Beyond Prescriptions: How Community Pharmacies Drive Quality Care

Emily Endres, VP of Pharmacy for PQS by Innovaccer conversed with Abdou Bah, SVP, Medical Management and Chief Health Equity Officer at EmblemHealth, on how community pharmacies are reshaping healthcare delivery in a recent online webinar.

Discussions revolved around pharmacy partnerships, clinical services, blood pressure management and encouraging seasonal immunizations. 

Listeners can learn more about how innovative, team-based strategies are driving quality outcomes and improving chronic disease management. This webinar was originally presented on September 27, 2024.

Chapters

• 0:48 Introduction
• 3:59 How Pharmacies Can Enhance Outcomes
• 7:04 Pharmacy Partnerships
• 12:30 Incentivizing Pharmacists for Clinical Activities
• 24:00 Controlling Blood Pressure
• 31:37 The Newness of Clinical Care
• 35:32 Immunizations
• 45:14 Message to Pharmacies
• 49:45 Question and Answer Session
• 56:50 Closing

Transcript

00:00:00:15 - 00:00:22:19

Abdou Bah

Now a member can get their A1c test or their Blood screening done, blood pressure test done, not only the provider's office, they can get it done at a pharmacy, and the pharmacy can see that this members do for a blood pressure. And being able to not only do the screening, but also create a workflow that, if it's abnormal, sending it back to our clinical team or making a referral back to the providers.

00:00:22:19 - 00:00:39:10

Abdou Bah

Because sometimes we do see that the members are not on the right medication or the members having high A1c, and they haven't been tested in a year. And how do we make sure that that close loop happens and we're able to support our members holistically.

00:00:39:12 - 00:00:49:19

Voiceover

Welcome to the Pharmacy Quality Solutions Quality Corner Show. Buckle up and put your thinking cap on. The Quality Corner Show starts now.

00:00:49:21 - 00:01:18:08

Emily Endres

Well welcome and thanks for joining us for this exciting conversation about the impact of community pharmacy. Today we are going to get candid about how community pharmacies drive quality care. And I'm Emily Endres, I'm the VP of Pharmacy for PQS by Innovaccer. I proudly work with both our connected Health Plan and PBM partners, as well as our large network of connected community pharmacy partners.

00:01:18:10 - 00:01:41:06

Emily Endres

And today I am joined by Abdu Bah, the SVP of Medical Management and the Chief Health Officer for EmblemHealth. And I do thank you for being here. First, I think we'd like to just learn a little bit more about you. Tell us about your health plan. Let us know a little bit more about your roles, responsibilities, and accountability to emblem Health.

00:01:41:08 - 00:02:04:21

Abdou Bah

Thank you, Emily. And first of all, thank you so much for hosting, this webinar, this important topic about the importance of pharmacies, but also for, introducing kind of this, this topic around how can you integrate pharmacies, and, value based on population health and the importance intersection with quality improvement. So I'll talk a little bit about myself and I'll talk about Emblem Health.

00:02:04:21 - 00:02:26:19

Abdou Bah

So as Emily mentioned my name is Abdou. I am the SVP of Medical Management. I also serve as our chief health equity officer here at EmblemHealth. I have been kind of in equality space for most of my career, and I am equally passionate about health equity and kind of driving innovation through a healthcare lens from our Emblem standpoint.

00:02:26:19 - 00:02:59:11

Abdou Bah

Emblem is a regional health plan. We are a nonprofit. We're based out of New York, and we serve today across, all lines of business, about 2.5 million lives, mostly located in the five boroughs of New York City. As you kind of think about the importance of that. It's obviously, New York City being a large market, but also being a really, good use case as you think about health equity, as you think about addressing chronic condition, and as you think about serving a diverse population.

00:02:59:13 - 00:03:25:12

Emily Endres

Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you for that. Abdou and oh my goodness, you're right. An incredibly diverse population. And I think that's really helpful. You know, to all of us to kind of level set and understand we all have different roles and responsibilities. You wear a lot of hats for EmblemHealth. We all are serving in different member populations, whether it's from the lens of the health plan or from the pharmacy.

