Donovan Quill

A growing understanding genomics and of how genetics drives health, disease, and drug responses in each patient is enabling better disease prevention strategies, more accurate diagnoses, safer drug prescriptions, and more effective treatments. Personalized medicine (PM) tailors care to each patient’s unique genetic makeup, which can improve outcomes and lower costs.

For device and drug manufacturers, PM provides an opportunity to develop agents targeted for specific patient groups that don’t respond to medications.

 But effective PM requires changes in practice patterns and management strategies for health care practitioners and for manufacturers in reimbursement, regulatory practices, and knowledge sharing. What’s more, they must overcome barriers to implementation to effectively individualize diagnoses and prognoses. 

PM will be especially relevant for the orphan drug market, which was projected in early 2020 to account for almost 40% of FDA approvals that year.

 More drug manufacturers are developing orphan drug products despite their financial value, which is sometimes limited and dependent upon the size of the targeted population that may benefit from a specialty drug. At the same time, this trend is making the orphan drug market more competitive and increasing the potential for reduced costs and broader patient accessibility. The products are often expensive because they target specific conditions. According to a recent IQVIA report, spending on orphan indications amounted to 11% of the $518 billion in the United States’ invoice spending in 2019. Furthermore, the average annual cost of treatment with an orphan drug was approximately $32,000, but about 39% of drugs with orphan indications cost more than $100,000 per year.

Taking a patient-first approach to PM will benefit drug manufacturers, helping them to optimize patient care and gain a stronger financial foothold.

Genetic diseases have been traced to specific genes and can be connected to defects in the proteins they create. Most of these diseases are rare, typically affecting fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States or fewer than 1 in 2000 in the European Union. There may be as many as 7000 rare diseases affecting the United States population.

As genome science becomes part of the standard of routine care, the vast amount of genetic data will allow medicine to become more precise and more personal. In fact, the growing understanding of how large sets of genes may contribute to disease helps identify patients at risk from common diseases such as diabetes and cancer, as well as heart conditions. This in turn enables physicians to personalize their therapy decisions and allows patients to better calculate their risks and potentially take pre-emptive action.

Moreover, the increase in other forms of data on individuals—such as molecular information from medical tests, electronic health records, or digital data recorded by sensors—more easily enables the capture of a wealth of personal information, as does the rise of artificial intelligence and cloud computing to analyze it. The challenge now is for hospitals, physicians, and pharmacies to keep pace with this vast repository of information, balancing its benefits while protecting patient privacy.

With a patient-first approach, wholesale distributors, specialty pharmacies, and hub service providers connect seamlessly under one roof, instead of operating independently. Continuity across the entire patient journey, from clinical trials to commercialization of products and beyond, strengthens communication; yields rich data, including genetic data, for more informed decision-making; and improves the overall patient experience.

This focus addresses all variables around collecting data, while maintaining frequent communication with patients and their families to ensure adherence and positive outcomes. Serving as a single-source, fully integrated partner, drug manufacturers benefit from this approach by bringing a continuity of care that is critically missing from the legacy care model. The net result is that patients have a better experience, which is a critical component of a product’s value.

In the orphan disease space, many manufacturers have worked with multiple specialty pharmacy partners and an internal or external product hub, but this unique patient-first approach offers key advantages:

—When a manufacturer uses several specialty pharmacies, the payer will almost always have a distribution preference inside its network, which can force patients to change pharmacies and potentially disrupt care. The fully integrated, single-pharmacy, patient-focused model ensures that the patient has access to the right drug for a particular disease state. When there’s only one place to get this drug, insurance will cover it.

—Patients with rare and orphan diseases and their physicians must overcome massive hurdles in achieving any level of consistent care. When a new therapy is available on the market, switching to it can lead to physical, emotional, clinical, and economic challenges. These drugs can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient per year, and insurance companies pay close attention to the value received for every dollar spent, prompting doctors and patients to think twice before considering a new therapy.

This unique, patient-first methodology specializes in helping patients and providers overcome reluctance to changing drugs by being a resource every step of the way. It gives them a competitive edge in addressing clinical and insurance challenges while solidifying relationships with physicians and patients.

