Amy Wadstrom, RPh, on PBM transparency, education and GLP-1s | PBMI 2026
The president of Vivid Clear Rx says meaningful PBM transparency means pairing access to data with help from an educational partner.
At the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute's 2026 Annual National Conference in Orlando, Florida, Amy Wadstrom, RPh, president of Vivid Clear Rx, moderated the opening session yesterday, a discussion of what new pharmacy benefit management transparency laws actually mean for employers and other payers that are shopping for a pharmacy benefit manager.
Wadstrom distinguished between government-mandated transparency requirements, including PBM provisions in the Consolidated Appropriates Act of 2026 and the standards Vivid Clear Rx sets for itself, which she said largely overlaps with what regulators are now mandating industrywide.
“The secret sauce to transparency is really having an educational partner that helps you understand the data,” she said, explaining that many employers do not know what to do with raw claims data on their own and need a partner who can lay out their options and help them decide how to act on it.
Wadstrom pointed to glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) coverage as an example of pairing transparency and education. Clients need projections of what share of their population is likely to qualify for the weight-loss drugs and what that could cost, she said, then insight into the cost and other implications of different coverage choices, such as covering GLP-1s through the PBM as usual, carving the benefit out through a companion program with tighter clinical criteria, or offering a direct-to-consumer option that reaches a broader population at a lower price but with fewer clinical limitations.
The panel discussion was titled “Redefining the Future of Pharmacy Care.” Other members of the panel were Kathryn Carey, MBA, president of Optum Rx’s PBM; Dana McCormick, RPh, vice president of practice innovation at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy; Krista Siano, vice president of business transformation at PSG; and Patty Starr, president and CEO of the Health Action Council.