00:03:25:14 - 00:04:00:08

Emily Endres

But there's one constant here and that that we're we are here to progress member health outcomes. And without a doubt, the pharmacy benefit is a really significant part of that member's health care journey. And the pharmacy is a key component to enhancing outcomes. So I think with that, we're going to dig in and we're going to hear you, Abdou, expand a bit on just how pharmacies are driving quality care and how that ties back to value for you as the health plan, and certainly ties back to value, for the pharmacy as well.

00:04:00:10 - 00:04:03:17

Emily Endres

So with that, thank you.

00:04:03:19 - 00:04:32:14

Abdou Bah

And you're right, because as you think about it. Right. And to your point, about the core focus of all three parts of health care, right? The plan, the provider, and kind of all of the connected built on services such as pharmacy and other, we play an integral part in taking care of members. We are here to really support the member's health care conditions and really make sure that we a) prevent complication, and b) that we support them to the life cycle of whatever condition that they're managing.

00:04:32:16 - 00:04:50:01

Abdou Bah

Before we talk about the impact on pharmacies and we think about the partnership opportunity. I just want to take a step back and say, if you think about kind of today's ecosystem, most of the focus is around provider partnership. It's about health plan. What can we do on our own and how can we provide, partner with providers.

00:04:50:03 - 00:05:13:17

Abdou Bah

But as we were, Emblem was thinking about our solution and thinking about what's one of our core mission as a health plan, is to think about improving access, is to think about removing health equity. And also thinking about things that we can do to support members where they are. Right. And how do we build on partnership and think about every member touchpoint throughout their journey and trying to have a positive impact on health outcomes?

00:05:13:21 - 00:05:36:18

Abdou Bah

So as you kind of mentioned, and as we started to look at partnerships, we started to think about what else can we do with pharmacies today for providers, we send them care gap monthly, we send them rosters, many plans sit down with their providers monthly to talk about performance. And we talk about opportunities. And I really (think) the missed, the big missed opportunity is doing the same thing with a pharmacy organization.

00:05:36:20 - 00:06:00:18

Abdou Bah

So we embarked on this mission with you to kind of think about the opportunity that we would have with essentially sharing care gaps with pharmacies, talk about incentive and building value and creating win-win situations where everybody that would be working for member would essentially be laser focused on creating, enhance access, but also thinking about addressing specific care gaps.

00:06:00:24 - 00:06:32:17

Abdou Bah

And as you kind of think about the evolution of healthcare, one of the things that has enabled this progression has been kind of starting to look at things that can be done outside of the physician's office, such as, A1c and blood pressure test and so forth. And we'll continue to talk about that to today's conversation. But I think it's really important to think about leveraging pharmacy beyond just filling a script, but thinking about pharmacy as an important partner in this ecosystem that allows us to unlock additional opportunities for the members.

00:06:32:19 - 00:07:05:21

Emily Endres

And I think you're spot on. And first and foremost, you know, I've had the pleasure of knowing you across, your work and a few different organizations and to see that you're innovative. And here at EmblemHealth you are being incredibly innovative, I think is an understatement, and I have always appreciated just the lens in which you have put on the pharmacy partnership and how you're, propagating that across to your point, you know, the member, experience, relationship, etc..

00:07:05:21 - 00:07:33:16

Emily Endres

And so, kudos to Emblem. And in the great work that's being done there. So I think it's really clear that the health plan emblem has a higher regard for the pharmacy channel. And you've really built this comprehensive of and kind of strategic value that, honestly, you've assigned to those pharmacy partnerships as well. And just to kind of recap, you know, some of the driving factors and benefits of really leaning into those pharmacy partnerships.

00:07:33:16 - 00:07:56:12

Emily Endres

One is just expanded access to health care services. And I think about your population in particular, of do right, where there's a provider shortage and we know it's fact, right, that pharmacies are visited twice as often is compared to any other provider type. And where you have dense populations like those populations that your health plan is serving.

