Trends, Entrants, and Developments (TEDs) Impacting Access: Practices Payers Are Leveraging to Bend the Cost Curve

Good day to you. I am Elizabeth Oyekan, PharmD, FCSHP, CPHQ, Vice President – Access Experience Team, and editor of All Access Newsletter. Due to the significant financial losses by health systems over the last 18 months, and now health plans experiencing adverse impacts to their bottom line as patients come back in for care, these entities are looking for strategies to make up for these losses now and in the future.
In this edition of the All Access Newsletter, we have asked our key expert ex-payers to provide insights into evolving practices payers are leveraging to bend the cost curve.

  • Cynthia Miller, MD, MPH, FACP and Reta Mourad, PharmD discuss the importance of biosimilars in supporting the sustainability of the healthcare system by reducing costs of biological therapies through increased competition while maintaining the quality of care
  • Jennifer Williams, PharmD, BCOP reviews the top reasons payers are adopting clinical pathways and guidelines in the oncology space and the tumor types being targeted, as well as future possibilities payers are exploring in non-oncology specialties to further leverage pathways and guidelines
  • Todd Edgar, PharmD, MS takes us into the world of value-based contracting with new perspectives on how these contracts should be viewed, learnings from past years, and opportunities to make them a win-win for stakeholders
  • Kellie Rademacher, PharmD explores the complex world of biomarker testing including the several testing options available, the expansion of biomarkers, and the resulting challenges for various stakeholders. Kellie highlights possible policy recommendations to help payers and providers address existing challenges and support stakeholder efforts in their pursuit of precision medicine
  • Ryan Cox, RPh, MBA takes us into the world of accumulators and maximizers being used by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and health plans as a result of a continued pressure between plan benefit design, the expansion of manufacturer copay programs, and the growth of drug spending. Ryan discusses what they are, how they work, and their impact on various stakeholders

We believe you will find these current and evolving payer practices to bend the cost curve in healthcare and their impact on access insightful as you navigate the payer landscape. As always, please feel free to drop me a note and let me know if you have a topic suggestion for the payer team to address, and we’ll do our best to cover it in a future edition.

Best regards,

Elizabeth Oyekan
PharmD, FCSHP, CPHQ
Vice President,
Access Experience Team
EMAIL ELIZABETH

All Access is a bimonthly newsletter that features key insights from our team of former payers, intended specifically for market access leaders. It is published by PRECISIONvalue.

Guest Editor
Elizabeth Oyekan

Executive Editor
Louis Landon

Contributors
Andrew Cournoyer
Ryan Cox
Dan Danielson
Todd Edgar
Dominic Galante
Ami Gopalan
Maureen Hennessey
Joe Honcz
Louis Landon
Erin Lopata
Reta Mourad
Kellie Rademacher
Charline Shan

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