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The Prescriber Goes Dark Reconnecting the Provide | ONE Journey Ending Fragmentation in Specialty Care with CassianRx · Pharmacy Podcast Network

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  Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
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  Speaker 1: to the pharmacy profession.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
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  Speaker 3: Welcome to One Journey, Ending Fragmentation in Specialty Care, sponsored
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  Speaker 3: by Cassian Rx. In this special series, we bring you
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  Speaker 3: experts on specialty care and dive into the stages of
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  Speaker 3: the specialty patient journey. We break down the whys and
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  Speaker 3: hows of fragmentation and offer you insights and solutions on
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  Speaker 3: how to fix it. We will cover enrollment and onboarding,
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  Speaker 3: treatment access, ongoing support and adherence, and more. Join us
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  Speaker 3: on this episode of One Journey.
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  Speaker 4: Hey, welcome to a special podcast series. This is a
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  Speaker 4: three-part series, and this is part one. This is brought
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  Speaker 4: to us by CassianRx. In today's episode, the prescriber goes dark,
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  Speaker 4: reconnecting the provider. I want to introduce our special guest today.
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  Speaker 4: I'm so excited, along with Chris Corsi, CEO of CassianRx.
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  Speaker 5: Paige, introduce yourself to the listeners.
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  Speaker 6: Paige Davis, Vice President of Product Development and Customer Success
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  Speaker 6: at Cassian Rx.
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  Speaker 5: Jenny, introduce yourself to our listeners today.
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  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Jenny Iverson, Vice President of Clinical and Product
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  Speaker 1: Strategy at Icaria Health.
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  Speaker 5: Peter, you're up next.
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  Speaker 7: Hi, everybody. Peter Bergen.
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  Speaker 8: I'm a pharmacist and the Vice President of Pharmacy Operations
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  Speaker 8: at Icaria Health.
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  Speaker 5: Chris, part of the command center.
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  Speaker 4: Introduce yourself to the listeners if this is the first
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  Speaker 4: time that they're hearing from you.
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  Speaker 7: Hey, yeah.
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  Speaker 9: Chris Corsi, CEO of Cassian Rx. excited to be here
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  Speaker 9: with everyone. I founded Cassian eight years ago with the
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  Speaker 9: simple mission of trying to take the burden of disease
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  Speaker 9: off of specialty patients.
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  Speaker 7: I'm excited to be here with Akeria.
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  Speaker 9: They're a great partner, and they also have a very
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  Speaker 9: similar mission. So excited to get into this topic today, Todd,
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  Speaker 9: with everyone and educate our listeners about specialty and how
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  Speaker 9: we are continuing to improve the specialty ecosystem.
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  Speaker 4: I want to say thank you to Akeria Health They
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  Speaker 4: are back on the pods. They've been a big supporter
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  Speaker 4: of the Pharmacy Podcast Network over the years. A shout
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  Speaker 4: out to the NASP crew as we get ready for
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  Speaker 4: Inspire 2026.
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  Speaker 5: Hey, we.
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  Speaker 4: Got to dig into this series as part one. There
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  Speaker 4: is a fragmentation in specialty care that doesn't begin with
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  Speaker 4: the pharmacy or payer. It begins with the moment the
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  Speaker 4: prescriber writes in. that specialty pharmacy prescription and everything that
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  Speaker 4: goes into that puts a lot of stress on that ecosystem.
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  Speaker 4: I want to open up to Chris just to kind
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  Speaker 4: of set the stage of today and how Cassian fits
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  Speaker 4: into this life cycle and this ecosystem.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah, Todd.
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  Speaker 9: So our One Journey platform is really an end-to-end platform
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  Speaker 9: that works with all the different stakeholders. I like to
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  Speaker 9: call them the five Ps, right? The patient, the physician,
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  Speaker 9: the pharmacy, the payer, and the pharmaceutical manufacturer. and really
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  Speaker 9: coordinates a single pane of glass view that allows everyone
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  Speaker 9: in the ecosystem to understand where they are within the
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  Speaker 9: care journey and what some of the next best actions
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  Speaker 9: are to take for that patient to make sure that
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  Speaker 9: we're getting optimal outcome, whether that's an action at the pharmacy,
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  Speaker 9: whether that's an action with the physician, or whether that's
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  Speaker 9: just simply the patient needing to submit some additional information
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  Speaker 9: to help progress the overall.
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  Speaker 7: Care flow forward.
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  Speaker 9: So really, we sit as an orchestration layer, Todd, above
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  Speaker 9: a lot of the different point solutions that helps orchestrate
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  Speaker 9: that journey end-to-end for those patients and for all those
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  Speaker 9: different stakeholders.
