Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Todd Karpinski, PharmD, MS, FASHP, FACHE, System Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer at WVU Medicine,

Transcript

Todd Karpinski, PharmD, MS, FASHP, FACHE, System Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer at WVU Medicine, · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:02
  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
• 0:04
  doctor Todd Karpinski,
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  chief pharmacy officer and system vice president as
• 0:08
  well as associate dean for health system services
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  at WVU Medicine. Doctor Karpinski, it's a pleasure
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  to have you on the podcast today.
• 0:15
  Yeah. Thanks for having me.
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  I'm excited for our conversation, and really to
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  dig a little bit deeper into spotlighting some
• 0:21
  of the things you're doing at WVU Medicine
• 0:23
  as well as,
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  your perspective on the future. But before we
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  dive in, can you tell us a little
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  bit more about yourself and the health system?
• 0:30
  Yeah. I've been here at WV Medicine for
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  the past seven years.
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  We've very much been a growing organization.
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  When I first started in 2019, we were
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  at seven hospitals.
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  By the 2026,
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  we'll be up to 30 hospitals in four
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  states.
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  I do oversee all the pharmacy services
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  across,
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  the health system, which would include inpatient, retail,
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  specialty,
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  home infusion,
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  our pharmacy warehouse.
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  And I also serve as the associate dean
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  at the School of Pharmacy
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  here at WVU.
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  That's great to hear. And and definitely, you
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  know, I I think,
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  great that you have that opportunity to provide
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  leadership in such an important,
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  space of the health system. I'm curious when
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  you think back from the last year or
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  so,
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  what do you,
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  think is the most exciting,
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  initiative that you led? What did you do,
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  and what were the
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  Yeah. I think one of our, bigger strategic
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  initiatives last year were to address the growing
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  needs,
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  of our specialty and home infusion pharmacy.
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  So we worked with,
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  internal leadership and our finance committee really side
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  by side to
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  come up with some justification for a new
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  $20,000,000,
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  facility
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  that will be co located where our pharmacy
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  warehouse
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  is, an ability that we call our Innovation
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  Corporation,
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  which is a couple of blocks away from
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  our academic medical center. It's really gonna expand
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  our ability to provide even more specialty pharmacy
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  services to the patients we serve,
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  allow us to grow our home infusion,
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  footprint by about 400%,
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  as well as being able to implement a
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  fully automated mail order pharmacy
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  where we will then be able to centralize
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  all of our mail order operations out of
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  the one location.
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  That's amazing to hear. And, you know, seems
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  like a really great,
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  project to be working on and and provides
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  a ton of value.
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  What was the process for doing that? What
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  were some of the things that you found
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  out during it and, you know, learned along
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  the way?
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  Yeah. Well, we did a lot of data
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  mining to figure out where we had leakage
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  of our specialty in home infusion.
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  Medications being filled by other outside facilities
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  really built our ROI
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  around capturing or recapturing those prescriptions and filling
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  those here internally.
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  That really gave us the dollars to justify
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  the almost $18,000,000
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  project,
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  that it will be.
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  And the other aspect of that is we
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  have 13 retail pharmacies across our system, and
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  most of them do kind of mail order
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  out of the back end
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  or backside of the pharmacy.
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  We wanted to consolidate that,
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  out of one facility, do shipping out of
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  one facility to try to reduce overall logistic
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  costs
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  as well as improve our turnaround inefficiency
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  around filling mail order medications.
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  Now in looking ahead for 2026, what are
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  some of the big priorities and headwinds that
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  you're most focused on? Right?
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  Well, I mean, that biggest headwind, probably like
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  other large academic,
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  medical centers and IDNs is what's gonna happen
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  to the three forty b drug program.
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  We all thought knowing the 2026
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  that will we be moving to the rebate
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  model.
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  And obviously, it's now been put on hold
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  through the courts. And I recently just saw
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  today that HRSA is going to be rethinking
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  how they approach the rebate model. So that
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  was going to be a huge headwind.
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  But we may be backing that down a
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  little bit to make that wind gust not
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  quite as great.
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  But we're also looking at, you know, what
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  is the government doing around Medicare
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  Part d and our Medicare fair pricing and
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  how will that impact our reimbursements
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  on the retail side,
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  as well as what, if anything, they plan
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  to do around
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  the OPPS
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  pricing,
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  survey and how that could potentially impact Medicare
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  Part b reimbursement.
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  And that's fascinating to hear. I know, you
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  know, things, as you mentioned, are are changing
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  quite rapidly, and you never quite know exactly,
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  how things are going to unfold. And so
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  when you're looking at a environment like this,
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  a political one where there's swings in one
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  direction or another,
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  how do you keep your teams focused in
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  in making sure that you have the short
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  term as well as the long term goals
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  in mind with any decision that you're making?