—A core difference between the legacy and patient-first model lies in how pharmacies are compensated. With the legacy care model, pharmacies earn a margin on the products sold as they strive to keep millions of patients adherent to maintenance medications. When the focus is on the product instead of the patient, the pharmacy’s incentives can become misaligned. They’re focused more on monthly profits, which can lead them to attend to how much time hub service employees spend on the phone. Such incentives prevent pharmacies from being truly patient-centered and able to deliver the best possible care.

Addressing Human Need and Care Continuity

Patients with rare and orphan diseases require a high level of support and they benefit from high-touch service. It is important to work with a patient-first partner that offers a care team––including program manager, care coordinator, pharmacist, nurse, and specialists––that is 100% dedicated to the disease state, patient community, and therapy. This is a critical differentiator from other specialty pharmacies and hub service providers, which tend to push technology solutions that fail to address human needs and variability.

Manufacturers of every size can leverage this continuity of care for a streamlined, one-stop-shopping approach to optimize the patient journey. Furthermore, the longer a patient is adherent to treatment, the less frequently the manufacturer needs to invest in acquiring new patients. Also, this approach can help drive an adherence rate of nearly 90% for orphan and rare disease therapies, compared with industry standards of about 70% to 80% for specialty drugs and 50% for nonspecialty drugs.

In addition, a patient-first model can help manufacturers focus not simply on getting FDA approval, but on how the product affects patients’ lives. Most patients don’t fit into the right box for trials because they may be too sick, too healthy, or have comorbidities. This makes it difficult to identify them as trial participants, especially when they have not received a diagnosis because there has been no other form of treatment.

A patient-first approach builds awareness and provides education programs to aid in understanding patient groups, letting patients know there is support to develop a drug and a comprehensive program based on their needs. Such an approach adds a layer of patient advocacy, helps physicians better understand the patient journey, and creates a patient registry. Additionally, the patient-first approach assesses patients in terms of social determinants of health, such as education level, socioeconomics, lifestyle choices, and other clinical and nonclinical issues.

This level of information plays a role in the design of clinical trials and during commercialization of the drug. For manufacturers, it presents an opportunity to obtain patient-reported outcomes outside of the clinical trial protocol.

When the product enters the distribution phase, further patient information is captured and determinations are made about what is important to the patient regarding outcomes. This support helps patients transition to the product beyond the clinical trial, prevents lapses in coverage, and optimizes continuity of care.

A patient-first approach is about the best means of bringing a product to market, understanding payer coverage, and providing patient education about their disease; it serves as a guide for the manufacturer every step of the way. Once the product reaches market, a patient-first approach provides long-term health management, genetic counseling, and, if appropriate, a nutritionist throughout the clinical trial’s duration.

When it comes to adherence, a patient-first model is designed to proactively reach out to patients on a weekly or monthly basis to make sure they are taking their medication. It identifies whether the patient needs lab work; ensures physicians get the results; and makes sure the patient has access to a coordinator and physician, if needed, when they have issues with a product. This helps the clinical trial site, many of which are teaching facilities or doctor’s offices, and is the best means of removing the burden of educating patients around adherence and handling the dispensing and scheduling of medications.

A patient-first approach minimizes the daily impact of living with rare and orphan diseases by employing a single, dedicated team to provide comprehensive, best-in-class services tailored to maximize therapeutic opportunities. This improves outcomes, enhances patients’ quality of life, and rapidly advances research, even during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Manufacturers that adopt a patient-first approach will gain the focus and customization needed for longterm success and be well positioned to capitalize on the benefits of personalized medicine for patients and other stakeholders.

is president and CEO of Optime Care in Earth City, Missouri.

Vogenberg FR, Barash CI, Pursel M. Personalized medicine: part 1: evolution and development into theranostics. P T. 2010;35(10):560-576.

OptumRx Drug Pipeline Insights Report. Optum. 2020. Accessed March 10, 2021. https://www.optum.com/content/dam/optum3/optum/en/resources/PDFs/2569650-orx-q2-2020-pipeline-insights-report-final.pdf

Orphan drugs in the United States. IQVIA. December 3, 2020. Accessed March 19, 2021. https://www.iqvia.com/insights/the-iqvia-institute/reports/orphan-drugs-in-the-united-states-rare-disease-innovation-and-cost-trends-through-2019

FAQs about rare diseases. National Institutes of Health: Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center. Updated January 26, 2021. Accessed March 9, 2021. https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/pages/31/faqs-about-rare-diseases

Medicine is getting to grips with individuality. Economist. March 12, 2020. Accessed March 19, 2021. https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2020/03/12/medicine-is-getting-to-grips-with-individuality

Articles

Health care practitioners and manufacturers must change practice patterns and management strategies.

