Novant Health, Sutter Health, VUMC introduce new pharmacy-related solutions and services to enhance patient care

Novant Health Enterprises, a division of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health, has launched a new pharmacy solutions company named MedVenta Health Solutions to advance value-based care.?

According to the?announcement, the aim of the new company is “to increase access to affordable medications and improve patient outcomes through expanded retail and specialty pharmacy services, enhanced pharmacy clinical delivery models, new access points for infusion services, and better coordination of care across the continuum.”?

Dean Swindle, president of Novant Health Enterprises, said MedVenta will offer solutions for physicians, advanced practice groups, employers, and patients across the Southeast.?

“With rising medication costs across the nation, MedVenta is built to meet the changing pharmacy needs of patients and health care providers by delivering, among other things, best-in-class technology, the highest efficiency, quality, and convenience, and a reduction in the total cost of care for our patients,” Swindle said.?

Mediful, Novant Health’s virtual medication management service, will be part of MedVenta. Mediful’s clinical pharmacist practitioners collaborate with care teams serving patients with chronic conditions to assess medications for safety, affordability, and effectiveness. Mediful provides home delivery of prescriptions, as well.?

Joe Maki, Novant Health’s vice president of pharmacy, will lead MedVenta.?

In other news, Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health is expanding its partnership with Walgreens’ specialty pharmacy company, Shields Health Solutions, to bring enhanced care coordination to nearly 3,000 providers.?

The collaboration will support the care teams at Sutter Health’s two specialty pharmacies to expand care to patients receiving special drugs for chronic, rare, and complex health conditions.

It will also offer other support services, such as navigating insurance and financial assistance, according to the?press release.?

The combination of support services is designed to benefit patients through lower costs, broader treatment options, and enhanced medication management.

“We complement the care [Sutter’s clinical teams] give by securing access to 90% of the limited distribution drugs and opening the door to restricted payer networks, helping improve therapy management, as well as helping make care more affordable and more coordinated,” said Heidi Motz, executive vice president of commercial partnerships at Shields Health Solutions.

The expanded collaboration will initially focus on cancer, dermatology, and rheumatology, with other specialties to be added later on.?

Shields Health Solutions partners with more than 80 health systems.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt Health Rx Solutions (VHRxS), a subsidiary of Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center, kicked off a new consulting service designed to “bridge the long-standing gap between specialty drug manufacturers and health systems to integrate efficient delivery networks for optimized drug launches and partnerships.”?

Cora Beth Enzor, executive director at VHRxS, said the new service will take a comprehensive approach that includes strategies for before and after drugs are launched to optimize collaborations between drug manufacturers and health systems.?

“Not only do you have to consider the strategy at launch,” Enzor said, “but you are continually reevaluating the strategy throughout the entire life cycle of the drug.”?

She said the VHRxS team will work with clients to “do a deep dive into the entire process to identify barriers that threaten the optimization of the medication.”

VHRxS noted in the?press release?announcing the new consulting service that manufacturers and health systems “often operate in silos, leading to redundant work and inefficiencies.”?

“As our industry works toward the future of innovative partnerships, we believe that the silos our industry has constructed can be broken down and that by thinking outside the box, challenging the status quo, and entering into a collaborative partnership directly with key stakeholders, we can accomplish our common goal of caring for our patients,” said Elizabeth Cherry, senior director of trade relations at Vanderbilt Specialty Pharmacy.?

Our Take: Health systems are taking innovative measures to address not only their own pharmacy drug budgets but also the cost their patients must pay for drugs they need to achieve the best outcomes.?

Given the high cost of specialty drugs — and with more than half of adults in the U.S. having a chronic health condition and more than a quarter having two or more chronic conditions, according to a?research brief?from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — patients are cutting doses and, in many cases, forgoing the drugs they’ve been prescribed.?

Partnerships and other strategies that make it easier for patients to access and afford their medications (whether through better care coordination, medication management, or navigation services that can help prevent or appeal claim denials) can increase adherence and improve outcomes.?

As another example of innovation, Yale Medicine and Yale New Haven Health System launched InMOTION, the nation’s first mobile retail pharmacy and clinic, earlier this year. (So far, Connecticut is the only state where mobile retail pharmacies are legalized.)

The intent of the InMOTION project, Yale Medicine said in its?announcement, “is to make better health accessible to anyone disconnected from the health care system for any reason.”