00:07:56:14 - 00:08:29:02

Emily Endres

We need providers. We need more access points for, for broader health care type activities. And certainly pharmacy is a location that's, prime and, a great avenue in access for care in that way, improved medication management. So, you know, this is a key care driver, for pharmacies, but not just through the standards of drug dispensing and kind of, as you've already mentioned, but through enabling pharmacies to counsel and educate, on drug therapies, point of care testing.

00:08:29:04 - 00:08:52:05

Emily Endres

All of those things, you know, you're maximizing the patient's benefit of their medication regimen, enhanced preventative care. And we see that so clearly through the important aspect of immunizations as preventative care. And then also kind of again leaning into that a little bit more around increased patient engagement and education. Pharmacists are a top trusted health care professional.

00:08:52:05 - 00:09:21:12

Emily Endres

They continue to be, named year over year in that regard. So the fact that you have your members visiting these pharmacies twice as often as other health care providers, it truly makes pharmacy in the ideal pathway for these enhanced patient engagement opportunities, bridging those gaps in health care literacy. Getting after, as you mentioned a really important component around health equity and tackling some of the social determinants of health that we know are out there.

00:09:21:14 - 00:09:39:15

Emily Endres

And so we're going beyond medication management, as pharmacists are trained and credentialed to collaborate with health plans and so many other aspects of clinical care. And that's what I think we'l focus some more of our discussion on here today. So let's start.

00:09:39:17 - 00:10:01:19

Abdou Bah

Yeah. Just adding an extra point, just leaning in a little bit more as you talk about the partnership. And specifically for my plan partners that may be on this call, if you think about even from a member experience, from a cap standpoint, a lot of the questions, a lot of coordination of care, getting needed care, getting care quickly, a lot of those services are heavily influenced by pharmacies.

00:10:01:24 - 00:10:20:04

Abdou Bah

And that's, one of the again, going back to the untapped potential, where if you think about members as Emily mentioned, or more likely to go to go to pharmacist, but they're also able to engage with the members more often, right? You may see a member go to the pharmacy at least once a month versus a provider maybe once a quarter or through engagement.

00:10:20:04 - 00:10:38:24

Abdou Bah

You may or may not be able to reach members. So again, investing in those partnerships so that there is, ongoing support and ongoing engagement that's at identifying, therapies that need to be change or opportunities around, as you mentioned, switching the drug, the 90 days or 30 days when it helps benefit the member from a cost standpoint.

00:10:39:01 - 00:11:05:01

Emily Endres

Absolutely. No, thank you for that addition. In to your point question out there to our our health plan audience members, there's a QR code that's on your screen or there's a link in the chat feature, if you don't mind engaging that. Just want to get a poll of the audience here. So as a health plan, are you leveraging community pharmacies for quality improvement today?

00:11:05:03 - 00:11:26:23

Emily Endres

Looks like at this point, I think our answers are slowing down a little bit. Looks like that. I think we could say there is a majority, health plans that are in the audience today that are leveraging community pharmacies as a part of the quality improvement strategy. Also, it looks like there's a pretty good opportunity for others to think about and consider what that may look like, you know, for the future.

00:11:28:19 - 00:11:59:19

Abdou Bah

And Emily, I think also what we need to hone in, in today's conversation, and even for the folks who did say yes, there are also degrees and levels of partnership. Right? And I always think about, process improvement, from lens of kind of writing about, you know, the things that you do right there, maybe outreach that you're doing, a pharmacy is, I think, what we're going to hone in today on and kind of do a deeper dive in this section is going to be what are some of those enhanced partnerships that you may not be tapping into, and how do you expand your reach?

00:11:59:19 - 00:12:16:24

Abdou Bah

Right. So you may have a specific partnership with one chain, but you may not be targeting all of the opportunities the locals and so forth. So how are you identifying said partners and how are you expanding those partnerships across the board? And we'll give some examples around that. Back to you, Emily.

