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AMCP Podcast Series - Listen Up: Susan Cantrell and Jim Hopsicker on AMCP Strategic Priorities
Show Notes
Host Fred Goldstein invites Jim Hopsicker, AMCP President & Vice President, Health and Pharmacy Management at MVP Health Care, Inc., and Susan Cantrell, AMCP CEO, to discuss the state of AMCP Priorities.
Transcript
Fred Goldstein 00:01
Hello, and welcome to the AMCP Podcast Series - Listen Up as we take a deep dive into the challenges, trends and opportunities in managed care pharmacy, follow the show social hashtag #AMCPListenUp. And to learn more about AMCP Visit amcp.org. I'm your host, Fred Goldstein. . On this episode, our guests are Susan Cantrell, the CEO of AMCP and Jim Hudsucker. AMCP, President and Vice President health and pharmacy management at MVP healthcare Inc. Welcome, Susan.
Susan Cantrell 00:34
Thank you, Fred. Pleasure to be here. Fred Goldstein 00:36 And welcome to you too, as well, Jim. Jim Hopsicker 00:38 Thanks, Fred. Great to be here.
Fred Goldstein 00:40
So why don't we start with you, Jim. And the comments you made recently as president when you took over as president at AMCP 2023 in San Antonio, Texas in March, you mentioned AMCP. 's ambitious agenda for the year, including prescription digital therapeutics and the access bill that is making its way through Congress, biosimilars, and AMCP work on the inflation Reduction Act. We're almost six months out now from that meeting. How would you say things are going?
Jim Hopsicker 01:05
I'm pleased to say we've made great progress in these areas. 2023 has been an important year for biosimilars with the first biosimilars for a adalimumab hitting the market. Biosimilars hold significant promise improving access and care for millions of patients in the US, and then saving our healthcare system resources. At AMCP. we've been working hard to provide our members with the information they need, including the research efforts of the BBCIC Consortium. The Inflation Reduction Act or IRA isn't a landmark piece of legislation that is having and will continue to have significant implications across managed care and the entire healthcare industry. AMCP is on the forefront of these important changes, conducting listening sessions with members and ensuring managed care pharmacies voice is being heard. We've conducted the first IRA workshop in August, and will feature this topic predominantly in the upcoming Nexus meeting. We hope that AMCP is the go to place for managed care pharmacy professionals for up to the minute information on the IRA. And then Fred, you mentioned access to prescription digital therapeutics. And this bill the Access to Prescription Digital Therapeutics Act of 2023 would expand the Medicare benefit to allow Medicare and Medicaid to cover PDTs. We talked about this bill with members of Congress during legislative days last spring, and AMCP continues to be a supporter. So hopefully Congress seems to be motivated to address this as our we. And then lastly on the topic of PDTs proposed revisions to the AMCP format for formulary submissions, also includes information about PDTs for the first time. We're looking forward to finalizing these changes, after a thorough review of all comments received and hope to release the new format 5.0 in early 2024.
Fred Goldstein 03:14
That's quite the list. Working on those first six months, fantastic to see all that done. So Susan building on Jim's comments, you focus on AMCP three strategic priorities, optimize value, and access address disparities and medication use and access and enhance member value. Are those still the right priorities as you look ahead to 2024? And if not, how do you see that changing?
Susan Cantrell 03:37
Thanks, Fred. Sure, I think these are still critical priorities for the organization and for the our members and the organizations that they are associated with. In fact, when you think about AMCP, we're an organization whose mission is to improve health by ensuring patient access to high quality cost effective medications and other therapies. So I might even argue that these priorities are just here forever. They're somewhat evergreen, optimizing value and access is really at the heart of what we're all about in managed care pharmacy. And of course, as you know, the landscape is changing continually, which is why this priority will always be a part of what we do. And then Jim mentioned a few specific areas under that priority, looking at biosimilars and how we can better utilize biosimilars to save healthcare resources. Also, Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries access to prescription digital therapeutics, revisions to the format. All of these are tied to that overarching goal of optimizing patient access and value. And then related to health disparities, specifically in medication use and access. We have long known that disparities exist in our healthcare system, but I think the pandemic, really brought to light the significance of those inequities in a way that really called the entire healthcare community to action, like never before. And that includes AMCP. So we've been focusing specifically on equity and medication use and access. And I'm really, really proud of the work that we've done there, I think we've made some great progress. In addition to that the priority has opened the door for some partnerships that we might not otherwise have taken advantage of or realized that we needed. So we've been able to join forces to advance health equity in a way that makes the whole greater certainly than the sum of its parts. And then the final one that you mentioned is as a membership organization, we're looking to enhance the value that we deliver to our members on a regular basis. Not that that hasn't always been an important issue for AMCP. It certainly has, but really looking at specifically, what brings the most value to our members. And how can we leverage what we do to really bring in other sectors into the membership. Internally, we've been working under an initiative that we call AMCP Member First. And I think that's kind of the mantra for how we see this community, this great community of AMCP. Member first. So yes, these are still important priorities for us.
