The IDI

What message is your prescription drug delivering?Before manufacturers debut a new prescription drug they need to create a strategy to optimize coverage and commercialization. But part of that strategy consists of crafting a message that resonates with patients, providers and payers. And that's where a lot of manufacturers get tripped up. Alex Mindlin of Valuate Health joins The IDI to explain how she validates manufacturers' value messaging by combining strategic content and market research -- what she calls “creative market research.”Follow Alex on LinkedIn.Follow Valuate Health on LinkedIn or on the web.

Many pharmaceutical companies say attacking health inequities is a strategic objective, but addressing the topic is hard to do. Why is this so? This episode's guest, Elisa Remoundos,  Senior Vice President and Group Creative Director for Entrée Health, believes that for pharma and market access to tackle health inequities they need to rethink the social determinants of health that can have a huge impact on adherence, compliance, health outcomes, and societal burdens.Follow Elisa on LinkedIn. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or learn more here.

What do payers think about prior authorization? Dr. Andrew Hertler is Chief Medical Officer at Evolent Health. He recently co-authored an op-ed about prior authorization, touching on gold-carding, a controversial solution to addressing prior authorization challenges. Joining Hertler is regular guest John Hennessy, a Principal with Valuate. Topics include:Why exceptions can sometimes be problematic.What happens after a prior authorization is rejected.Pathways: Who makes the decisions? How are they updated?How should pharma  think about payers?What can manufacturers and market access do to help pathways?Follow Andrew on  LinkedIn. Follow Valuate on LinkedInLearn more about Valuate.

It's no secret that pharmaceutical manufacturers and payers don't always see eye to eye.But in order for pharma market access to do its job it needs to better understand payers -- how  they think, what keeps them up at night, and what's trending.That's why Valuate conducted its Second Annual Market Access survey late last year. The goal was to better understand payer perspectives on everything from the Inflation Reduction Act to biosimilars to gold bagging. Tony Gibson, a Principal with Valuate Health, returns to The IDI to break down the results. You can also contact Tony if you want an exclusive readout of the survey.Follow Tony on  LinkedIn. Follow Valuate on LinkedInLearn more about Valuate.

So you've developed a great new specialty drug but will patients and providers utilize your therapy correctly? A great hub can  help but implementing one is no easy task. Justine Hughes, a vice president with Archbow Consulting, joins The IDI to explain where pharma and biotech hubs stumble -- and how they can succeed. Follow Justine Hughes on LinkedIn. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn. Learn more about Valuate.

The new year will be critical for pharma and market access. The industry will need to turn its attention back to the Inflation Reduction Act as the first 10 drugs are up for negotiation with the feds. Plus, there's the small matter of electing a new President. Al Jackson joins the IDI to help break down what it all means and where all this activity in Washington is headed. An attorney by training, Al was most recently EVP and head of health and public affairs at Ketchum.Follow Al Jackson on LinkedIn. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn. Learn more about Valuate. 

Getting a cancer diagnosis and navigating treatment can be a lonely experience, as guest Cora Meese shares on this episode of The IDI. Thanks to early detection, Cora is now a breast cancer survivor, but she didn't get there on her own. With the help of friends and family, including podcast guest John Hennessey, Cora was able to successfully navigate her oncology journey, and connect with groups like the Young Survival Coalition. As we recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month, listen to Cora share her personal journey and reflect on how her insider knowledge as a cancer patient has impacted her work in market access.  Cora Meese, MBA, is Executive Vice President, Director of Client Services, for Entree Health. John Hennessy is a principal with Valuate Health and Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Young Survival Coalition. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn. 

It's hard to think of an aspect of health care more vexing than prior authorizations. In fact, prior authorizations are so frustrating that Congress is looking into a legislative solution. This episode of The IDI we have two guests to explain the state of prior authorization and how to improve the process. John Hennessy is a principal with Valuate Health with a background in oncology and cancer care.Syam Palakurthy is co-founder and CEO of SamaCare, a company that streamlines the prior authorization process for medical benefit drugs. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn. 