For Genetic Diseases, a Patient-First Approach Delivers More Precise Prognoses

The clinical trials market is projected to reach $65.2 billion by 2025, with oncology anticipated to be the fastest growing segment.

 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated the high cost of these studies, as well as challenges surrounding patient recruitment. This is especially true for the rare and orphan market.

Thirty million Americans live with a range of 7000 rare or orphan diseases. Although many patients have already struggled with reduced care, isolation, and adherence challenges for most of their lives, self-isolation during the pandemic has affected their quality of life. These individuals now face elevated stressors resulting from immunosuppression, concern about potential infection, and hypersensitivity to viral threats.

Despite restrictions, patients continue to require a high level of therapy adherence support at a time when some pharmacies have reduced their hours. This can impede communication with physicians and other advocates, which has already been severely disrupted because of the need for social distancing.

Many drug manufacturers also report that patient enrollment in clinical trials has been compromised, prompting contract research organizations (CROs) and their partners to seek technology solutions that mitigate the impact of the pandemic and other challenges.

According to client needs, customizing IT, tech, and data solutions can help resolve these issues and improve patient engagement—from clinical trials to commercialization and adherence.

A patient-first approach is sharply focused on orphan diseases to better address the patient experience, outcomes, and clinical trial requirements. It is a model that focuses on and adapts services for small patient populations, with targeted programs and services that deliver specialized expertise beyond the scope of traditional legacy care organizations.

COVID-19 has catalyzed improved clinical trial solutions, with manufacturers seeking to get patients enrolled in clinical trials more rapidly to advance research goals, including goals involving the pandemic. However, for other conditions, clinical trials lag in response to COVID-19 restrictions, making it crucial to identify innovative ways to move trials forward.

Tools that enable home-based clinical services, direct-to-patient support, and remote monitoring offer critical value for keeping clinical trials running. The FDA published guidance on managing clinical trials during the pandemic in March 2020, with updates made as recently as January 2021. The guidance was offered to benefit the safety of trial participants, maintain good clinical practice, and minimize risks to trial integrity during the pandemic. Carrying out assessments by telephone or by virtual visits and offering additional safety monitoring for clinical trial participants who can no longer access an investigational product or site are among the suggested methods.

As a preferred care partner for manufacturers, the patient-first methodology provides a streamlined approach that includes a single-source, direct-to-patient distribution model, a more controlled patient experience, and national access to therapy. Products are properly and promptly distributed directly to the patient, and patient services are designed to ensure adherence and retention and alleviate the need to schedule an onsite visit to obtain clinical trial medication.

An unnamed pharmacy, distribution, and patient management organization for the treatment of orphan and rare disorders was involved in 2 clinical trials at the outset of the pandemic. This participation helped patients access products without going to the doctor’s office, with the help of telehealth to oversee the process. As a result, the trials had significantly more patients involved, despite the national lockdown, and the organization was able to ensure that patients and staff remained safe while participating in the clinical trials.

With a patient-first approach, the clinical trial sites, CROs, specialty pharmacy, physicians, patients, site coordinators, and care coordinators connect effortlessly, instead of operating independently. The continuity across the entire patient journey—beginning with clinical trials—strengthens communication, yields rich data for more informed decision-making, and improves the overall patient experience. This dedicated clinical team seamlessly manages the transition from clinical trial product to commercial product and ensures there are no treatment gaps for the patient.

A patient-first focus also addresses all variables around collecting data, while maintaining frequent communication with patients and their families to ensure adherence and positive outcomes. This approach benefits drug manufacturers by bringing care continuity that is critically missing from the legacy care model. As a result, patients have a better experience, which is critical for the product’s value.

In the specialty space, most manufacturers have worked with multiple specialty pharmacy partners and an internal or external product hub, but this unique patient-first approach offers key advantages:

When a manufacturer uses several specialty pharmacies and a patient in a clinical trial switches to the commercial drug, the payer will almost always have a distribution preference inside its network, forcing patients to change pharmacies—potentially disrupting care. The single pharmacy, patient-focused model finds the right drug for the patient. When there’s only 1 place you can get this drug, it will be covered by insurance.

