Preview of PBMI 2018 National Conference

On March 5-7, 2018, the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute’s (PBMI) 2018 National Conference in Palm Spring California will be the 23rd annual drug benefit conference that the institute has put on. Over the years, the PBMI National Conference has grown into a crucial networking and education event for managed care professionals working in pharmacy benefit and payer relations. As the pharmacy benefit management landscape continues to shift, it is vital that professionals working in this space keep up-to-date on the latest contracting strategies, technological advances, and clinical trends. The conference is geared toward health care decision makers in the pharmacy space who are interested in optimizing drug benefit design in order to cut costs and improve outcomes. The conference also offers great opportunities to establish relationships with peers and colleagues in the industry.

To help guide attendees with a background in managed care, First Report Managed Care has compiled a brief overview of the meeting and the educational sessions that cannot be missed. Please refer to the final program and meeting website (www.pbmi.com) for a complete list of all sessions, speakers, locations, and other events.

Education Tracks

The PBMI educational tracks allow professionals to navigate the conference based on their preferred education areas. Attendees can easily customize their meeting experience by following the color-coded session in the PBMI 2018 National Conference booklet. 

The education sessions are categorized in four targeted program tracks:

Designing the Drug Benefit

This track will help professionals understand the factors that impact drug benefit design. Many sessions in this track focus on specialties serving complex patients population such as pain management, cancer, and precision medicine. This track will also explore how high costs impact the drug benefit design.

Contracting and Industry Relations

Contracting can bring all kinds of questions and headaches. This track will help to alleviate some of those difficulties by catching attendees up on the latest strategies for successful specialty pharmacy contracting. Sessions in this track will also help attendees be aware of some common contracting pitfalls to avoid in 2018.

Clinical and Trend Management

Sessions in this track will help attendees get a better grasp on the trends at a clinical level that are impacting PBM contracts. Educational sessions in the track will emphasize the economic value of carving out utilization management services.

Innovation and Technology

Health care technology is rapidly advancing, so why shouldn’t it be applied to make pharmacy benefit management more efficient? These sessions will include a look at how tech companies are influencing drug spending and the benefits of a digital pharmacy. 

GENERAL SESSIONS

Monday, March 5, 2018

•4:45 pm-5:35 pm
Opioid Abuse:
Prevention as a Proven Solution

David Calabrese, RPh, chief pharmacy officer at OptumRx, will discuss innovative strategies for decreasing opioid misuse. These strategies will focus on five topic areas, including prevention and education, minimizing early exposure, reducing inappropriate supply, treating plan participants who are at risk, and supporting chronic populations and recovery. Mr Calabrese will also give attendees an understanding of the current scope of the opioid crisis in America. 

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

•8:00 am-9:15 am
Do We Really Need to Choose Between Affordability and Access?

Steven D Pearson, MD, MSc, founder and president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), will discuss the current drug pricing problem by reviewing ICER data that shows many drugs are priced beyond their value. Dr Pearson will break down how payers can design formularies that properly balance affordability with patient access. He will also discuss how these types of value-based contracts are likely the future of benefit design and how drugmakers are starting to come on board to make these contracts mutually beneficial. 

•3:30 pm-4:30 pm
Evolution of the Specialty Pharmacy Landscape and Beyond

William Roth, founding partner and president of Blue Fin Group, will give attendees an understanding of how the specialty pharmacy landscape is changing. He focus on how the changes in product mix in combination with use of outdated spend management tools are creating barriers to new science, care, and cost management possibilities in this space.

•4:30 pm-5:30 pm
High-Tech, High-Touch, High-Value:
The Future of Pharmacy Care

With the advent of million dollar gene therapies and new payment models on the horizon, Steve Miller, MD, chief medical officer at Express Scripts, will explain how pharmacy is poised to maximize the efficiency of health benefits. He will explain how pharmacy benefit management is at the forefront of technological changes that can cut costs without sacrificing outcomes. Attendees will also get a glimpse at what could be the future of pharmacy benefit management.

HIGHLIGHTED EDUCATION SESSIONS

Monday, March 5, 2018

•3:45 pm-4:35 pm
Meeting Oncology Drug Management Challenges: One Employer Group’s Perspective

Advances in oncology care have dramatically increased the number of cancer survivors and patients living with cancer. Speakers Renee Rayburg, RPh, vice president of clinical consulting at Artemetrx, and Kembre Roberts, people manager of benefits and labor strategy at Southwest Airlines, will discuss how one employer has tackled the rising costs associated with the growing cancer care patient population. They will outline how to better manage oncology care and drug access while keeping costs down and patients satisfied.

