Key Themes From PBM Whitepaper

For those of you that haven’t downloaded it yet, here are the key themes of the whitepaper. [BTW – I know many of you don’t like to comment publicly, but I welcome your feedback privately or publicly on the whitepaper.]

**************

While there are certainly some opportunities for PBMs or pharmacies to differentiate by specializing in certain markets (e.g., Medicare, Worker’s Compensation), the best opportunities for sustained differentiation are found in two areas of innovation:

1. Using an evidence-based approach to consumer engagement and
   
2. Developing integrated solutions that are patient-centric.
   

These business strategies go beyond the traditional fundamentals – location, operational excellence, customer service, reporting, account management, managing trend, and leveraging efficiencies of scale (network pricing, rebates). While it’s possible to create some differentiation in those areas, they are often difficult to maintain over time especially as you approach a point of diminishing returns.

Ultimately, understanding and succeeding at engaging the consumers whose choices drive the costs in our healthcare system is the path to success. This is a change for the PBMs more than the retail pharmacies, but, to succeed at this transition, both PBMs and pharmacies have to be nimble organizations that innovate and learn quickly. They have to understand the consumer from the outside-in and make decisions from an experiential perspective.

Download the complete whitepaper to see:

• Recent changes in the PBM and pharmacy industry.
• Examples of innovation
• Why consumer engagement matters?
• Examples of Silverlink insights into consumer behavior

An example of a multi-channel adherence solution