Patients with rare and orphan disorders and their physicians must overcome massive hurdles in achieving any level of consistent care. When a new therapy is available on the market, switching to that new drug can lead to physical, emotional, clinical, and economic challenges. These drugs can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient per year, and insurance companies pay close attention to the value received for every dollar spent, prompting doctors and patients to think twice before considering a new therapy. The patient-first methodology specializes in helping patients and providers overcome this reluctance. This provides a competitive edge in addressing clinical and insurance challenges.

A core difference between the legacy and patient-first model is how pharmacies are compensated. With the legacy care model, pharmacies earn a margin on the products sold as they strive to keep millions of patients adherent to maintenance medications. When the focus is on the product instead of the patient, the pharmacy’s incentives can become misaligned. They’re focused more on monthly profits, leading them to focus on how much time employees spend on the phone. These incentives prevent pharmacies from being truly patient focused and able to deliver the best possible care.

Patients with rare and orphan diseases require a high level of support and have much to gain from high-touch service. A care team, including program managers, care coordinators, pharmacists, nurses, and specialists, is 100% dedicated to the disease state, patient community, and therapy. This is a critical differentiator that improves the standard specialty pharmacies and hub service providers, which rely too heavily on technology solutions that fail to address human needs and variability.

Manufacturers of every size can leverage this continuity of care for a streamlined, one-stop-shop approach to optimize the patient journey. What’s more, the longer a patient is adherent to treatment, the more manufacturers will recognize the benefits of a branded program.

This patient-first approach also improves patient outcomes and can drive an adherence rate of nearly 90% for orphan and rare disease therapies, compared with industry standards of about 70% to 80% for specialty drugs and 50% for nonspecialty drugs.

Global clinical trials market projected to exceed $65 billion by 2025—shift towards personalized medicine drives market growth—ResearchAndMarkets.com.News release. Business Wire. August 1, 2019. Accessed November 20, 2020. 

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190801005504/en/

Breining G. Rare diseases difficult to diagnose, cures hard to come by. Association of American Medical Colleges. April 11, 2017. Accessed October 14, 2020. 

https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/rare-diseases-difficult-diagnose-cures-hard-come

FDA. FDA guidance on conduct of clinical trials of medical products during COVID-19 public health emergency.Updated September 21, 2020. Accessed November 20, 2020. https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/fda-guidance-conduct-clinical-trials-medical-products-during-covid-19-public-health-emergency

This model focuses sharply on orphan diseases to better address
the patient experience, outcomes, and requirements of each study.

Patient-First Approach Is Improving Access to Clinical Trials for Specialty Pharmacy

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, patients with orphan and ultraorphan diseases have been challenged to get much-needed therapy adherence support. This means that 30 million Americans with a range of 7000 rare or orphan diseases—including Huntington disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Cushing syndrome, α1-antitrypsin, chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura, and muscular dystrophy&mdash;have been at greater risk while self-protecting.

Many of these patients have struggled with reduced care, isolation, and adherence issues for most of their lives, but they now face elevated stressors because they are immunosuppressed, conscious of infection, and hypersensitive to viral threats. Adding to the challenge is that some pharmacies have reduced their hours. This impacts communication with physicians, which has already been severely disrupted due to the need for social distancing.

As an integral part of the care team, pharmacies serve as lifelines for these patients by helping to prevent lapses in continuity of care. For this reason, pharmacists who integrate with a telehealth solution can ensure that patients in rural locations—and those now living in self-imposed isolation&mdash;have consistent and reliable contact with pharmacy services during these unprecedented times.

A recent analysis found that telehealth visits increased 50% in March 2020, and a recent poll showed that more than 1 in 8 Americans engaged in a video consult with a health care professional in recent months.

Telepharmacy: Key Factor in Evolving Health Care Landscape

Accessing pharmacy services via telehealth is particularly important for addressing the unique health care coordination needs of patients diagnosed with a rare or ultrarare condition and, more importantly, the newly diagnosed patient. 

When telehealth is part of a larger personalized care plan tied specifically to a particular specialty drug, pharmacists can be better positioned to help their patients by providing the right plan to the right patient, including adherence tools specific to the patient’s needs. This gives the patient a better chance of avoiding adverse events, visits to the emergency department, or hospitalization. 