•3:45 pm-4:35 pm
Developing a Patient-Centric Specialty Network

A team from Walgreens, including Rina Shah, PharmD; Glen Pietrandoni, RPh; Matt Farber; and Chris Creamer, RPh, will discuss their patient-centered care model that helps patients with complex conditions through innovative pharmacy practices. The team will outline how their network of specialized pharmacies improved both adherence rates and patient and provider satisfaction by increasing engagement.

•3:45 pm-4:35 pm
Tech Companies and Drug Spend:
Innovations in Lowering Drug Spend

Marc Appel, JD, MBA, vice president and health care analyst at Marathon Asset Management, will help attendees understand how innovation in Silicon Valley are impacting drug spending in America. He will explore innovative approaches to pharmacy that include apps that allow customers to buy pharmaceuticals at competitive prices without insurance, transparency tools that give customers access to pricing data and coupons, and more.

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

•11:25 am-12:15 pm
Opioid Managed Care Pharmacy Programs: What Can be Done and How

The seriousness of the opioid epidemic is well known across the country, but what can professionals working in pharmacy benefit design do to reduce the burden of misuse? Catherine Starner, PharmD, BCPS, health outcomes consultant senior principal at Prime Therapeutics, will discuss these strategies, including tools to identify high-risk patients, programs to decrease misuse, and use of drug formulations that discourage overuse and misuse. 

•11:25 am-12:15 pm
Operational and Clinical Implications of Managing a Custom Formulary

Speakers from Yale Health, John X Toth, manager of pharmacy program development, and Dustin Pollastro, MBA, PharmD, managed care pharmacist, will discuss how health plans can streamline pharmacy benefit management services by merging claims processing duties with rebating and discounting. They will break down the clinical and operation steps involved in streamlining formulary management under a single PBM. 

•1:15 pm-2:05 pm
Using Technology and Actionable Patient Intelligence to Improve Patient Safety and Care While Lowering Healthcare Costs

PBMs are removed from the point of care engagement experience; however, Scott Motejunas, MBA, and Nick Webber, both of product innovation at Surescripts, will discuss how PBMs can leverage an e-prescribing network to enable better point of care decision making. They will outline how SureScripts’ solutions can automate prior authorizations, deliver patient-specific formulary data, and provide medication adherence insights in order to deliver better patient safety, more quality care, and lower spending.

•2:10 pm-3:00 pm
Value-Based Pharmacy Management

Josh Fredell, senior director of product development at CVS Health, will help the audience understand how value-based management strategies can enable payers to control costs while delivering affordable pharmacy care to their members. Mr Fredell will give insight into how indication-based management ties into how data can be used to meet outcomes measures and cost benchmarks.

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

• 11:25 am-12:15 pm
Harness Analytical Tools to Improve Member Satisfaction and Promote Cost Savings

On the final day of the PBMI 2018 National Conference, Michael Rea, PharmD, founder and chief executive officer at Rx Savings Solution will, discuss how analytical software platforms can be used to improve member satisfaction and reduce spending. Rx Savings Solutions’ tool provides members with cost savings opportunities, while in turn reducing payer spending. He will provide data from cases in the field where payers have used the platform to increase cost savings and get a return on their investment within 6 months.

Keynote Session: 

Adam J Fein, PhD, President of Pembroke Consulting

The Outlook for Pharmacy Benefit Management: Evolution or Disruption?

On Monday, March 5, 2018 Alan Fein, PhD, president of Pembroke Consulting, Inc, will give the PBMI National Conference’s general session keynote presentation, entitled “The Outlook for Pharmacy Benefit Management: Evolution or Disruption?” Dr Fein is an expert in pharmaceutical economics and the drug distribution system. 

Dr Fein’s expertise has made him a leading voice in the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to topics like commercial strategies, the changing pharmaceutical landscape, and drug pricing. A doctoral graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr Fein is uniquely positioned in the pharmaceutical industry—giving him a valuable perspective for attendees in pharmacy benefit design and population health management.

 Dr Fein is also CEO of Pembroke’s Drug Channel’s Institute, a leading provider of specialized management education about the pharmaceutical industry. The Institute also releases annual reports on drug pricing, utilization, and prevalence. For more information on Dr Fein, check out his blog at drugchannels.net, where he provides in-depth, real-time analysis of current events and trends in the health care industry.