Fred Goldstein 06:24
It's really interesting, having been at a couple of conferences, and then seeing the impact and work you're doing on equity, and trying to do that. So critical in the area of pharmaceuticals, and being able to give people access and from pricing issues and other so it's great to see all the work in that area. So let's move back to you, Jim. Another thing you mentioned in your opening March remarks was the pride you feel in the work AMCP is doing to close the gap and medication use and access. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Jim Hopsicker 06:49
Sure, as Susan mentioned, addressing disparities and medication use and access has been a strategic priority for AMCP since 2021, and it continues to be an enterprise wide effort. In addition to leading with our educational agenda, and incorporating papers that address this issue in JMCP. We've worked internally to embrace diversity, diversity, equity and inclusion and everything that we do. To list a couple more things out Fred, we released our DEI glossary, which is available on the website and continues to be updated as it needs to be. As information increases. We've also collected more demographic information from members and volunteers to ensure that we can measure both successes and gaps. I've talked about the format earlier the AMCP format for former submissions. Draft also addresses health equity and information payers need on medication used in minority minority populations, who are often unrepresented, underrepresented in clinical trials. And most importantly, under the leadership of our health disparities advisory group, we've launched a whole suite of member resources, because that's where the change will be seen in the work that our members do. So I could go on and on forever, but rest assured that this will continue to be an AMCP Priority into 2024. and beyond. Fred Goldstein 08:15 Think really great. That's a lot of work there as well. So Susan, looking forward to the Nexus meeting coming up, planning to be there as well, in Orlando, Florida from October 16 through the 19th. What are some of the hot button issues you plan to be covering during the meeting?
Susan Cantrell 08:30
Well, there's no shortage of hot button issues Fred, in today's environment, that's for sure. At the top of the list, Jim mentioned earlier, the iInflation Reduction Act and everything that that means to manage care pharmacy and the entire industry in healthcare. So that will certainly be prominent at the meeting. In fact, there's so much interest in this topic that we added a pre-meeting session that scheduled in addition to the regular programming during the meeting. So that'll be a really hot topic. We also are trying out something at this meeting that I'm super excited about. And that is an executive track, or we'll call it a mini track executive track at the meeting that features a few select sessions that are really designed to appeal to the senior leaders in managed care pharmacy. So really looking forward to that. We'll certainly be talking about what's happening on the PBM. Reform front. That's an important issue for our members. And then we have some legislative and regulatory hot issues, gene therapy, cell therapy, all of that. And of course, the topic dejeure artificial intelligence. We're seeing AI being used across all industries and managed care pharmacy is certainly not exempt to that. So how can we best leverage this amazing technology to do what we do better? You'll also hear about something that we don't often cover at AMCP meetings. And that's challenges with a 340B program, really important topic and dialogue right now at the national level, as well as within managed care, pharmacy, hospitals and other health care sectors. And I'm really excited to hear our keynote speaker this year, Neil Pasricha , who is sometimes referred to as the Pied Piper of happiness. Now we could all use a little bit more happiness. I think. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and award winning blogger, and one of the most popular TED speakers in the world if you can believe it. He'll share his wealth of ideas and some simple tools on how you can help propel organizational happiness and engagement to its highest level. But also, how we as individuals can up our game when it comes to happiness. All of this is critically important in today's fast paced, but always stressful world that we live in. So, but the excitement to me, you know, I love all of that. But what I really look forward to is seeing our many members, attendees, exhibitors, and volunteers at Nexus, and we'll be in sunny Orlando. So really looking forward to it.
Fred Goldstein 11:16
Yeah, as am I really excited to be heading over to Orlando to for this year's conference. It looks like it's gonna be excellent. So just in finishing now, thinking about now until the end of the year, what are you most excited about? And as you head into 2024, why don't we start with you, Jim.
Jim Hopsicker 11:34
Sure, thanks, Fred. Managed care pharmacy is at the heart of so many important health policy discussions right now. And I'm really excited about the role AMCP and its members can play as we navigate the challenges in the healthcare system, both through the end of the year and into next year. 2024, you know, bring its own challenges, and, of course, a presidential election that we can all look forward to, as president of this organization, I know how well positioned AMCP and our members are to do what we do best. And that is to make sure that our patients get the medications they need at a cost they can afford. So thanks, Fred. Appreciate it.
Fred Goldstein 12:14
It's great. And you, Susan,
Susan Cantrell 12:16
Oh, wow, we should have ended on that high note, I think. But I'll just add a couple, you know, we talked about Nexus, it looks very strong. So I'm really excited about the prospect of ending 2023 on such a high note with a great meeting. And then also about the growth that we've seen in AMCP membership this year. And we fully expect that to continue into 2024. We've built a lot of momentum this year, dealing with some of these challenging and difficult issues that our members face and trying to be their resource and source for all information and education. So really looking forward to examining how we can build on that in 2024 and get the year off to a great start. Fred Goldstein 13:07 Well, it's fantastic. I'd like to thank you both for joining us today, Susan and Jim. It's been a pleasure.
Jim Hopsicker 13:12
Thank you.
Susan Cantrell 13:13
Thanks Fred.
Fred Goldstein 13:15
And thank you for joining us today. If you like the show, you can find all our episodes at amcp.org/podcast on our show page at HealthcareNOWRadio.com or on your favorite listening platform by searching Healthcare NOW Radio. You can follow our shows social hashtag at #AMCPListenUp. And don't forget to share, like and follow AMCPorg on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. I'm Fred Goldstein for AMCP. Until next time.
About the Hosts
Fred Goldstein is the founder and president of Accountable Health, LLC, a healthcare consulting firm focused on population health, health system redesign, new technologies and analytics. He has over 30 years of experience in population health, disease management, HMO, and hospital operations. Fred is an Instructor at the John D. Bower School of Population Health at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the editorial Board of the journal Population Health Management.
AMCP Podcast Series - Listen Up: Susan Cantrell and Jim Hopsicker on AMCP Strategic Priorities
Host Fred Goldstein invites Jim Hopsicker, AMCP President & Vice President, Health and Pharmacy Management at MVP Health Care, Inc., and Susan Cantrell, AMCP CEO, to discuss the state of AMCP Priorities.