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  Speaker 4: Jenny, I want to come to you in kicking this
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  Speaker 4: off as well from a carrier health perspective and the
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  Speaker 4: importance of specialty care being treated much differently than other
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  Speaker 4: facets of our ecosystems in pharmacy. And I think of
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  Speaker 4: our senior care, I think of pediatrics and health system
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  Speaker 4: and community specialty is really different. And if you're not
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  Speaker 4: in it and you don't understand it, there could be
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  Speaker 4: a lot of gaps that would cause access to care
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  Speaker 4: to stall. And Acaria has built things over the years
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  Speaker 4: with some champions on your team that have assured that
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  Speaker 4: that's not going to happen. Talk to us a little
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  Speaker 4: bit about our theme today, the prescriber goes dark and
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  Speaker 4: really reconnecting with that provider.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: So I think what I want to do is zoom
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  Speaker 1: out for a minute because you talked a lot about
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  Speaker 1: the fragmentation that exists in the ecosystem. And I think
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  Speaker 1: it's really important to think about that from the framework
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  Speaker 1: of what a patient experience is and then subsequently to
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  Speaker 1: your point, what a provider experiences. And so I think
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  Speaker 1: about it from the perspective of, I think we've probably
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  Speaker 1: all unfortunately had friends or family that have been through
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  Speaker 1: a diagnosis. And the easiest one for most folks to
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  Speaker 1: conceptualize is oncology. So I have had multiple friends and frankly,
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  Speaker 1: a very dear family member, a couple, unfortunately, that were
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: diagnosed with cancer. So my uncle was diagnosed with with cancer,
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  Speaker 1: it's probably been eight years ago now, he got a
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  Speaker 1: diagnosis with not.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of context around it.
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  Speaker 1: So he and my aunt managed what was a life-changing diagnosis.
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  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden we're thrown into this
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  Speaker 1: world where they had to navigate the benefit structure. They
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  Speaker 1: had to navigate paying for really astronomically expensive medications, whether
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: they were going to get a shipment at the house,
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  Speaker 1: whether he was going to go in and get an
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  Speaker 1: infusion on site, really understanding he was diagnosed with a cutaneous,
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  Speaker 1: like a melanoma, but without an origin. And so there
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  Speaker 1: was a lot of question of how to treat it.
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  Speaker 1: And he was honestly terrified. And He did not know
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  Speaker 1: how to navigate the system where everything was set up
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  Speaker 1: around organizations and a medical benefit versus a pharmacy benefit.
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  Speaker 2: But he saw it as his journey, as did I.
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  Speaker 1: He was one of my favorite uncles, and the system
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  Speaker 1: really expected him.
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  Speaker 2: To connect those dots.
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  Speaker 1: So thankfully, I was in a place where I could
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  Speaker 1: jump in to say, here's how we're going to start
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  Speaker 1: navigating this. Let's look at this second opinion. Let's start
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  Speaker 1: connecting the dots because the system doesn't do that for you.
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  Speaker 1: So he was interacting with his physician, the person who
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  Speaker 1: gave him the second opinion, who happened to thankfully be
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  Speaker 1: in St. Louis where I lived. The financial support through
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  Speaker 1: the manufacturer, the the specialty pharmacy who was providing the meds,
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  Speaker 1: and then multiple clinicians because he was getting different treatments
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  Speaker 1: and not just a medication.
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  Speaker 2: It all felt very disconnected for him.
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  Speaker 1: And so I think what it drives home to me
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  Speaker 1: is that the sickest patient's The most clinically complex patients
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  Speaker 1: are asked to navigate the most fractured part of our
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  Speaker 1: healthcare ecosystem.
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  Speaker 2: And it's really incumbent upon us.
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  Speaker 1: At Akeria Health, upon our partners like Cassie and Rx
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  Speaker 1: to figure out ways to navigate and connect that system
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  Speaker 1: for them. And I think really the patient shouldn't have
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  Speaker 1: to connect that healthcare system for us.
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  Speaker 2: We should be doing that for them.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah, Jenny, 100% agree.
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  Speaker 9: The patient shouldn't need to connect it themselves on an
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  Speaker 9: island where.
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  Speaker 7: They have no experience of it either, right?
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  Speaker 9: They're expecting, I would say, you can go on Amazon
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  Speaker 9: and order something and it shows up on your doorstep
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  Speaker 9: the next day with a one-buy checkout button, right?
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  Speaker 7: Or buy now button, whatever it is on Amazon.
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  Speaker 9: And now you're saying, well, I have a life-altering diagnosis
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  Speaker 9: that's going to take me maybe weeks, months of treatment,
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  Speaker 9: years of treatment to get through. I have five different
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  Speaker 9: contact points or four different contact points, whatever it might be,
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  Speaker 9: all fully disconnected. Those contact points aren't necessarily working together
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  Speaker 9: either in the background. And you're sitting here and someone
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  Speaker 9: who isn't intimately familiar with that health system and this
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  Speaker 9: whole ecosystem, how do they even navigate it? And making
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  Speaker 9: that something that they can navigate... making that something where
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  Speaker 9: it's really coordinated and connected care in the background, I
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  Speaker 9: think is, you know, upon all of us, right, to
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  Speaker 9: continue to push that forward, continue to make it as
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  Speaker 9: easy as possible for that patient to have that simple
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  Speaker 9: journey and remove the fragmentation as much as possible.