00:12:17:01 - 00:12:38:23

Emily Endres

Yeah, absolutely. Well, you're right. I think we can kind of take this opportunity to narrow the focus just a little bit. So again, to your point, we'll, we'll dig into what the kind of, backbone of those pharmacy partnerships can look like and some different strategies. Maybe you, Abdou, and EmblemHealth have taken when you're evaluating those partnerships.

00:12:38:23 - 00:13:03:20

Emily Endres

So, thinking beyond the medication dispensing realm and really getting into these clinical or enhanced clinical services that we can enable the pharmacy network with. Can you give us some more details on what those partnerships look like? And really, how empowering. And I think it's an important part, incentivizing pharmacists, to perform more of these clinical activities.

00:13:03:20 - 00:13:07:24

Emily Endres

How does that also drive value for you as a health plan, Abdou?

00:13:08:01 - 00:13:35:22

Abdou Bah

Yeah, definitely. So I think for us, emblem, it's core, as we think about quality improvement, as we think about population health management, everything starts and end with data, looking at data and analyzing our data, specifically mining for opportunity. So as we think about this space, we started to focus specifically on what are the top pharmacies based on where our members are, right, looking at just geographic location, but also looking at specifically patterns, right.

00:13:35:22 - 00:13:55:13

Abdou Bah

Are members going to the same pharmacy? Are they going to a retail national retailer, or are they going to a local pharmacies? And depending on your market that may fluctuate. Right. So again, availability and so forth. And then I think the last part as it relates to data, we started to hone in on who providers are recommending, right.

00:13:55:13 - 00:14:20:05

Abdou Bah

And going and thinking about those to say today, if you, provider John Doe, are always sending it to this pharmacy and we can kind of look at the adherence rate as an example and being able to present that data back to our providers to say this is the outcome of where you're sending your members, but also looking at those opportunities to say, pharmacy 123 is doing an amazing job at managing, medication adherence for diabetes.

00:14:20:06 - 00:14:48:03

Abdou Bah

Let's talk to them. Let's learn about what they're doing. And through that research, we found that many pharmacies go above and beyond just filling the medication. Many of them have, offer delivery services or educational topics around how to manage their chronic condition. And personally, I was amazed by that because if you kind of think about the ecosystem today, the reimbursement process, it's really only driven towards filling medication, not stopping the medication.

00:14:48:03 - 00:15:23:22

Abdou Bah

So for pharmacies that that wake up every day and think about creating better value and supporting the health outcomes of their members, kudos to them. So I think that's where we started. And then we were really focusing on three critical aspects of where, from a clinical standpoint, pharmacies could play an integral part of our success. Number one, it was around obviously medication adherence and looking at how do we drive adherence to key chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and cholesterol medication and utilizing not only the platform and the data to be able to present back to pharmacies.

00:15:23:22 - 00:15:44:00

Abdou Bah

These are the members that are nonadherent. This is how we update the data every month to show who's due for their medication and helping them kind of prioritize which member, are due for a refill. Number one, and obviously we'll talk in a second about how we've built incentive around some of those programs. The second layer was thinking about access, right?

00:15:44:00 - 00:16:07:14

Abdou Bah

And specifically focusing for our market for how do we increase access within the communities that we serve. And starting to think about leveraging pharmacies to do additional screenings, such as blood pressure and A1c Draws that, again, are now approved by NCQA to be utilized as supplemental data. So again, we'll talk a little bit more about blood pressure later, but specifically leaning in on

00:16:07:14 - 00:16:29:18

Abdou Bah

Now a member can get their A1c test or their blood screening done, blood pressure test done, not only at the provider's office. They can get it done at a pharmacy, and the pharmacy can see that this member’s due for a blood pressure. And being able to not only do the screening, but also create a workflow that if it's abnormal, sending it back to our clinical team or making a referral back to the providers.