Along with filling prescriptions, administering vaccines, and offering medication management services, the mobile pharmacy unit provides primary health care services and care for chronic diseases, specialty services for wound care and infectious diseases, addiction services, mental health care, phlebotomy services, and assistance with financial navigation.?

The InMOTION project partners with Dispensary of Hope, a charitable medication distributor based in Nashville, to provide select drugs to eligible patients.?

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What else you need to know

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Pennsylvania’s attorney general is?suing?Prospect Medical Holdings,?a Los Angeles-based, for-profit hospital chain, claiming the private equity-backed company has mismanaged and neglected Upland, Pa.-based Crozer Health System for years, leading to facility closures and a “shattered” network of care. According to the AG’s office, Prospect Medical broke a 2016 asset purchase agreement by cutting Crozer’s services and closing facilities, while diverting more than $450 million to private investors instead of supporting the health system’s network. The?civil complaint seeks to require Prospect Medical to fund Crozer’s operating costs until a new owner takes over.?To preserve existing service lines and avoid additional closures in the interim, the AG also requested a preliminary injunction and asked that a receiver be appointed to manage the health system.?

The day before the AG’s complaint was filed, an NPR affiliate in Pennsylvania reported that plans for Bloomfield, N.J.-based CHA Partners to acquire Crozer Health fell through. CHA Partners, which owns five hospitals in New Jersey, signed a nonbinding letter of intent to acquire Crozer in August. In 2022, Prospect Medical attempted to sell Crozer Health to Wilmington, Del.-based ChristianaCare.?

Oracle Health introduced its next-generation electronic health record?at the company’s Health Summit in Nashville last week. Featuring Oracle’s latest cloud and AI capabilities, the new EHR is designed to embed AI across the entire clinical workflow. In addition to automating processes, providing insights at the point of care, and simplifying appointment prep, documentation, and follow-up, the EHR is designed to help streamline information exchange between payers and providers, support patient recruitment for clinical trials, simplify regulatory compliance, optimize financial performance, and help accelerate the adoption of value-based care, Oracle Health said in a?press release. An early adopter program for the new EHR will start next year. When Oracle acquired Cerner in 2022 for $28 billion, it rebranded the business as Oracle Health.

Elevance Health’s Carelon health services segment plans to buy CareBridge, a value-based home and community-based care provider with headquarters in Nashville, for an estimated $2.7 billion, according to multiple news outlets. Elevance CEO Gail Boudreaux mentioned the acquisition plans during a third-quarter earnings?call?on Oct. 17, saying CareBridge would serve as the foundation for Carelon’s home health business. CareBridge operates in 17 states and Washington, D.C.; the company was co-founded in 2019 by Brad Smith, a former director at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, and Dr. Bill Frist, a former U.S. senator for Tennessee. The transaction is expected to close within the next few months. ?

AbbVie signed a definitive agreement to acquire Aliada Therapeutics,?a biotech company based in Boston, for $1.4 billion in cash. Aliada’s lead candidate, a potential best-in-class anti-pyroglutamate amyloid beta antibody, is in Phase I development as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Aliada’s proprietary Modular Delivery, or MODEL, platform features a novel blood-brain barrier-crossing technology that targets certain receptors expressed in brain endothelial cells. Aliada licensed the MODEL technology from Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen. J&J and RA Capital Management provided seed financing when they co-founded Aliada in 2021. If the AbbVie deal receives regulatory approval and satisfies other customary closing conditions, it is expected to close by the end of the year. ?

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee terminated its Medicare Advantage?and managed Medicaid contracts with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, effective Nov. 1, Becker’s Hospital Review reported. A spokesperson for MD Anderson told Becker’s the hospital “welcomes the opportunity to remain in-network for these plans,” and said it was working with Blue Cross Blue Shield to coordinate care for affected patients. In a statement to Becker’s, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee said it was working with members to redirect their care to nearby providers in their network, noting that certain members may qualify as continuity-of-care patients and still be able to receive care at MD Anderson at in-network rates.

HealthJoy is partnering with Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co.?to give its 1 million members better access to lower-cost generic drugs, the Chicago-based care navigation company?announced?recently. The collaboration could reduce employers’ generic pharmacy spend by as much as 50%, according to HealthJoy, which works with more than 1,800 employers.?

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What we’re reading

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The ACA Did Not Increase Spending Growth, So We Can Expand Coverage Further . Health Affairs, 10.28.24

Differences in Drug Shortages in the US and Canada . JAMA, 10.31.24

Why home health deserts are spreading across rural states . Modern Healthcare, 11.1.24 (subscription required)