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  Speaker 4: Peter, I think of operations and how in and of itself,
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  Speaker 4: people don't understand the complexity that comes from that word
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  Speaker 4: just in general. And I think of the provider and
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  Speaker 4: how they're becoming that underserved stakeholder in specialty care because
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  Speaker 4: some things are happening along the side and all of
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  Speaker 4: a sudden they're just.
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  Speaker 5: Lost in the shuffle.
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  Speaker 4: Talk to us about operations and things that you feel
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  Speaker 4: are important to mention to listeners of how it's changing
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  Speaker 4: and how it's evolving.
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  Speaker 8: Yeah, inherently it's complex. And Chris mentioned the five P's
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  Speaker 8: and I think Jenny explained the really well some of
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  Speaker 8: the experiences of perhaps a new patient navigating into a
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  Speaker 8: new new space. And I think traditionally the barrier of
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  Speaker 8: knowledge or the bar of knowledge required to succeed in
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  Speaker 8: a lot of these new interactions is pretty high, and
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  Speaker 8: we're asking a patient to do that. Again, you might
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  Speaker 8: be going through a unique and new diagnosis that's creating issues.
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  Speaker 8: a lot of challenge and stress on them as an
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  Speaker 8: individual as well as their caregivers or family groups. So
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  Speaker 8: there's an awful lot of customers within the operation. We're
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  Speaker 8: taking care of patients. We're navigating messaging to prescribers. We're
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  Speaker 8: making sure we're collecting everything we need to collect to
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  Speaker 8: maximize patient care and the outcome, but also to do
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  Speaker 8: so compliantly and to an accreditation level that's required. And
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  Speaker 8: while We love it when the happy path happens. We
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  Speaker 8: know too much communication happens only after a problem surfaces, right?
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  Speaker 8: It's a delayed start. It's a prior authorization issue. It's
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  Speaker 8: a refill gap. It's a non-adherence. It's something that creates
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  Speaker 8: a challenge that ultimately impacts a patient that's in need.
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  Speaker 8: And it can be really hard for those patients that
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  Speaker 8: are that are starting fresh and learning the new language
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  Speaker 8: and learning the new providers and all the different stakeholders,
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  Speaker 8: but equally so maintaining patients on therapy that might be
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  Speaker 8: going through a worsening and adding a drug to therapy
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  Speaker 8: or navigating an insurance change or a new prior authorization requirement.
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  Speaker 8: Just seems there's always some complexity to navigate to maximize
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  Speaker 8: those patient outcomes.
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  Speaker 4: Paige, I think of the product itself Things that are
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  Speaker 4: being developed. My background is pharmacy technology. And sometimes, especially
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  Speaker 4: when it seems cool, we were coming out of the
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: age of closed database to open database, not to make
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  Speaker 4: myself sound like a veteran and an old guy. But
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  Speaker 4: today it's a whole different landscape. And I think of
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  Speaker 4: the portal capability, the changes for most of our prescribers
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  Speaker 4: are going through, expecting them to keep up with it.
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  Speaker 4: the visibility of things like the status of where the
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  Speaker 4: prescription at, where's the product, where's the delivery, two-way messaging.
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  Speaker 4: Talk to us about the importance of developing a product
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  Speaker 4: that's patient-focused, but isn't missing out on insights from our providers.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's really critical to connect the providers
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  Speaker 6: that patient experience and make sure that they understand where
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  Speaker 6: it's at in the journey, that it's not that black
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  Speaker 6: box or black hole like you were describing earlier. or
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  Speaker 6: they're not sure where it's at and whether they're going
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: to have the medication in time or if the patient's
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: going to show up for an appointment without a medication,
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: which then causes further delays. So I think what we
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  Speaker 6: try and do is really provide the right patient engagement
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  Speaker 6: experience through our portal, through our two-way text, so that
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  Speaker 6: pharmacies are able to reach out when they need something
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  Speaker 6: from the patient. They're able to set expectations as to
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  Speaker 6: what's happening next with that patient. whether that's passively like
• 12:58
  Speaker 6: through a pizza tracker status where they can see where
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: they are and what's coming up next, whether that's actively
• 13:03
  Speaker 6: reaching out to collect an insurance card so that that
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  Speaker 6: process can keep moving, as well as sharing that status
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: then back with the prescriber and making sure that that
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: prescriber gets involved. If they need to do a prior authorization,
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: they need to be notified of that, making sure that
• 13:18
  Speaker 6: that's being tracked through prescriber. If that's not progressing, potentially
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  Speaker 6: sending a message to a patient to reach out to
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: a prescriber to hurry that process along to avoid delays. Really,
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  Speaker 6: the technology allows us to be another set of eyes
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  Speaker 6: on behalf of the pharmacy and the patient and prescriber
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  Speaker 6: that's connecting that experience. And I think it's important that
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  Speaker 6: you're not just engaging the patient when you need something
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  Speaker 6: from them. You're also providing them the data that they
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  Speaker 6: need to manage their clinical experience and connecting them to
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  Speaker 6: the provider if they're giving you information that says they
• 13:50
  Speaker 6: may need some intervention with that. So that's another way
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  Speaker 6: we can help the prescriber and better connect that journey
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  Speaker 6: as well. And then to a text, if a patient's
• 14:00
  Speaker 6: not sure where something is, texting the word status to
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  Speaker 6: our text number will give them the status of that
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  Speaker 6: medication right away. And then if they want more information,
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  Speaker 6: they can go into the portal and get more details there.
