Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Jigar Thakkar, CEO of Longitude Rx

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Jigar Thakkar, CEO of Longitude Rx · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago, April 13 through the sixteenth.
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  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  in Chicago.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  thirteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable.
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  I'm currently joined by Jigger Tucker, who is
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  the former chief administrative
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  officer at OU Health.
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  Thanks so much for joining today. I'm gonna
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  have you just take a moment and introduce
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  yourself, tell us a little bit more about
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  your background. Yeah. Thank you, and thanks for
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  having me. But, as you said, Jigger Tucker,
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  I'm now the CEO of LongitudeRx.
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  Very excited about being here and sharing what
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  we do.
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  Alright. So let's have our conversation start off
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  with a little bit about your growth strategy
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  over the next few years.
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  So LongitudeRx
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  was really founded by five major health systems,
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  Providence Health, Baylor Scott and White, Memorial Hermann,
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  Michigan Medicine, and Novant. So really a company
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  that was founded by health systems for health
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  systems.
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  And we're really focused on bringing back,
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  the specialty pharmacy opportunity back into health systems,
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  which traditionally has been really dominated by payers,
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  PBMs.
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  And there's really a market need to integrate
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  this care further and bring back the care
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  within the health system side.
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  Absolutely.
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  And tell us about the most exciting or
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  impactful initiative or project you're currently working on.
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  Yeah. I I'd love to share. So if
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  you look at, you know,
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  I'll back up with the FDA pipeline.
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  About 85%
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  of the meds, in the FDA pipeline for
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  this year, believe it or not, are considered
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  specialty meds. And what's happening with health systems
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  today is a lot of those patients are
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  really
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  getting a fragmented experience in their care because
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  they're having to go to either many different
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  pharmacies,
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  or having to deal with financial assistance issues,
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  financial toxicities with these expensive medications.
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  And so one of the most meaningful things,
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  that we've been able to do over this
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  past year for our health systems is really
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  start in,
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  and honing in on that experience
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  with the technology platform that we utilize,
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  and really bring that care not only back
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  inside the health system from a revenue perspective,
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  but really from a patient experience perspective. We're
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  highly focused on, you know, making sure that
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  we're improving that experience,
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  and and really keeping that at the center
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  to make sure that the care is not
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  fragmented for them.
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  And what is the most important thing you
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  think that health care executives should be doing
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  right now to make sure their organizations are
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  successful in the future?
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  Yeah. One of the things I I tell
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  health system executives is specialty pharmacy, whether you
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  are following it or not, your patients are
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  on those medications. Right? So any given health
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  systems, about 20% of their net patient service
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  revenue, believe it or not, now could be
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  tied to specialty medications.
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  So if you don't have really a care
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  delivery platform
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  that is helping you and your health system
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  pharmacy team manage these patients,
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  you're essentially not caring for a pretty significant
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  portion of your population.
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  And I think, traditionally,
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  you know, health systems have started paying attention
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  to this, but
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  what they don't realize oftentimes is really the
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  the complexity behind being able to actually take
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  care of the total population.
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  And then looking at even from the payer
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  and PBM side, you know, what it really
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  takes to actually get network access as well
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  as what it really takes to manage it
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  from a analytics,
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  and a technology perspective. Right? So I think
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  a lot of, you know, tools are out
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  there in the market that are point solutions,
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  but no one really is looking at it
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  from an end to end perspective,
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  like we are trying to do at LongitudeRx.
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  Absolutely. Well, Chigurh, thanks so much for joining
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  me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Again,
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  we are recording live at the thirteenth annual
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  CEO and CFO roundtable. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate
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  your time.