Welcome to Season 1, Episode 2 of the Soaring to New Health Podcast.
This episode is Ask the Next Generation Pharmacist. We talk with ProspHire’s Mark Thomas, an experienced pharmacist and consultant in the healthcare industry and Chris Antypas, a seasoned pharmacist, executive owner and innovator, about the pharmacist’s rapidly change role, the new ways to deliver patient care and the evolvement of medication management.
Today, pharmacy is at the forefront of many conversations. Drug costs are rising at an unprecedented rate. Employers and employer sponsored plans are trying to navigate and tackle pharmacy costs; and health plans are trying to zero in on how to contain costs while also ensuring access to innovative therapies.
On the innovation side, drug manufacturers continue to bring novel and rare disease therapies to the market. This, while the payer side is addressing rising drug costs and trying to navigate how to continue to afford to pay for medications and ensure access. Plus, billionaire business owner Mark Cuban is on a mission to “disrupt” the pharmaceutical Industry and sell low-cost prescription drugs directly to Americans.
Antypas says, “We spend a lot of time talking about healthcare costs and unfortunately what I’m seeing is there’s really not been enough attention put on the role that medications play in managing total cost of care”. His personal journey in trying to disrupt healthcare and improve healthcare is focused on the relationship with his patients – knowing who they are, understanding their personal situation and providing them with meaningful solutions to access or afford a medication. You’ll find that relationship-based care blended with a custom pharmacy experience at Antypas’s Asti Pharmacy in Pittsburgh’s South Hills area. Adherence packaging is an example of this care model, where the patient receives a customized blister pack containing all their daily medications.
In the digital heath and technology space, Antypas’s Perigon Pharmacy, umbrellaed under Perigon Health 360, a 50-state licensed, dual accredited specialty pharmacy that is creating tools for patients to help them take their medications more accurately and effectively. One such device sits on a countertop in the patients’ home and intelligently dispenses medication. This intersection of healthcare and innovation optimizes the care team’s ability to track and monitor whether the patient appears to have missed a dosage and then sends reminder notifications via text message or phone call. It’s at that point the pharmacist can connect with the patient to determine the cause and a solution.
The opportunity for health plans is to view pharmacy as a strategy to address any healthcare gaps and help manage member health. Thomas talks about the opportunity for the next generation pharmacist to think differently and outside of the box when it comes to drug delivery models. Antypas says those new ideas and pathways to success are built from being brave and having the courage to advocate and make a difference in a patient’s life. To hear more about today’s pharmacy trends and what some pharmacists are doing to push the boundaries of the traditional pharmacy practice, download Soaring to New Health’s episode two, Ask the Next Generation Pharmacist here.