By partnering with a patient-first organization that integrates specialty pharmacy services, product distribution, and patient management into a dedicated program, pharmacists enable patients to receive the intense care, outreach, and dependable support they require to ensure positive outcomes. 

A patient-first care model provides a proactive, process-driven program that can educate the patient on potential risks to mitigate the transmission of possible infections such as COVID-19. The model should be grounded in customized care coordination and telehealth solutions as a strategy for fostering discussion between the patient and pharmacist. This is critical for understanding the patient’s needs, providing focus on the drug’s impact, and monitoring their overall health. 

By incorporating assessments and predetermined touch points each month, the care team is able to rapidly address adverse effects (AEs) and capture real-world evidence around the therapy, disorder, and patient’s well-being.

A single-source partner offers additional support in ensuring continuity of care that is absent in legacy care models. As a result, patients benefit from better care and more consistent experience. The patient-first model has been shown to lead to improved compliance and overall outcomes. 

Clinical care teams reach out to patients via videoconference or phone call to determine their level of understanding, health literacy, and status around a particular disorder. This way, they are able to help mitigate potential AEs, offer encouragement, and provide a level of emotional support to patients and their caregivers.

A telehealth option can be fully integrated for pharmacies to provide care coordination based on each patient’s specific needs, including, but not limited to, medication counseling, education on disease states, and expectations for each drug. These customized care plans are designed to better serve patients, caregivers, providers, and payers, to help overcome hurdles around the complexity of rare, orphan, and ultraorphan disorders. 

Finding the Right Patient Management Partner

Ideally, the right specialty patient management partner should be focused on personalized care with a focus on disorders affecting smaller patient communities. The key is to look for a suite of comprehensive services tailored to maximize the therapeutic opportunities for the treatment of these disorders and a patient-first approach that provides a trusted path for patients and all those involved in the treatment journey.

A patient-first model adds a much-needed layer of support for the patient’s family and caregivers, allowing them to become more engaged and take ownership in the care process, which leads to a stronger partnership and better patient care.

The telehealth solution should be designed to streamline patient enrollment, maximize interaction with patients for adherence, and provide continuity of care to avoid lapses in adherence. It should also offer dedicated team members who are up-to-date on every aspect of the patient’s drug and have the expertise to answer every question and concern from patients, pharmacists, physicians, providers, and payers. It is also important for them to have experience in navigating the insurance landscape and prior authorization process, as needed, and to know how to monitor and encourage compliance. 

Look for management solutions with dual accreditation from URAC for compliance with specialty pharmacy and the Accreditation Commission for Health Care for specialty pharmacy services. These designations demonstrate a commitment to providing quality care and services to specialty patient populations. 

Overall, the most effective patient-first care management solutions are designed to meet the needs of e

nt’s journey—from specialty drug manufacturers to pharmacists, caregivers, and physicians&mdash;in a way that is delivered from a single, central point of contact. 

 is president and CEO of Optime Care, a pharmacy, distribution, and patient management organization.

Breining G. Rare diseases difficult to diagnose, cures hard to come by. Association of American Medical Colleges. Published April 11, 2017. Accessed September 3, 2020. 

Telehealth basics for pharmacists during COVID-19 and beyond. American Pharmacists Association. Published May 20, 2020. Accessed September 3, 2020. 

https://www.pharmacist.com/article/telehealth-basics-pharmacists-during-covid-19-and-beyond

A recent poll showed that more than 1 in 8 Americans engaged in a video consult with a health care professional in recent months.

Pharmacy-Integrated Telehealth Solutions Support Patients with Orphan and Ultraorphan Disorders During and After COVID-19 Pandemic

Patients with orphan and ultra-orphan diseases rely heavily on a support system for adherence to therapy, which has been particularly challenging during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A single rare or orphan disease affects fewer than 

, according to the Orphan Drug Act of 1983.

However, there are nearly 7000 rare diseases affecting 30 million Americans, including Huntington disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Cushing syndrome, Alpha-1 antitrypsin, chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura, and muscular dystrophy.

