think
57:17
Speaker 14: what most teams are missing is that we are entering
57:20
Speaker 14: into an era where AI agents aren't just tools, they're
57:24
Speaker 14: actually becoming users of our platform.
57:27
Speaker 8: And that is a big shift.
57:31
Speaker 14: Agents that operate independently, that navigate systems, that execute workflows
57:36
Speaker 14: without constant human oversight. And what that really does it
57:41
Speaker 14: it flips a lot of assumptions, a lot of assumptions
57:44
Speaker 14: that products have traditionally been built on. So the gap
57:48
Speaker 14: I see is that teams aren't yet designing for agent
57:51
Speaker 14: driven interactions. Are your system structured in a way that
57:55
Speaker 14: an agent can reliably and trustworthily operate in your APIs
58:01
Speaker 14: your permissions, your workflows built for that kind of access?
58:05
Speaker 14: And then it's not just a product question, it goes
58:07
Speaker 14: beyond that. It's a go to market one as well.
58:09
Speaker 14: So if agents are doing more of the work, who
58:12
Speaker 14: are you really building for and selling to? So the
58:15
Speaker 14: same business buyer or is it a more technical stakeholder
58:19
Speaker 14: who's now shaping how those agents operate. And I do
58:22
Speaker 14: think that's a gap as far as product strategy and
58:27
Speaker 14: thinking goes, because there's.
58:29
Speaker 8: No clear playbook yet.
58:31
Speaker 14: But that shift from AI as a tool to AI
58:34
Speaker 14: as a participant as a user, it is that piece
58:37
Speaker 14: that I think product leaders really should keep an eye on.
58:41
Speaker 11: Magna.
58:41
Speaker 4: This has been so special. I want to thank Clara
58:44
Speaker 4: tas Rx. I want to thank you for spending time
58:47
Speaker 4: with us at the post show. It's important to get
58:49
Speaker 4: messaging out. There are so many people that weren't able
58:52
Speaker 4: to attend to send me a twenty twenty six, and
58:54
Speaker 4: they're listening to your words, they're listening to this interview
58:56
Speaker 4: and they're saying, that's really special. Didn't think of it
58:59
Speaker 4: that way, And that's why we want to bring these
59:00
Speaker 4: insights and innovators together like you.
59:02
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for being on the show.
59:04
Speaker 8: Thanks for having me.
59:05
Speaker 7: Todd