What can an integrated delivery network do for you?

With specialty drug categories such as orally administered cancer drugs increasing in number,^[1]  plans, payers, and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are looking for ways to help bring down total cost of care.

PBMs and the health plans they service are focusing on health systems with specialty pharmacies, or integrated delivery networks (IDNs), as a solution to provide patients with efficient access to medications and treatments while lowering the cost of care. The interest is so strong that the integrated delivery network market in the U.S. is anticipated to reach $3.79 trillion by 2030, expanding at a CAGR of 10.25% during the forecast period.^[2]

Pulling together different pieces of the patient care puzzle such as acute care centers, physician groups, hospitals, and pharmacies, among others, an IDN empowers a health system to coordinate improved quality care for patients at lower costs. 

According to the RAND Center of Excellence on Health System Performance^[3] IDNs help achieve goals critical for success in health systems by reaching more patients, giving them more options to lower-cost settings and providers, and keeping patients in-network where their journeys can be monitored closely and efficiently to improve care.

Cencora’s Accelerate Specialty Network is a pharmacy services administrative organization (PSAO) supporting a unique network of specialty pharmacies. The first and largest specialty PSAO in the market, Accelerate focuses on collaboration with industry-leading health systems and IDNs with comprehensive specialty pharmacy capabilities, medically integrated dispensing practices, and patient-centric niche specialty pharmacies.

One of the key components of the Accelerate Specialty Network is lowering the total cost of care, something proven to be achievable via IDNs. For example, a recently published journal article showed integrated care increasing savings up to 38% on oncolytic prescriptions.^[4]

Quality is also important to the network. For example, Prime Therapeutics – one of the PBMs the Accelerate Specialty Network team works with – recently achieved an industry-leading 94% satisfaction rating in a survey released by Prime of its IntegratedRx®  – Oncology clinic-to-pharmacy service. In that satisfaction survey, a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 80 was achieved by the integrated pharmacy network versus an NPS score of 34 from traditional mail order specialty pharmacies.^[5] IntegratedRx®   is Prime’s solution for patients on oral oncology and cystic fibrosis medications, allowing them to fill those prescriptions at their accredited health system or medically integrated specialty pharmacy. 

IntegratedRx®   – Oncology is a great example of how pharmacy networks with integrated delivery networks in them can provide additional support and savings such as:

• Coordination and monitoring of patient care
• lowered barriers to medication usage
• improved medication management
• reduced costs

The tools that the Accelerate Specialty Network PSAO utilize also streamlines the reimbursement process for pharmacies, helping them manage the payment cycle with data reporting and advanced analytics; centralized pay for cashflow visibility; reconciliation services to help track third party receivables and pinpoint underpaid claims; and pre- and post-edit review of claim submissions to reduce errors.

Leveraging the global reach of Cencora, the partnerships of the Accelerate Specialty Network PSAO enables facilitating conversations with industry experts and peers to identify value driving innovation opportunities. The well-connected, experienced Accelerate Specialty Network team is staying ahead of rapidly changing industry regulations by diversifying services to help health systems become more flexible – avoiding having every resource locked into one solution – utilizing a wealth of knowledge in areas like payer and PBM strategy and network management; contracting and network strategy; pharmacy management; pharmacy operations; health plan management, infusion therapy;  ambulatory treatment centers; pharmacy sales; and managed care.

All of this is designed to help health system specialty pharmacy proactively expand access to commercial specialty payer and PBM contracts, drive pharmacy performance and maximize specialty market opportunities, and navigate the intricacies of managed care networks.

For more information, visit the Accelerate Pharmacy Network website or email the team at Acceleratespecialtynetwork@amerisourcebergen.com.

1. Utilization Management Trends in Medicare Part D Oncology Drugs, 2010-2020. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network. July 18, 2023. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2807298

2. U.S. Integrated Delivery Network Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Integration Model (Vertical, Horizontal), Service (Acute Care/Hospitals, Primary Care, Long-term Health, Specialty Clinics), Facility, and Segment Forecasts, 2024-2030. Research and Markets. September 20, 2024. Accessed September 30, 2024. https://www.researchandmarkets.com/report/united-states-integrated-delivery-network-market

3. Consolidation by Any Other Name: The Emergence of Clinically Integrated Networks. RAND Corporation. August 3, 2020. Accessed September 10, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA370-1.html

4. Impact of health system specialty pharmacies on total cost of care in cancer treatment, a multisite review. Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice. August 30, 2023. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/6URVJPPBKAQUUEKAK3HI/full

5. Prime Therapeutics recognized at PBMI for award-winning solutions, leaders https://finance.yahoo.com/news/prime-therapeutics-recognized-pbmi-award-120000599.html?guccounter=1