Pharma and biotech have developed amazing therapies and treatments to help people living with cancer. But effective cancer care should be more than just chemo and an effective drug. Exercise and wellness can help. A lot.What role should pharmaceutical manufacturers and market access teams play in exercise and wellness for cancer patients though? Do they incorporate exercise? Isn't their cancer-fighting drug enough? Today's guests believe pharma and market access should factor in exercise and wellness when treating cancer. And they'll explain how pharma and market access can take all this into consideration.John Hennessy is a principal with Valuate Health. He's been on The IDI many times and he's held many roles in the world of oncology and cancer care.First-time IDI guest Sami Mansfield is the founder of Cancer Wellness for Life, an organization focused on developing oncology exercise resources for individuals, hospitals, and corporations. She's been in this space for more than 20 years and was one of the first oncology exercise specialists in the United States.Here are just a few research findings about the benefits of wellness and exercise on cancer care patients, including two articles co-authored by Sami Mansfield. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com. 

Your new drug has made it to the insurers' formulary, but will providers actually prescribe it? Pull-through challenges abound; getting physicians to prescribe your drug means training and coordinating field staff. Encouraging pharmacies to stock and recommend your drug. Educating patients. And more. Lastly, there's the challenge of measuring success – what does successful pull-through look like anyway?Jack Timko, Senior Principal, Valuate Health, returns to The IDI to offer his insights. Follow Jack on LinkedIn.Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com. 

Every pharma company wants to analyze and leverage their data for other purposes. But what if you're not a data scientist? Or maybe your data is messy; did you even know data can be messy?Derek Tancredi and Terrill Paterson deal with these challenges all the time as they work with pharma and market access teams.Derek is a consultant at Valuate Health with an MBA in Health Care Administration. Terrill Paterson is a Senior Analyst with Valuate. He holds a Masters in Statistics and a PhD in Environmental Science. Follow Derek on LinkedIn.Follow Terrill on LinkedIn.Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com. 

ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence tool that generates text and allows you to have human-like conversations, was released in November of last year. Today, you can ask  ChatGPT to write a business plan to commercialize market access for your new prescription drug -- and it will do so in seconds.Bill Pittenger, SVP, Director of Digital Growth & Operations for Entrée Health, is experimenting with ChatGPT and other AI tools for market access. Bill explains how and why ChatGPT and other AI tools will transform market access for the better in today's episode.Follow Bill Pittenger on LinkedIn.Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com. 

Hub services sound great in theory. But in practice, hub services can be a challenge for the patient and the manufacturer. DeWayne Manning is a partner with Archbow Consulting and an expert on hub services. DeWayne has more than 25 years of experience advising clients on specialty products, reimbursement, patient access programs, business process optimization, technology integration, and data management  Follow DeWayne Manning on LinkedIn.Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com. 

The good news: The cancer death rate in America has fallen 33% since 1991. The bad news: The cost for treatment remains a huge barrier for some patients.One recent study put the economic and human costs of cancer in adolescents and young adults at $23.5 billion overall -- nearly $260,000 per  patient.To get a sense of how to improve access and affordability, The IDI host Ira Apfel spoke to John Hennessy and Matt Farber.Hennessy is a Principal at Valuate and a former executive director of the Kansas City Cancer Center, and former executive director the community cancer program at the University of Kansas Hospital. Farber is the vice president for Enterprise Partnerships with OffScrip Health, one of the fastest-growing patient access, impact, and content influencers in the country.  Follow John Hennessy on LinkedIn.Follow Matt Farber on LinkedIn.Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com. 

A recent article in Pharmaceutical Executive listed 10 market access trends shaping the post-pandemic world -- and one of the contributors was Andrew Gottfried, CEO of Entree Health, an access and reimbursement communications agency. In a wide-ranging episode of The IDI, Andrew discussed global access and storytelling, the Inflation Reduction Act, the post-pandemic world, and more.Connect with Andrew Gottfried on LinkedIn.Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com. 

Susan Weber is a Principal with Valuate Health. She recently authored a paper on the impact of the PIE Act, which you can read here.  Connect with Susan Weber on LinkedIn.Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com.