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  Speaker 6: Or if they need to reach out to the pharmacy
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  Speaker 6: or or even the prescriber to engage and get the
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  Speaker 6: process moving or get a question answered. Just giving them
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  Speaker 6: different ways to engage and letting them choose that preference
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  Speaker 6: of when they want to go to the portal, when
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: they prefer an email, when they prefer a text, or
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  Speaker 6: when they think they need to pick up the phone
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  Speaker 6: and actually call the pharmacy or call their doctor.
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  Speaker 1: Paige, I love that because I think Peter and I
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  Speaker 1: have talked about this before, that Connected care in our mind,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: as we look at it at Acaria Health, is about
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: removing the friction for the patient. So I think about
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the patient needing kind of this concentric circle of support,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: and that circle needs to be connected.
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  Speaker 2: All the way around.
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  Speaker 1: So when I think about an oncology patient or a
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  Speaker 1: cystic fibrosis patient or multiple sclerosis or, you know, down
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  Speaker 1: the line of what a specialty patient may experience, they're
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  Speaker 1: in the center of And they should have connectivity to
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: everything around them. But that connection between the prescriber and
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  Speaker 1: the pharmacy, the pharmacy and the payer, the pharmacy, you know,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: and so on and so forth should be all connected
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  Speaker 1: so that everyone is supporting that patient. And the patient
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: feels that support all the way through the experience.
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  Speaker 2: And that circle is frictionless. You know, you can go
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: around and around that.
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  Speaker 1: Circle in perpetuity and but always at the center is
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the patient. So every interaction that that patient feels that
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: you talked about, that visibility to status of things really
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: allows everything to feel coordinated and allows things to happen
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes. So the patient is experiencing that support
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: rather than trying to navigate one-by-one all of those different experiences.
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  Speaker 1: And what I have found appreciated seeing is that the
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: data really supports that. So 70% of patients want digital
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: health communications of some sort, and they want these self-service options,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: but they also really want access to the clinicians that
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: we've got on staff. When things really become complex, you know,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: that two in the morning kind of panic. I know,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I don't know about you guys, but when I wake
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: up in the middle of the night, that's when my
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: panic sets in about something.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Everything seems worse in the middle of the night. And
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: having access to.
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  Speaker 1: A person or two-way texting or something like that in
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: those moments of fear setting in, I think is really important.
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  Speaker 1: So it's that balance of removing the friction with technology,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: which is what the right partnerships can do for the
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: healthcare ecosystem, but then really truly supporting these clinically complex
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  Speaker 1: and emotionally burdened patients to.
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  Speaker 2: With that human interaction. Plus, I think it's really.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Great for the people that we employ and the people
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: that care about these patients to be able to have
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: those really unique supportive conversations with patients to help support
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: them in their disease and their treatment experience overall.
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  Speaker 9: Yeah, and kind of thinking about that ring that you
• 17:31
  Speaker 9: were just saying, Jenny, and then being able to enable
• 17:34
  Speaker 9: that with technology, right? You're removing the friction, but think
• 17:37
  Speaker 9: about if that patient had to maybe make three outreaches, right?
• 17:41
  Speaker 9: Think about that burden onto the health system as well.
• 17:43
  Speaker 9: And if we could have that coordinated care, given the
• 17:47
  Speaker 9: technology that we have, we can, one, help patient have
• 17:51
  Speaker 9: a more frictionless experience, two, help reduce the overall cost
• 17:54
  Speaker 9: to the healthcare system, right? And three, really allow for
• 17:58
  Speaker 9: more of that empathetic care where maybe that one outreach
• 18:02
  Speaker 9: that the patient needs to make to the physician or
• 18:04
  Speaker 9: to the pharmacy, they can really spend that time focusing
• 18:08
  Speaker 9: on what that patient needs, not, hey, I called the pharmacy.
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  Speaker 7: They didn't really have what I needed. They don't know.
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  Speaker 7: I called the physician. They don't really have what I need.
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  Speaker 7: I don't know. I called the payer. I finally got
• 18:18
  Speaker 7: the answer that I was looking for. Man, I just spent.
• 18:20
  Speaker 9: three hours on hold and I spent a whole day
• 18:23
  Speaker 9: and I had a miserable experience, right? So, I mean,
• 18:27
  Speaker 9: it's horrible, but, right, it's how do we remove that friction?
