The Asembia 2024 Summit in Las Vegas brought together professionals from the healthcare industry to discuss innovations, challenges, and opportunities. Here are the four key takeaways from the perspective of our team that attended:
1. Navigating the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)
The IRA's implications for drug pricing and reimbursement were central to many discussions at the summit. IRA policy aims to reduce prescription drug costs, a move that will significantly impact downstream drug revenues, the operation of Patient Assistance Programs (PAP), and most importantly access to care for patients. Attendees expressed keen interest in understanding how to adapt to these changes and ensure compliance while maintaining profitability.
The IRA mandates price negotiations for certain high-cost drugs and caps out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare beneficiaries, which we expect will necessitate pharma, payors, and PBMs to adopt new pricing strategies and approaches to reimbursement and financial assistance program offerings.
2. AI and digital solutions for compliance and efficiency
AI and digital solutions were emphasized as crucial tools for navigating the new landscape shaped by the IRA. Our perspective is that such technologies can help optimize our operations, in balance with our people experts, ensuring we can meet our customers' needs while continuing to provide high-quality patient care. As an example, our attendees emphasized how AI, and other process automations, can transform patient care approaches, enabling more precise and personalized treatment plans that can also help manage costs effectively.
Outside of our conversations, the summit sessions underscored the need for user-friendly AI hubs that enhance speed to therapy and improve operational efficiency. This could result in more specialized Patient Advocate roles focused on acute service delivery, aligning with the cost-efficiency goals.
3. Patient-centric care and health equity
Many of the conference sessions focused on meeting patients where they are on their healthcare journey, addressing pharmacy needs, and promoting health equity. The importance of patient-centric care models was underscored, with discussions on how organizations that provide patient access support, like Fortrea, can better utilize technology and AI to support these initiatives. As an example, we advised current and future customers on how to adapt their Patient Assistance Program (PAP) eligibility criteria, moving from capped limits for all patients to allocated funding based on patient need. This approach can better utilize PAP funds while promoting enhanced health equity, especially to those patients that do not have any other type of assistance being provided through enhanced State or Federal programs. We must adapt with technology by raising the bar in terms of product access speed while still delivering best-in-class customer service.
4. Collaboration and competitive insight
Collaboration between various stakeholders was a recurring theme, highlighting the need to partner with different companies and vendors that are bringing innovative solutions to market. As technology solutions continue to evolve at an incredibly fast pace, one of the benefits Fortrea provides is helping our clients navigate through their internal approvals process in order to take advantage of new-to-market solutions. This reinforces a common theme heard throughout the conference, and in our meetings with customers, that our industry must keep pace with technology advancement, in balance with meeting the legal, regulatory, and security requirements critical to our industry.
Conclusion
The Asembia 2024 Summit provided crucial insights into the evolving landscape of patient care within the healthcare industry. Key takeaways include the need for strategic adaptation to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which emphasizes drug pricing reforms. AI and digital solutions emerged as vital tools for enhancing operational efficiency and patient care personalization. The focus on patient-centric care highlighted the importance of health equity and adapting technology to meet diverse patient needs effectively. Additionally, the summit underscored the significance of collaboration among stakeholders to drive innovation and navigate regulatory pathways, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, efficient, and equitable patient care. These discussions set the stage for future advancements in the patient journey, aligning with the industry's goals of improved access and cost-efficiency.
Finally, you can learn more about our latest patient access solutions here. Want to connect with us? Use the Contact Us form at the bottom of the page.