00:16:29:18 - 00:16:51:13

Abdou Bah

Because sometimes we do see that the members are not on the right medication or the members have in high A1c, and they haven't been tested in a year. And how do we make sure that that closed loop happens and we're able to support our members holistically? And then really, as you go down and think about what I would say, the core of just the pharmacy and the engagement around just flu, right.

00:16:51:13 - 00:17:13:08

Abdou Bah

And other immunization, needs in kind of that period, are really making sure that members get screened. Obviously, the pharmacies were an integral part of Covid and our response and being able to get members screened and continuing to get them, all the immunizations that they need and continue to remind and make sure the members are getting, well taken care of.

00:17:13:10 - 00:17:47:20

Abdou Bah

And what we've done to really support that model was to really think about what are levers and incentives that we can build, not only in terms of a pay for performance program and incentivizing pharmacies for things such as screening, but also thinking about long term value, such as it's not just about getting the adherence up, but it's also about having the educational, to check in the ongoing conversations, but also switching members to 90 days where appropriate, and really making sure we're driving overall value for both side versus just kind of focusing on closing the gap as a standalone.

00:17:47:22 - 00:18:09:10

Emily Endres

Fantastic. Okay. Do you give us so many great nuggets there? I'm going to start to, to peel back a few layers, of, what you just kind of walked us through. And I think I'll start with, a key element that you mentioned around really making sure that pharmacy is a part of, the continuum of care.

00:18:09:10 - 00:18:48:12

Emily Endres

Right. And you mentioned something around, connection with providers, too. So what I hear you say is that you were using data really, to drive, the interactions that you're being able to track through the pharmacy lens, you're able to bring that back internally and continue to drive, whether it's other arrangements with different provider types through your call center, etc., so that you're thinking more about personalized care, going back to into your role as the chief health equity officer, I know that seems to be a very integral part of the process.

00:18:48:12 - 00:18:54:13

Emily Endres

Is that, is that an accurate kind of summary of what I heard there on the first part around using data?

00:18:54:15 - 00:19:25:11

Abdou Bah

Yeah, 100%. And I think data can kind of help you identify where those opportunities. We look at things. I'll give a real life example. We look at what pressure results or a once you screen results by population, not only by race, ethnicity, language, but also by zip code to identify specific disparities where there's opportunity cities and leveraging that as an area to say not only we want to do things with the provider and create incentives for providers to address those health, disparities.

00:19:25:11 - 00:19:38:12

Abdou Bah

So we've offered incentives to our providers to drive, specifically, measures where we saw the disparity, but now also now creating that alignment with pharmacies and focusing specifically on access to care.

00:19:38:14 - 00:20:04:17

Emily Endres

Fantastic. Absolutely. Okay. So it looks like you've truly identified so many great opportunities for partnerships here Abdou, and the impact then of what you're seeing from the community pharmacy kind of channel here is really going back to some of those. You could say these are lead lag measures, right? We're working towards quality measure performance. And that's something that's being realized.

00:20:04:21 - 00:20:25:23

Emily Endres

We're decreasing overall cost of care. That's something that's being achieved as we're working through it through this lens of quality measurement. And you mentioned another really important part too, and that to increasing member satisfaction. Or it's at least being addressed through multiple channels of care. And you know, as you kind of started to touch on there a bit too.

00:20:25:23 - 00:20:46:17

Emily Endres

So often times the pharmacy is truly the only face of the health plan for a patient. So they're filling a prescription within the pharmacy. And you talked about, there's a lot of other third parties involved in the script billing and adjudication process. But the pharmacy, the pharmacists, the technicians, the kind of the voice box of the health plan.

00:20:46:17 - 00:21:09:06

Emily Endres

So it's really important to understand, you know, what does that relationship look like with the pharmacy network? And how to, to use that as a driver for overall plan satisfaction and especially on the cap side, as you mentioned. So really kind of going above and beyond on things like medication therapy, management, tying in some of those more tactical areas like you mentioned.

