2022 PBMI National Meeting Kicks Off Monday

The national meeting of the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute® is scheduled to start Monday in Orlando with an agenda devoted to exploring the full gamut of trends, innovations and pressing issues affecting the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry.

The three-day meeting at the Caribe Royale Resort will feature speakers and panel discussions on everything from diabetes management to cost transparency to biosimilars to ideas about prescription drug value.

The agenda is also peppered with interludes designed to encourage networking and exchange of ideas and information.

The meeting will open on Monday with a presentation by Brandon Newman, CEO of Xevant, a PBM analytics and technology company in Lehi, Utah, about the top four trends in PBM industry this year and beyond.

Doug Long, MBA, vice president of industry relations at IQVIA, the next speaker, will continue the trends theme with a sweeping discussion about healthcare and drug spending. A frequent speaker at conferences, Long is well known for giving talks with rapid-fire presentation of slide deck, dense with data and insights.

The second day of the meeting is scheduled to begin with a presentation by Gregory Warren, FSA, FCA, MAA, partner and consulting actuary for Axene Health Partners, about relationship between the core problems in U.S. healthcare and prescription drug value.

Related: 6 Takeaways From 2021 PBMI Annual National Conference

The meeting features two sessions on digital therapeutics. Monday afternoon, a panel is slated to discuss how digital therapeutics can add value across multiple specialties and diseases and the barriers to integrating them into healthcare benefits. The scheduled members of that panel are Jeffrey Dunn, chief clinical officer, Cooperative Benefits Group; Bill Rush, senior director of value and access for digital health, at Sanofi; and Patty Taddei-Allen, Pharm.D., MBA, BCACP, BCGP, vice president, clinical programs and services, at WellDyne.

On Tuesday ,Taddei-Allen and Nick Page, chief clinical and strategy officer for WellDyne, will take up the topic of digital therapeutics again, delving into comparative effectiveness research and other factors that may affect coverage decisions.

There are also two sessions on biosimilars, both scheduled to take place on Tuesday. Tasmina Hydery, Pharm.D., MBA, BCGP, assistant director of digital solutions at Amerisource Bergen/Xcenda; Jennifer Snow, M.P.H., vice president of reimbursement policy insights, also at AmerisourceBergen/Xcenda; and Cate Lockhart, M.S., Pharm.D., Ph.D., are slated to discuss barriers to adoption of biosimilars

Several sessions will focus on pharmacy benefit management — and overall healthcare management — of particular diseases. Erika Glenn, vice president and general manager of PBM care management, is scheduled to discuss diabetes management on Monday. On Tuesday, panel of four speakers will discuss multiple myeloma from the vantage points of a physician, a specialty pharmacist, a patient and a patient advocate. And on Wednesday, Ryan Flugge, Pharm.D., BCPS, medical account director, Novo Nordisk, and David Skomo, RPh, chief pharmacy operations officer, will discuss obesity and evidence-based benefit design.