• 18:31
  Speaker 9: How do we give them or how do we leverage technology, right,
• 18:34
  Speaker 9: to remove that friction and give them that better experience
• 18:37
  Speaker 9: along with also removing some of that cost burden? to
• 18:40
  Speaker 9: the whole ecosystem too. So it is really an important thing.
• 18:43
  Speaker 9: And I think leveraging a lot of the digital transformation
• 18:45
  Speaker 9: that is now available, I think will have a significant
• 18:48
  Speaker 9: impact on the overall healthcare ecosystem as a whole.
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: I would flip the script and we're talking frictionless, we're
• 18:53
  Speaker 8: talking connected care, we're talking visibility and all those things
• 18:57
  Speaker 8: are true, but to that new patient or to that
• 18:59
  Speaker 8: provider or that returning patient, it really flips the script
• 19:03
  Speaker 8: on the value prop.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 19:06
  Speaker 8: The time I spend talking to the pharmacy, whether it's
• 19:09
  Speaker 8: 2 a.m. or 2 p.m., is focused on my needs
• 19:13
  Speaker 8: at hand, not wasting time. on administrative work, repeating the
• 19:18
  Speaker 8: same story over and over again. But I know when
• 19:20
  Speaker 8: I talk to my pharmacist or my pharmacy or my
• 19:23
  Speaker 8: insurance representative or whoever is going to help manage my care,
• 19:27
  Speaker 8: I know they have my full picture. I know it's
• 19:29
  Speaker 8: going to be time well spent. I'm going to leave
• 19:31
  Speaker 8: that call satisfied knowing I don't have homework and knowing
• 19:34
  Speaker 8: I don't need to further connect things as the patient,
• 19:37
  Speaker 8: but I'm getting the best service I can.
• 19:39
  Speaker 9: Yeah, how many times have you filled out the same form?
• 19:44
  Speaker 7: Probably a million at this point.
• 19:46
  Speaker 8: Most definitely.
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think connecting the experience and then you know,
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: one thing we always think about is we're designing our
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: product is, you know, that patient who may have just
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: gotten that life-changing diagnosis, like we talked about, you know,
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: they have no control over that.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: And that's a big part of processing that.
• 20:02
  Speaker 6: And so the goal of our technology solutions and our
• 20:05
  Speaker 6: platform is is really to give them that sense of
• 20:07
  Speaker 6: control back, at least over this specialty medication experience.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: I want to pause for a second for listeners and
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: for us as healthcare providers, myself, and more of the
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: communication space, the actual providers, the pharmacists that are out there.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: Fear comes from the unknown. Fear comes from not knowing anything.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: the information, not having access to the information. What Akaria
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: is building, what CassianRx has supported in his building is
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: a way to minimize not getting.
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: The information that you need to move forward.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: This isn't fear for just the patient, although in all
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: of our opinions, that's the number one individual in healthcare
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: that we want to alleviate the fear. But the provider,
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: they have fear. It's like, I don't want my patient
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: to suffer. I don't want my patient not to get
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: on this medication. I don't want a payment system or
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: some kind of mess up in the system or something
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: that's a gap in the process or the workflow. I
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: don't want that to prevent us from getting started on
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: the therapy or from following up on the therapy or
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: getting the therapy paid for, for goodness sakes. All of
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: that is connected back to fear and fear is connected
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: back to not having the information. And that in of
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: itself is kind of the whole prescriber going dark. We
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: don't want the prescriber. We don't want the inability to
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: connect all of the pieces of the puzzle together and
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: lose data or not be able to find data. And
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: then in turn, being able to go to the patient
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: with the information that they need or better yet giving
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: them access to the information that they're looking for at
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: two o'clock in the morning because they're scared about something.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: And specialty pharmacy, with as complex as it is, technology
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: can prevent all of that misinformation or not being able
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: to find information. Chris, what do you think of that handoff?
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: What's to assure that we lessen the fear factor?
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 22:28
  Speaker 9: I mean, right, it's like we've been talking about connecting
• 22:30
  Speaker 9: all of those pieces. So whether that's giving that patient
• 22:34
  Speaker 9: access into a digital two-way texting platform, giving that patient
• 22:38
  Speaker 9: into a portal where they can see all of their
• 22:41
  Speaker 9: Rx status or pizza trackers, I feel like everyone likes
• 22:44
  Speaker 9: to call it, right? Where are they at in their journey?
• 22:46
  Speaker 9: Are they waiting for their benefits to be verified? Or, hey,
• 22:49
  Speaker 9: the pharmacy doesn't even have your insurance information. Maybe you
• 22:53
  Speaker 9: need to upload that, right? And everything stalled at that point.
• 22:56
  Speaker 9: Are they processing your order? Has it been shipped? What
• 22:59
  Speaker 9: is the tracking number? What day is it coming? Are
• 23:02
  Speaker 9: they getting tracking updates as it's progressing like Amazon likes
• 23:07
  Speaker 9: to do? Hey, your order is the next three orders away.
