Finding The Right Pharmacy Partner for Clinical Services

Health plans are spending more time and money focusing on member experience and driving positive health outcomes. The challenge is that developing the right programs in an efficient way is neither quick nor simple. Plans are investing deeply into finding ways to improve their member’s adherence as well as providing CMS-required services such as medication therapy management. Many plans find themselves searching for a clinical pharmacy partner to aid in program development and implementation.

pharmacy partner

An industry ripe for innovation

The undertaking requires a true partner to guide, devise, and adapt a plan to provide an ideal member experience. Some vendors have been around for decades, however, most fall short in the realm of innovation and transformation. Longtime industry players have historically operated rigidly, unable to flex nimbly to meet client needs. After all – no two plans or members are alike. These behemoths also often deliver their services through call centers with teams who are difficult to hire, train, and retain. These staff members are typically medication experts, nor do most hold a PharmD degree

Is an industry innovator the right choice? 

If the longtime industry titans aren’t the right partners to improve member health and experience,  who is?  

Delivering rigid and impersonal pharmacy services isn’t cutting it. Member experience is weighted more than ever. New technologies must be deployed to delight your members and keep your plan competitive. Aspen RxHealth changes service delivery by empowering pharmacists to work from home, increasing their satisfaction and quality of work, all the while, delivering outsized value to health plans around the nation. Now, health plans are relieved of the burden of costly administrative overhead associated with maintaining their own pharmacy call centers. 

Questions to ask when evaluating a new clinical pharmacy partner 

Not all clinical pharmacy vendors are created alike. Performance and expertise vary widely; when evaluating your next partner, ask the following:  

  1. Tenure – How long have you been around? While tenure is important to consider, just because a protentional partner has been around the block does not guarantee that they are committed to innovation and transformation as it relates to you and your clinical programs. We’re proud to say that since our inception, we have delivered 60% more member consultations for our clients year over year. It’s just one of the many reasons why 100% of our client partners choose us every contract renewal period, most of whom expanded their relationships to include additional new programs and lines of business. 
  2. Experience – Have you done the work? Every clinical pharmacy vendor will tout two things: reduced costs and improved health outcomes. The real question is, can they deliver? To date, we’ve partnered with three of the nation’s top five health plans and many regional plans nationwide to develop and execute complex clinical strategies aimed at member health and plan performance goals. From data science and IT to client services and clinical quality, our teams bring decades of experience and deep roots in healthcare.
  3. Performance – What about results? A vendor has experience providing clinical services, but what results do they deliver? Our clients often approach us when they’re struggling. The good news is that whether they require a full-scale MTM strategy, targeted adherence consultations, or something unique, we’re equipped to help. We’ve assisted our clients with boosting their underperforming Star Ratings and maintaining their performance despite constantly shifting regulatory goalposts. While it’s not easy, we’re proud of our track record of delivering 2 to 3-star improvements for our clients.  
  4. Capacity – Can you handle our consultation volume? If you’ve found a partner who checks all the boxes, have you considered their ability to surge and flex? That’s the inherent benefit of Aspen RxHealth’s gig-economy model. Because our workforce is completely on-demand, we can surge or shrink to meet any level of consultation volume, no matter the size.  

remote clinical pharmacy partner

Find the right partner with a full suite of clinical services 

The advantage of partnering with an industry innovator is access to a flexible community and pioneering technology. If you had thousands of pharmacists nationwide ready to provide clinical care to your members, what would you do? Our pharmacists have the training and resources to offer a full suite of clinical pharmacy services, including:  

The best part is, all of our solutions can be combined and bundled to create fully comprehensive programs.  With the above questions in mind, you’re ready to set out on the path to finding a new clinical pharmacy partner. When you’d like to explore how Aspen RxHealth can help your health plan improve Star Ratings, boost performance, and keep members healthier, we’ll be here.