Serving managed care, health-system and specialty decision makers Volume 11 • Number 4 • July/August 2022 • specialtypharmacycontinuum.com
OPERATIONS & MGMT 3 ways to think smarter amid healthcare disruption....................................3
Inadequate pain relief rampant
For Sickle Cell Patients, The Struggle Continues
URAC, JC, ACHC Detail What’s New In SP Accrediting By Karen Blum
PHOENIX—The
specialty pharmacy accreditation field is heating up this year, highlighted by three new elements of performance and a new way to review pharmacy services that reaches beyond traditional drug dispensing, representatives from the major accrediting bodies reported during the 2022 ASHP Summer Meetings and Exhibition. Any healthcare provider trying to enter the specialty pharmacy market knows that getting some form of accreditation is essential for gaining access to payor and pharmacy benefit manager networks or limited distribution drugs. That’s why it is critical to keep up with
POLICY Time is now to prepare for USP Chapter updates on compounding ....................4 CLINICAL Where’s the urgency on social determinants of health? ..................................16
see SP ACCREDITATION, page 10
Magellan Rx Reports Millions in Savings From Onc Biosimilars
Navigating treatment choices in cGVHD disease .......................................20
By Karen Blum
TECHNOLOGY
CHICAGO—Biosimilars for oncology
High-quality research possible in busy specialty practice ................ 22
While living in Chicago, Mr. Wake had his first cerebral infarction related to SCD. The event was a “silent” stroke that affected the part of his brain controlling speech. Strokes, manifesting as both cognitive impairment or overt infarcts, are a common complication of SCD (Pediatr Neurol 2019;95:34-41).
are gaining ground, with more payors implementing strategies to cover them and large projected savings for health plans, health systems and patients, speakers said during a panel discussion at the AMCP 2022 annual meeting. Biosimilars are defined as biologic products approved by the FDA that are highly similar to an FDA-approved biologic product, also known as the reference product, said YuQian Liu, PharmD, RPh, the director of specialty clinical solutions at Magellan Rx Management,
see SICKLE CELL STRUGGLE, page 18
see BIOSIMILARS SAVINGS, page 5
REVIEW ARTICLE By Marie Rosenthal
CHICAGO—Kevin Wake understands
Emerging Treatments for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
all too well the disparities in healthcare that prevail in the United States, especially for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Those inequities almost killed him, he told attendees at the AMCP 2022 annual meeting.
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Atopic Dermatitis Patient–specialty pharmacy interaction is fundamental in the continuity of care See page 12.