• 23:11
  Speaker 9: There's three stops before you're getting your package, right?
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 23:15
  Speaker 9: All of these different types of things that I think
• 23:17
  Speaker 9: you can get the patient in the loop for. And
• 23:19
  Speaker 9: then on the other stakeholder side, same with the physician.
• 23:23
  Speaker 9: The physician needs to understand where the script is. Does
• 23:26
  Speaker 9: the pharmacy even have the medication to dispense? Maybe they
• 23:30
  Speaker 9: just sent it off and that's a limited distribution drug
• 23:32
  Speaker 9: and the pharmacy they sent it to can't dispense that asset.
• 23:35
  Speaker 9: Maybe they're out of stock and can't send it for
• 23:37
  Speaker 9: a week or two weeks. What is that Rx status?
• 23:41
  Speaker 9: Has it been processed and shipped? Maybe there's a holdup
• 23:45
  Speaker 9: in the PA and the pharmacy needs some additional information.
• 23:48
  Speaker 9: that they can two-way chat about or over HIPAA secure
• 23:52
  Speaker 9: messaging and direct messaging with the physician, right? And then
• 23:55
  Speaker 9: same thing with the manufacturers. They want to understand the
• 23:58
  Speaker 9: outcomes of their assets. They want to understand that the
• 24:01
  Speaker 9: patients who need their assets are getting those assets and
• 24:05
  Speaker 9: They're not getting held up sitting in a queue somewhere
• 24:07
  Speaker 9: in their distribution network, and they're not getting the service
• 24:11
  Speaker 9: that they're expecting because they're a brand. They're setting an
• 24:14
  Speaker 9: expectation that there's a high level of quality associated with
• 24:17
  Speaker 9: that therapeutic asset. So it really pulls itself all the
• 24:21
  Speaker 9: way through where every stakeholder really needs to have an
• 24:23
  Speaker 9: understanding of what is happening in that journey, and that's
• 24:27
  Speaker 9: where I think technology becomes super helpful and useful here.
• 24:31
  Speaker 9: And digital transformation is really going to have a large impact,
• 24:33
  Speaker 9: especially in the specialty pharmacy space.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Chris, can I add on.
• 24:37
  Speaker 8: A little bit?
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Because I love how you brought up the Amazon experience.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I will say there is a stat out there that
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: more than 80% of patients really think that healthcare should
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: be easier to navigate digitally than And they use like
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: similar to banking or retail.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: And that's exactly what it is.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Because again, digital should enhance relationships. Technology should help us
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: make room to have those one-on-one interactions and support patients
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: where we need to. And what you were talking about, again,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: goes back to that circle of support around a patient,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: but also that conduit of continuous information. And I think
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: one of the things, it's very easy to say. In
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: a perfect world, the prescriber would know exactly where that
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: prescription is. The patient would know exactly what is happening
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: with their prescription and how to pay for it and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: what benefit it sits on.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: And again, go through that whole process.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: It is harder because of the disconnected nature and the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: fragmented nature of how our system has grown over the
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: last few decades. to say, here's how we're going to
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: do it. But one of the ways that we have
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: been really looking at being thoughtful about how we connect
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: to those dots is doing a lot of user experience research.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: And so spending time with patients, individual patients, individual.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Prescribers, our pharma partners, our payer partners, our vendors, and
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: the partners that we work with to.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Build a lot of these solutions and really saying, how.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: How does the experience need to look? What's the right
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: amount of information to share with all of these different
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: pieces of the puzzle? Because it's not just making all
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: of the information accessible. If you dig into EMRs and
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: what's out there, it's vast and expansive. And that's where
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Tools like AI will help us connect the dots between
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: valuable pieces of information and create new ways of looking
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: at things. But we really need to be thoughtful and
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: layer that human component of what do we share with
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the patient? What makes sense for them to see? And
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: then what makes sense for the prescriber to see? The
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: prescriber doesn't have all day to sift through everything that
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: the pharmacy sifts through. So we really have to be
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: thoughtful about what is a thoughtful conduit of information that
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: needs to go in that circle around the patient?
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: And then what does the patient need out of that?
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: And what does the patient want out of that?
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Same with the prescriber.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: And so I think it's, again, we're in this incredible,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: exciting period in healthcare where we do have all these
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: new technology tools and ways of looking at data and
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: connecting the dots, but being thoughtful with that human component
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: of what is valuable for all of these different pieces
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: of the puzzle to have in this vast network of
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: information that's available out there that now we can start
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: to sift through and make sense of with a lot
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: of the AI tools that are out there.
• 27:45
  Speaker 9: And even on that, how do you educate the patients
• 27:48
  Speaker 9: that these are the valuable points and this is what
• 27:51
  Speaker 9: it means? Because I could show them something, but if
• 27:54
  Speaker 9: they have no idea what that data point.
• 27:56
  Speaker 7: Means or that element means, is it really valuable to them?
• 28:00
  Speaker 9: So it's a combination of education plus access.