2022 was a year of uncertainty for pharma and market access. So we figured it was a good time to ask  payer executives for their thoughts on the subject -- and gain some insights from their responses. Susan Weber, today's guest on The IDI, wrote and supervised the survey. She's the best person to interpret the findings and draw some lessons for market access professionals. Connect with Susan Weber on LinkedIn.Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com. 

When President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law earlier this year, he set the stage for some of the biggest changes the pharmaceutical industry has seen in years. So how should pharma prepare for the IRA? Diane Petrone and Jim Kenney, principal consultants with Valuate Health, join The IDI to discuss what they're hearing from pharma clients about the IRA; which aspects of the IRA  will have the biggest impact on pharma; why removing some drug rebate calculations (as laid out in the IRA) is a big deal; and more. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers today rely on data in everything from accelerating drug development and improving the efficacy of clinical trials to reducing safety concerns and identifying patient populations.But the sheer amount of data can be overwhelming. Too often it's hard to figure out where to get started in the data analytics part. What do you want to know from the data? What are the right questions to ask of the data? And is this even the right data to use?Jack Timko, a principal with Valuate Health who leads their data analytics team, joins The IDI to help make sense of data and data analytics in pharma and market access.Connect with Jack Timko on LinkedInLearn more about Valuate Health

Health equity is a big topic in the pharmaceutical industry right now, but the topic is so large that manufacturers don't know where to start. Tony Gibson, MHA, a Principal at Valuate Health, has some advice on how pharma can address health equity in a meaningful way.Manufacturers have shown a “tremendous willingness to incorporate the voice of the patient,” Gibson says. But their health equity messaging tends to be the weak link. “It can come off as window dressing which minimizes this very important topic and reduces it to a catch phrase,” he says.Connect with Tony on LinkedInGibson recently contributed to a white paper on health equity and pharma.Download the health equity and pharma white paper

Two new cancer care initiatives -- Medicare's  Enhancing Oncology Model and the Patient-Centered Cancer Care Certification from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO -- aim to improve patient outcomes and fight rising costs.Both initiatives have lofty goals, but can they attain them? And how will they impact manufacturers and market access?Today's guest is John Hennessy, Senior Vice President, Strategist with Valuate Health Consultancy. The IDI is presented by Valuate Health Consultancy. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn to learn more.

Prescription digital therapeutics is a promising new technology for patients with chronic conditions. But it comes with challenges too. Christine Castiglione, MPH, a Senior Strategy Analyst with Valuate Health Consultancy, offers her insights on prescription digital therapeutics.Connect with guest Christine Castiglione. Learn more about Valuate Health.

John Hennessy, SVP of Strategy with Valuate Health Consultancy, is well known and highly respected for his experience in cancer care. In this episode, Hennessy discusses the high cost of cancer care -- and how manufacturers, payers and clinicians are trying to address it. He also reports back from the American Society of Clinical Oncology's first in-person meeting in two years.   BONUS: John weighs in on the big Supreme Court decision on 340B payments.  The IDI is presented by Valuate Health Consultancy. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com to learn more. 

What's happening in specialty pharmacy and coverage? Derek Tancredi, MBA, has some thoughts. He just returned from Asembia 2022 and heard from payers, pharmacists, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, and more. The IDI  is presented by Valuate Health Consultancy. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com to learn more.

Kimberly Tsai, PharmD, and Christine Castiglione, MPH, report back from AMCP 2022 in Part Two of a  special podcast. In Part Two, Kimberly and Christine discuss the PIE Act, social determinants of health, and more. The IDI  is presented by Valuate Health Consultancy. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com to learn more.

Kimberly Tsai, PharmD, and Christine Castiglione, MPH, report back from AMCP 2022 in the first of a two-part special podcast. AMCP, presented by the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, is a major event in the world of pharma and market access – and there's always lots of news and takeaways for market access professionals.In Part One of a two-episode wrap-up, Kimberly and Christine reveal their biggest takeaways from AMCP and delve into biosimilars and why their time may finally be here. The IDI  is presented by Valuate Health Consultancy. Follow Valuate on LinkedIn or visit us at ValuateHealth.com to learn more.