Integrated Specialty Pharmacy Services Improve Speed to Therapy and Clinical Outcomes

At the 2025 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition, Ginger Thorpe, vice president and general manager of pharmacy solutions in health systems at McKesson, discussed how in-house specialty pharmacy models enhance care coordination and accelerate access to therapy for patients. She explained that integrated teams can proactively resolve barriers, provide focused education, and streamline communication across clinical providers. Thorpe highlighted the financial and operational advantages for health systems, noting that internal specialty services help capture revenue while supporting adherence and outcomes. She emphasized that with specialty pharmacy demand expected to double by 2030, health systems will increasingly rely on innovative, data-driven, and coordinated approaches to manage complex therapies.

Pharmacy Times: Can you introduce yourself?

Ginger Thorpe: Hi, Ginger Thorpe. I'm the VP/GM for pharmacy solutions in health systems. My team and I have actually been working in the specialty pharmacy space for about the last year, really looking to see how we can help health systems, sorry, where they are in their journey for specialty pharmacies.

Pharmacy Times: How do in-house specialty pharmacy services improve care coordination and speed to therapy for patients?

Thorpe: If they're at the beginning of the process, we work with them to help evaluate any opportunities that may exist in that space with our professional and advisory services team. We help them with accreditation with our provider solutions team, and then we take a look at a host of their data to help them understand where opportunities exist for them to increase that patient capture within their health system. The in-house specialty pharmacy really gives those health systems the ability to wrap high-touch support around every step of the patient's journey. Those pharmacists are integrated into the clinics. They can help proactively resolve any access barriers. So when you think about that, they can provide focused education, coordinate across the different care teams, and really help that patient navigate the financial challenges they might have as well. So it really lowers that stress, and it allows for quicker acceleration to therapy, which I think is really important because you're going to have better access, improved adherence, and stronger clinical outcomes, which is what everybody's looking for.

Pharmacy Times: What advantages does real-time collaboration between providers, pharmacists, and care teams bring in an integrated specialty model?

Thorpe: I think it really helps that connectivity, so it closes any information gaps that may exist. You're going to reduce any delays. You're going to streamline those high-friction workflows that happen. So you're going to have the prior auths that are addressed, medication management like we talked about, and any patient education. Those physicians are going to spend less time on administrative tasks, and the pharmacist can anticipate and address any issues that come up earlier. The care transitions in the process are probably going to be smoother as well because you're going to have that additional coordinated delivery, and then those patients will gain access to the therapy.

Pharmacy Times: How does keeping specialty pharmacy services internal help safeguard revenue for health systems?

Thorpe: An important question—managing those specialty pharmacies in-house is going to allow those health systems to capture prescription revenue, but really the focus is going to be on improving that care coordination and the patient experience. The dual benefits of those are going to support the adherence and outcomes, and they're going to have really critical advantages in the health system space. As specialty demand grows, an integrated specialty approach really diversifies those revenues and strengthens competitiveness in the marketplace.

Pharmacy Times: Looking ahead, how do you see the role of in-house specialty pharmacy evolving for health systems?

Thorpe: I think it's going to evolve very quickly. Specialty pharmacy is really projected to grow almost to double by 2030, so health systems are going to have increasingly complex needs such as cell and gene treatments. I know you've talked to Joe Pinto, right? So you know that there's demand for advanced handling. You've got sophisticated data, and there's a whole robust care coordination that exists in that space. At the same time, our health systems are also looking at any regulatory reform that's out there, as well as the acceleration of the value-based care that's going on. So it's going to push everybody to have more innovation, more operational transformation, and really deliver those outcomes a little bit more efficiently and transparently, too.