{"id":187879,"date":"2022-07-07T14:41:04","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T18:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=187879"},"modified":"2022-07-07T14:41:04","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T18:41:04","slug":"uconn-health-specialty-pharmacy-2-years-of-success-and-still-growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/07\/uconn-health-specialty-pharmacy-2-years-of-success-and-still-growing\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Health Specialty Pharmacy: 2 Years of Success and Still Growing"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n  <p>The pharmacy changes lives daily and has secured over $17 million in financial assistance for our patients since its opening.<br \/>\n <cite> &#8212 Kim Metcalf<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/specialty-pharmacy\">specialty pharmacy at UConn Health<\/a> is quietly marking a milestone \u2014 two years of simplifying the process of getting specialty medications to patients that saves them time, aggravation, and money.<\/p>\n<p>It was June 30, 2020, still early in the pandemic, when the specialty pharmacy opened and filled a single prescription on its first day. Two years later, a typical month for UConn Health Pharmacy Services Incorporated is 900 patients served and 1,100 prescriptions filled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had tremendous growth,\u201d says Emmett Sullivan, the specialty pharmacy manager. \u201cIn the past year, we\u2019ve doubled our staff and our volumes doubled as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_187882\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-187882\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-187882 img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220706-specialtyRx-1500x1000-IMG_20220706_132303556-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"group portrait in pharmacy area\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220706-specialtyRx-1500x1000-IMG_20220706_132303556-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220706-specialtyRx-1500x1000-IMG_20220706_132303556-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220706-specialtyRx-1500x1000-IMG_20220706_132303556-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220706-specialtyRx-1500x1000-IMG_20220706_132303556-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220706-specialtyRx-1500x1000-IMG_20220706_132303556-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220706-specialtyRx-1500x1000-IMG_20220706_132303556-998x665.jpg 998w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220706-specialtyRx-1500x1000-IMG_20220706_132303556.jpg 1500w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-187882\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left: Pharmacy technician coordinator Lou Daddona, pharmacist Pamela Miranda, pharmacy technician Andrew Heng, and purchasing and inventory specialist Katrina Coady in UConn Health&#8217;s specialty pharmacy (Photo by Chris DeFrancesco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>By the end of its first year, the specialty pharmacy had attained the industry\u2019s highest level of accreditations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur success has a lot to do with our personalized patient-centered dedicated service that is integrated into the clinic model,\u201d says Kim Metcalf, associate vice president for pharmacy and ancillary services. \u201cThe pharmacy changes lives daily and has secured over $17 million in financial assistance for our patients since its opening. Our pharmacy exceeds the national average in the time to receive specialty medications to an average of 2 \u00bd days, as compared to other national specialty pharmacies which achieve access in 7 to 10 days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Specialty drugs often have one or more of the following characteristics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They\u2019re not widely used, therefore they\u2019re handled through limited distribution channels.<\/li>\n<li>They\u2019re more likely to have interactions with other medications.<\/li>\n<li>They may have side effects that the patient needs to recognize and communicate to the health care team.<\/li>\n<li>They usually are very high-cost, in some cases as much as $500,000 per year. They include oral, injectable, and biologic medications, treating cancer, hepatitis, auto-immune conditions and other rare or chronic conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Integrating a specialty pharmacy with patient care at UConn Health offers patients with conditions that require specific \u2014 usually high-cost \u2014 pharmaceuticals, more coordinated and often less expensive care.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe specialty pharmacy takes a complex process and decreases the stress for patients so they can focus on their health,\u201d Sullivan says. \u201cIf you get a specialty prescription written by your provider and walk into the local pharmacy, it probably wouldn\u2019t be available, and if it was, the cost of the medication could be hundreds if not thousands of dollars for the copay.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Any copay that comes back at more than $10, our team is looking for alternative ways to lower that cost to the patient further.<br \/>\n <cite> &#8212 Emmett Sullivan<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>With its dual accreditation with URAC (originally the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission) and ACHC (Accreditation Commission for Health Care), the specialty pharmacy has greater access to these medications. The clinical staff works directly with the providers to add an additional level of review.<\/p>\n<p>Pharmacy liaisons help patients to minimize out-of-pocket expenses and navigate their additional options beyond what insurance will cover. The pharmacy team engages the patients and increases the medication adherence rates to nearly 90%, well above the national standard of 80%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe financial barriers are a common cause for lower adherence,\u201d Sullivan says. \u201cAny copay that comes back at more than $10, our team is looking for alternative ways to lower that cost to the patient further. The manufacturer may have a copay assistance card, or there may be grants for certain conditions that the liaisons will research and watch out for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before the specialty pharmacy opened, a patient in need of a specialty medication faced several potential obstacles and delays of two weeks or more. The retail pharmacy may not have the medication. The insurance often will reject these claims, which needs additional information from the health care team. It could get routed back to the insurance plan\u2019s mail-order specialty pharmacy and be filled in another state, and the patient would have to wait for it to arrive in the mail, in refrigerated conditions if applicable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re right here in Farmington and we deliver it right to your door anywhere in the state,\u201d Sullivan says. \u201cIt\u2019s monitored for temperature sensitivity, and you\u2019re going to get your medication, refrigerated, to your house or to your office. Our average time from getting an order in to getting it out is a third of the national average.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patients also get help with prior authorization from their health insurer, refill reminder calls, keeping their providers updated, and understanding the purpose, dosage, potential side effects of the medications and potential drug interactions.<\/p>\n<p>Although UConn Health\u2019s specialty pharmacy has come a long way in its two years, the plan is to continue on that growth trajectory and expand into clinical areas it hasn\u2019t fully engaged with yet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur approach of personalized care has led to better patient care and outcomes,\u201d Metcalf says. \u201cOur pharmacy continues to exceed expectations, and our plans for growth this next year look very bright.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/specialty-pharmacy\"><em>Learn more about UConn Health Pharmacy Services Incorporated.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patients who require specialty drugs have an ally to help coordinate their care and remove barriers to obtaining their medications quickly, safely, and affordably.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":187881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,1864,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-187879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-pharm","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-29 17:05:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187879"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187903,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187879\/revisions\/187903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/187881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187879"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=187879"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=187879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}