Gathering to take stock of hub services

The trend toward manufacturer-sponsored patient support has risen in line with the growth of specialty pharmaceuticals: those drugs have a host of obstacles, including prior authorization review, dispensing complexity, adherence difficulties and—certainly not least—reimbursement challenges. For a decade and more, manufacturers have addressed these issues by building internal patient-support centers, or outsourcing to providers. The mix of providers is also a challenge: the services are available from dedicated firms, as offshoots of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), as add-on services from the major wholesaler-distributors, and from specialty pharmacies.

Making sense of all this is simplified by attendees of the upcoming CBI Hub and SPP Model Optimization meeting (Philadelphia, Feb. 24-26). “Getting a holistic view of what’s going on in this industry is what I value,” says William Dupere, Director of Market Access at TrialCard. TrialCard has grown, through acquisitions, internal growth and strategic relationships, into one of the leading outsourced providers of patient-support services, and is a Signature Sponsor of the upcoming meeting.

The three-day meeting will range over a host of hub-service issues, including policy updates from HHS, regulatory issues from the U.S. Dept of Justice, and analysis from Wall Street. “Hub design” is a key element—how to construct the right mix of internally and externally-sourced services, and what services to offer. “The trend is for manufacturers to provide more continuity for the patient journey,” says Dupere. “This isn’t a new thing, but seeing how it’s being implemented is what market access is all about.”

In addition to three tracks with multiple sessions, there will be dedicated workshops on access and affordability; special pharmacy; and field reimbursement practices.

Pharmaceutical Commerce, a media sponsor of the event, is providing a discount for attendees of the meeting. Use the code HPC300 (certain restrictions apply) when contacting CBI. The meeting website is https://informaconnect.com/hub-and-spp-model-optimization/.