Q: First, congratulations on your new role as President of the HOSP Alliance. Can you share your vision for the organization?

A: I’d say it’s consistent with when we formed HOSP close to four and a half years ago: to be the face and voice of the Integrated Specialty Pharmacy Industry. We truly believe—and we now have the evidence to back it up—that the patients who come into our health systems and see our providers and use our facilities get better care if they stay within our ecosystem. We’re talking about high-cost, complex therapies that require a lot of different moving parts to work together to have the best possible outcome. That means staying within the health system for your specialty pharmacy.

My vision is to continue to develop and promote metrics that demonstrate that patients do better in our model, which is why we shouldn’t be forced to send our patients outside of our health system. That’s always been the HOSP vision: for our members to work together to do whatever it takes to demonstrate to policy and decision-makers that the system-owned specialty pharmacy model is just better.

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing health system specialty pharmacies today?

A: Many insurance companies, and some pharmaceutical manufacturers, don’t allow us to take care of our patients, who are forced to use a specialty pharmacy somewhere else. That pharmacy won’t be collaborating with the patient’s provider and is focused only on filling that prescription, not on the patient’s total health journey and how the patient interacts with a health system for all their care. This is especially important with complex drugs.

Another ongoing challenge is protecting system-owned specialty pharmacies from attempts to reduce or eliminate our access to savings generated by 340B discounts. These savings are important to our systems, allowing us to provide critical services to the most underserved patients in our communities.

Q: How will HOSP address these challenges?

A: We’re a small, nimble organization focused exclusively on advocating for system-owned specialty pharmacies and sharing best practices and metrics to substantiate our claims. So we’ll continue to do what has been successful for us so far. Our outcomes group, our HERO committee, is continually generating clinical, quality, service level and financial metrics that demonstrate that the highest level of care is delivered through the health-system owned specialty pharmacy model. So that when a payer—a pharmaceutical manufacturer or a state or national government—is evaluating options, they see the value in us being able to take care of our patients. Why would they want to make legislation or policy or a decision that wouldn’t allow a patient to use the pharmacy that’s part of their health system?

Q: What opportunities do you see for health system owned specialty pharmacies to make a greater impact in healthcare?

A: I think of outcomes again. Our ultimate goal is to help patients live a normal life after they’ve been given a diagnosis that changes their life forever, especially if it’s a chronic condition that requires high-cost therapies. We can improve the way that they get their therapy and improve their outcomes while lowering costs. Our goal at HOSP is to give health systems the opportunity to give these patients a successful therapy journey.

Q: What excites you most about leading HOSP?

A: It’s exciting to have the opportunity to work with great health systems and great leaders to address a difficult challenge—how to convince drug manufacturers and health plans and PBMs that our model really is the best, and that we should be able to take care of our patients.

When I hear all the stories of how patients have done unbelievably well within the system-owned model, I’m proud of what we’ve achieved and excited by how much more we can achieve as we continue to attract new members and partners. Every time HOSP makes it possible for one more person to use the specialty pharmacy at their health system, we’ve moved one step closer to achieving our mission.

Q: What message would you like to send to HOSP members as you begin your presidency?

A: I just want to say thank you for supporting HOSP although you’re very, very busy people. Every day we witness the amazing things you do for patients of your health system, and you’re helping to show the world what we do and why it matters. I encourage HOSP members, if they haven’t already, to engage and collaborate with our committees and working groups. The more we share and work together, the stronger we are and the greater our impact.