• 28:03
  Speaker 7: To remove what Todd was saying.
• 28:05
  Speaker 9: If we go back a couple minutes of the fear, hey,
• 28:07
  Speaker 9: if I just have access to the data and I
• 28:09
  Speaker 9: don't even know what it means, that doesn't help alleviate
• 28:12
  Speaker 9: my fear because I still don't really understand it versus
• 28:14
  Speaker 9: if I have the education plus access to the data.
• 28:17
  Speaker 9: And now I really have an understanding of where I'm
• 28:19
  Speaker 9: at and that removes that holistic fear that I do have.
• 28:22
  Speaker 7: So 100%. Yeah.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to hand it to Peter in a second,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: but I'll tee it off with the fact that When
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: we think about data, again, we're really thoughtful about what
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: we ask a patient to give us and then what
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: we share with a patient that will help them manage
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: that fear. And so what we have seen is when
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: we engage digitally with a patient, they show an increase
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: in adherence. And so for those who are deep in
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: the clinical aspects of what adherence is, it's truly patient
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: is just taking their med when they need to and
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: as often as they need to essentially. And the 2%
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: to 4% increase is a fairly significant one when we
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: think about what that means for a patient and the
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: decrease in some of the concomitant issues that come with
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: being non-adherent. But I think about our bleed log for
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: some of the hemophilia patients. Peter, do you want to
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: talk through what that means and allows a patient an
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: agency in a chronic condition to kind of manage that
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: fear and their condition?
• 29:30
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I think it goes back to connected pharmacy a
• 29:33
  Speaker 8: little bit, just that ability for patients to interact and
• 29:36
  Speaker 8: have a source of record or a two-way communication with
• 29:40
  Speaker 8: their clinician on what's happening with their condition.
• 29:43
  Speaker 7: Are they worsening? Did they have a good day? Did
• 29:44
  Speaker 7: they have a bad day? In the case of a
• 29:47
  Speaker 7: hemophilia patient, did they have a bleed?
• 29:49
  Speaker 8: Did they require an episodic use of a factor to
• 29:53
  Speaker 8: control their bleed? And again, What actions does that then
• 29:57
  Speaker 8: create for us as a pharmacy to replace that factor
• 30:00
  Speaker 8: or to properly notate the bleed or to communicate with
• 30:04
  Speaker 8: their prescriber and just maintain that connectivity throughout the healthcare ecosystem, really?
• 30:11
  Speaker 7: I'd go back to the fear piece as well.
• 30:13
  Speaker 8: And Jenny, you talked about a lot of things in flight.
• 30:18
  Speaker 7: Just to underscore, there's a lot of intentionality.
• 30:20
  Speaker 8: It isn't just throwing things together, but rather the intentionality
• 30:23
  Speaker 8: of building things that add value, that can demonstrate meeting
• 30:28
  Speaker 8: an unmet need or supporting a patient. And really turning
• 30:33
  Speaker 8: that fear into trust at the end of the day.
• 30:36
  Speaker 8: How can we be the pharmacy of choice for a prescriber,
• 30:39
  Speaker 8: for a pharmaceutical manufacturer? In some ways, the greatest compliment
• 30:43
  Speaker 8: you can get, and they're wonderful to receive when you
• 30:45
  Speaker 8: hear from a manufacturer, oh, we saw that referral went
• 30:48
  Speaker 8: to a carrier.
• 30:49
  Speaker 7: We don't have to worry about it.
• 30:51
  Speaker 8: Or when a prescriber lets you know that they know
• 30:54
  Speaker 8: their patient's in good hands because they're sending it to
• 30:58
  Speaker 8: a carrier.
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I really love the way you guys have taken
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: our tools and really used that to make sure that
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: you're outreaching and engaging with the right data at the
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: right moments and really helping that patient and that prescriber
• 31:12
  Speaker 6: stay connected throughout that experience.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: I think you guys.
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: Have really taken the tools and made a difference for
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: both your patients and the prescribers that you work with.
• 31:21
  Speaker 6: And it's definitely noticeable out there in the market.
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: This panel has been around long enough not to call
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: everybody out and saying that you're old, but old enough,
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: let's just put it that way. More than old, it's
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: the experience that each of you have brought to the
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: panel today. I want to say thank you for doing that.
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: But Let's go to each. I'm going to start with Jenny.
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: If you could remove one thing in the ecosystem, the handoff,
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: the process, something that's in place, if you could eliminate it,
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: what would that be?
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, Todd, that is an excellent question.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I think I would remove, again, if I could weave
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: a magic wand, I would remove the separation of between
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: the clinical data from a physician and the pharmacy. So
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: when I think about exponentially how we could advance care,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: it would be to kind of separate, to remove the
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: separation between a medical and a pharmacy benefit and where.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: The large majority of that information sits.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Because I think combining and being able to see that
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: full longitudinal picture for a patient is really where care can.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Be advanced significantly.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: And again, then you remove a lot of that repetition
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: or that administrative burden that sits on the prescriber, that
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: sits on the pharmacy, that sits on the patient. And
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I think that would exponentially drive us forward, which is
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: where I think we need to be going to a
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: point where technology helps close those gaps and provide that
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: singular conduit of information and support for the patient.