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  Yeah. I think we have to keep our
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  our our finger very close to the pulse
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  on what's going on,
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  both at the federal level and here locally
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  at our state level. So we do a
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  ton of advocacy work, try to stay very
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  connected
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  on which way we may be moving with
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  things like three forty b or,
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  MFP
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  or how are we looking at,
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  our Medicaid days and
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  making sure we,
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  maintained the Medicaid days to continue to qualify
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  for DISH status. And so I think just,
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  you know, we have to stay very close
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  as what's happening. So whether that be through
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  our professional organizations,
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  through our contacts and colleagues across the country,
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  we really must keep really tight,
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  again, your finger on the pulse there to
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  see what where things are headed.
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  That makes a lot of sense and, you
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  know, a very level headed way to, approach
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  approach future planning
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  and how you can, you know, keep focused
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  on the right things for the patients as
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  as well as making sure you're ready for
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  whatever comes our way. Now what do you
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  think the hardest thing you're gonna have to
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  do next year will be?
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  Well, I would have said, three forty b
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  rebate model, but, and that's still very may
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  very well be depending upon, you know, where
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  that ends up landing. But I think, you
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  know, keeping keeping
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  our eye on our retail pharmacy reimbursements, I
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  think, is gonna be key with with MFP
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  and making sure we're able to to see
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  how that money is flowing and and flowing
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  the right way.
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  I think,
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  we continue to experience some some technician staffing
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  shortages.
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  So continually growing the pipeline for our technicians.
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  We actually implemented a program a couple years
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  ago with three of our high schools in
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  our county
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  to get exposure to high school seniors into
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  the pharmacy technician field.
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  They do an internship with us and then
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  by the time they graduate, they can sit
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  for the national certification exam. We've been able
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  to maintain a lot of those technicians on
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  our workforce,
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  following their graduation. So how are we doing
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  things to address some of the staffing issues,
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  that we may anticipate?
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  Then obviously, always financial concerns,
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  making sure that we continue to explore new
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  revenue streams from a pharmacy perspective.
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  We did that a few years ago when
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  we opened up our home infusion
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  business line. And so what are some of
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  the other business lines that we can may
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  look to to to go after?
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  That's fascinating to hear. And I think especially
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  interesting
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  that you you've got such a seems like
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  a great and,
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  innovative partnership to bring that high school program
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  to light to life.
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  You know, when you think about that type
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  of pipeline and leadership and bringing folks into
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  the organization early, what does it take to
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  set up a program like that, and and
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  how have you seen it make a difference,
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  overall as you're looking at staffing and and
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  figuring out where talent is coming from for
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  the future?
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  Yeah. It was actually a really good collaboration,
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  between our,
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  Department of Education here in the county.
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  They have a variety of technical programs that
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  they offer
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  kinda outside the normal high school,
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  work day.
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  And based on that program, we proposed to
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  them as the pharmacy tech program.
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  We take 10 technician or 10 tech students
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  every year.
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  And it's really been a hit and a
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  success, not only for us, but I think
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  also for the students and the opportunities that
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  they get to get, you know, not only
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  exposure to pharmacy, but exposure to to to
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  hospital and health system work.
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  I think, on this on a similar
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  pathway, we're working very closely with our school
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  of pharmacy
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  to get into middle schools and high schools
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  across the con across the state. I would
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  love to do it across the country, but
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  across our state to get, students excited about
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  entering the pharmacy profession
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  knowing that pharmacy school attendance, especially during COVID,
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  really shrunk.
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  And there was a fear of possible impending
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  pharmacist shortage. But fortunately, attendance has rebounded and
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  we're kind of back to what pre COVID
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  numbers were into in terms of pharmacy school
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  attendance. But really just getting the word out
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  there about all the variety of opportunities that
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  there are,
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  in the field of pharmacy, whether it be
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  a pharmacy, a pharmacist, or a pharmacy technician.
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  That's great to hear. Now before we wrap
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  up, I wanted to ask about growth as
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  well. Where do you see some of the
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  big opportunities for organizational growth over the next
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  twelve to twenty four months or so?
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  Yeah. About four years ago, we started up
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  our own health plan called, Peak Health. It
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  does have a pharmacy component
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  in there, which I have somewhat oversight over,
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  in collaboration
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  with the Peak leadership.
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  We have been working very hard to collaborate
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  with our insurance offering in our retail slash
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  specialty
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  in order to improve medication adherence,
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  improve medication access,
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  ensure affordability
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  for our insurance customers,
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  really to make sure that they have access
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  to those medications that will keep them well
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  and keep them out of the hospital, as
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  well as reduce kind of overall employee medication
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  costs
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  that the organization has to bear every year.
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  So that partnership with peak health has been
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  tremendous.
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  And I only see that really continuing to
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  grow into 2026,
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  2027.
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  I love that. Doctor. Carpinski, thank you so
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  much for your time today. This has been
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  such a a fun and informative conversation.
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  I look forward to connecting with you again
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  soon and seeing you in April at the,
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  live event. We have the chief pharmacy officer
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  summit, coming up here, and I know you're
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  speaking on a panel, so it'll be fascinating
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  to hear a bit more about how you're
• 10:28
  thinking about things and dig deeper into some
• 10:29
  of the themes you talked about today as
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  well. Yep. Yep. Looking forward to it. Thank
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  you for your time.