Patients with rare and orphan disorders have grappled with reduced care, isolation, and adherence risks throughout their lives, which leads to an extraordinary impact upon individual outcomes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these same patients now face heightened stress because many of them are immunosuppressed, conscious of infection, and wary of getting sicker than they already are. As a result, they are hypersensitive to viral threats, more isolated than ever, and struggling to self-protect.

Furthermore, some pharmacies may be operating under limited hours, which affects communication with physicians and patients. Likewise, routine interaction with providers has been disrupted because of the demands of social distancing.

Pharmacies help tremendously by remaining a constant part of the care team during potential disruptions in the continuity of care. Telepharmacy, the delivery of pharmacy care via telecommunication to patients in locations where they may not have direct contact with a pharmacist, has played a large role during these challenging times.

In fact, a recent analysis found that telehealth visits increased 

 in March 2020, and a recent poll determined that more than 1 in 8 Americans engaged in a video consult with a health care professional in recent months. Effective telehealth and telepharmacy are particularly important to address the unique health care coordination needs of patients, especially those who have been diagnosed with a rare or ultra-rare condition and, more importantly, the newly diagnosed patient.

When telehealth is part of a larger personalized care plan tied specifically to a particular specialty drug, pharmacists can be better positioned to empower their patients. Pharmacists do this by providing the right plan to the right patient and include adherence tools specific to that patient’s needs. This gives the patient a better chance at thriving during these unprecedented times.

By partnering with a patient-first organization that integrates specialty pharmacy services, product distribution, and patient management into a dedicated program, pharmacists enable patients to receive the intense care, outreach, and consistent support they require to ensure positive outcomes.  

Customized care coordination and telehealth solutions based on a patient-first care model provides a proactive, process-driven program that can educate the patient on potential risks, which mitigates the transmission of possible infections, such as COVID-19. Additionally, this patient-first care model fosters discussion between the patient and pharmacist that is essential to understanding the patient’s needs, providing focus on the drug’s impact, and monitoring their overall health.  

By incorporating assessments and predetermined touch points each month, the care team is able to stay on top of adverse effects (AEs) and capture real world evidence around the therapy, disorder, and patient’s well-being.

A single source partner offers the continuity of care that is critically missing from legacy care models. The net result is that patients have a better and more consistent experience.

This experience has been proven to yield stronger compliance and overall outcomes. Clinical care teams reach out to patients via videoconference or phone call to determine their level of understanding, health literacy, and status around a particular disorder, helping to mitigate potential AEs, offer encouragement, and provide a level of emotional support to patients and caregivers. 

A telehealth option can be fully integrated for pharmacies to provide care coordination based on each patient’s specific needs, including, but not limited to, medication counseling, education on disease states, and expectations for each drug. These customized care plans are designed to better serve patients, caregivers, providers, and payers, helping overcome key challenges around the complexity of rare, orphan, and ultra-orphan disorders.

When looking for a specialty pharmacy and patient management organization that

creates a partnership for personalized care with a specific focus on disorders affecting smaller patient communities, ask:

1) Do they offer a suite of comprehensive services tailored to maximize the therapeutic opportunities for the treatment of these disorders?

2) Do they have a patient first approach that provides the trusted path for patients and all those involved in the treatment journey?

A patient-first model adds a much-needed layer of support for the patient’s family and caregivers, enabling them to become

more engaged and take ownership, which leads to a stronger partnership and better patient care.

The telehealth solution should be designed to streamline patient enrollment, maximize interaction with patients for adherence and compliance, and provide continuity of care to avoid lapses in therapy. It should reflect dedicated team members who are well versed in every aspect of the patient’s drug and have the expertise to answer every question and concern from patients, pharmacists, physicians, providers, and payers. They should have the expertise to navigate the insurance landscape and prior authorization process, as needed, and know how to monitor and encourage compliance.

Partners with dual accreditation from URAC for compliance with specialty pharmacy and the Accreditation Commission for Health Care for specialty pharmacy services have a demonstrated commitment to providing quality care and services to these patient populations. Ultimately, the care management solution should meet the needs of everyone involved in the patient’s journey, from specialty drug manufacturers to pharmacists, caregivers and physicians—all delivered from one central point of contact.   

Donovan Quill is president and CEO of Optime Care.

When telehealth is part of a larger personalized care plan tied specifically to a particular specialty drug, pharmacists can be better positioned to empower their patients.