• 33:15
  Speaker 8: Mr.
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: Peter, you're up next. What would you see as a
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: good elimination of this whole ecosystem?
• 33:24
  Speaker 7: It's like you're asking me if I had a superpower,
• 33:26
  Speaker 7: what would it be?
• 33:27
  Speaker 8: And I I think I'd double down on telepathy and
• 33:32
  Speaker 8: understanding what the patient journey is and what they need
• 33:35
  Speaker 8: and making sure that there isn't some expectation that's misaligned
• 33:43
  Speaker 8: or that, you know, patients are reporting their symptoms, their
• 33:49
  Speaker 8: adverse reactions, their experience as accurately as possible to us. Again,
• 33:54
  Speaker 8: making sure we're being as effective as possible and in
• 33:57
  Speaker 8: delivering the care and the medications on time, the right
• 34:00
  Speaker 8: time to the.
• 34:01
  Speaker 7: Patients that we serve.
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: Paige Davis, you're up next.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: Great question. Lots to answer there. Lots of opportunity to improve.
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: I think where I would put the focus is on
• 34:12
  Speaker 6: the barriers to being able to share information in an automated,
• 34:15
  Speaker 6: seamless fashion across the pharmacy, the prescriber, the payer, pharma,
• 34:21
  Speaker 6: being able to get that information because That removes the
• 34:24
  Speaker 6: burden on the patient to have to connect all of those,
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: to repeat the same forms, the same information, making sure
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: that the data is accurate, it's consistent across. Everyone can
• 34:34
  Speaker 6: do the things that they need to do with that
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: data to then treat that patient and make sure they're
• 34:39
  Speaker 6: getting the optimal outcomes and really just reducing the barriers
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: that we have today of having to fax and call
• 34:47
  Speaker 6: and hope you get the right answer and, you know,
• 34:50
  Speaker 6: know what's going on, and then being able to share
• 34:52
  Speaker 6: that back with the patient. I think removing that makes
• 34:55
  Speaker 6: the patient experience, the patient outcomes better, but it also
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: makes it easier for everyone else to provide the highest
• 35:01
  Speaker 6: level of care for that patient.
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: I think of that scene from Office Space where the
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: three or four guys go out in the field with
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: the fax machine and just start smashing the crap out
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: of it. I can't believe that the fax is still
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: being used in certain places. I Shout out to our
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: long-term care pharmacies out there. They're trapped in the facts.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: And you're up next, Chris. What would you eliminate from
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: the ecosystem?
• 35:29
  Speaker 9: I was going to say the fax machine, probably, after
• 35:32
  Speaker 9: Paige just said that.
• 35:33
  Speaker 7: You beat me to it, though.
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: That's wonderful.
• 35:37
  Speaker 9: If it's not the fax machine, I would say maybe
• 35:40
  Speaker 9: the gap that exists between when the prescription is written
• 35:44
  Speaker 9: and confirming access.
• 35:45
  Speaker 7: Because I think there's so much that goes into there,
• 35:48
  Speaker 7: and it's such a friction point.
• 35:50
  Speaker 9: And so many patients kind of get lost in that state,
• 35:54
  Speaker 9: whether it might take a couple days, it might take
• 35:57
  Speaker 9: a month, they might have switched insurance and need to
• 35:59
  Speaker 9: get approval again. And they were on this medication from Aetna,
• 36:03
  Speaker 9: and now they're on United, and United doesn't cover the
• 36:06
  Speaker 9: same drug, right?
• 36:08
  Speaker 7: It's just such a gap and it causes such a problem.
• 36:11
  Speaker 9: And I know that probably everyone in the whole world
• 36:13
  Speaker 9: that works in pharmacy would say like, man, if we
• 36:15
  Speaker 9: can get rid of that problem, that would be great.
• 36:18
  Speaker 9: But I would say that would be my biggest one.
• 36:20
  Speaker 9: Besides the fact, if we could get rid of it,
• 36:22
  Speaker 9: I think that friction point would improve the quality for
• 36:26
  Speaker 9: patients a lot.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: Excellent answers, team. This is why I was excited to
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: putting this panel together. Akaria Health, thank you so much, Jenny,
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: for being part of this. Peter, thank you so much
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: for your insights and a shout out to Acacia and
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: RX for sponsoring this very important series and digging much
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: deeper into ending the fragmentation in specialty care and specialty pharmacy.
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: One journey, that is what it is. I always say
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: together RX and spelling it with the RX at the
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: end of that word together. I believe in that whole
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: concept of what one journey is really about. with a
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: focus all on the patient. Chris, thank you so much.
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: This has been a great kickoff to this series, episode one. Listeners,
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: be ready for episode two and three coming up, and
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: we hope to see you at Inspire 2026.