00:21:09:06 - 00:21:41:00

Emily Endres

We'll talk more specifically about here in just a second around blood pressure, A1c, etc. tying that back to chronic disease management through that data sharing lens. Immunizations are huge bread and butter for the pharmacies. And we'll also talk about that here. And then health screenings. I think there's a whole world of opportunity to think a little differently about, community pharmacy collaborations around health screening, whether it's, you know, through the lens of social determinants of health, health risk assessments, etc..

00:21:41:02 - 00:22:09:04

Emily Endres

As we've already uncovered, patients are very comfortable going into the pharmacy, comfortable having those discussions. What else can we learn from our patients to really make an impact? So lots of good opportunities here. Okay. We have, another poll for the audience, and this is both for health plans and pharmacies. Again, just curious, which health screening programs are you most eager to collaborate on, either from a health plans perspective or from a pharmacist perspective?

00:22:09:04 - 00:22:20:09

Emily Endres

Is it blood pressure readings? A1C screenings, social determinants of health screenings, HRA’s, fall risk, Lipid panel, all kinds of options.

00:22:20:11 - 00:22:41:07

Abdou Bah

Was going to say Emily, I would be surprised if it's not an all, right, as you kind of think about where we are in the health care standpoint today. And, and needing to have an impact on all those different areas, either from a quality-of-care standpoint or from, cost of care standpoint or from just overall population health management.

00:22:41:09 - 00:22:45:03

Abdou Bah

And I think it's about how do you prioritize and so forth.

00:22:45:05 - 00:23:06:10

Emily Endres

Absolutely. I think you're right. We're at this kind of intersection where all of these things are not just, in theory, but we're seeing things put into practice, which is a fantastic evolution of kind of how far we've come here. All right. And seeing the results slow down just a little bit, but it looks like an overwhelming amount.

00:23:06:12 - 00:23:29:01

Emily Endres

Think that blood pressure readings via the pharmacy channel is a fantastic opportunity. Up next is A1c screenings. From there, definitely social determinants of health. Also really cool to see lipid panel testing. I think there's certainly a lot of opportunity there as well. So precede the participation. All right.

00:23:29:03 - 00:23:43:24

Abdou Bah

And Emily, then also it could be me looking at it, but it's just also I'll just say it's interesting that the measures are at the top are the ones that are the heavy weighted measures. Right on to all of my quality people on the call. I see you in that vision.

00:23:44:01 - 00:24:06:08

Emily Endres

Yes, that's exactly that's exactly right. I think we can double click on the blood pressure portion of it. Right. It's triple weighted. There's a lot of accountability tied to this quality and measure of do. And certainly, you know, equally as important, there's a lot tied to both preventative care as a part of this measure and then also condition management.

00:24:06:08 - 00:24:22:24

Emily Endres

So it's a precursor to so many other things. If you can Abdou, tell us a little bit more about the strategy around controlling blood pressure that measure itself and the great work that we're doing to use the pharmacy channel to help close those gaps in care?

00:24:23:01 - 00:24:40:11

Abdou Bah

Yeah, Emily, I think really hit that on the head in terms of the importance. Right. If you think about the prevalence of, hypertension and other chronic condition tied to the heart, it's by far the leading one in the US. And today, even as we look at our population, a pretty significant volume of the members do have hypertension.

00:24:40:11 - 00:24:58:11

Abdou Bah

And certainly the risk levels vary. Right. You could be a little bit on the younger side and not have as high as a risk. But certainly our job as a health plan is, I'm sure providers and pharmacies, is to support members to make sure that they're adhering and that we are preventing, an event from happening.

00:24:58:11 - 00:25:19:20

Abdou Bah

And I think that's important to kind of think about the future of the health care management. I think from a quality lens standpoint, this measure has been very interesting. Right? In the past, it used to be, what's called hybrid only or hybrid heavy, I should say, where, a relied on medical records from providers offices, because typically this blood pressure reading does not come through a claim.

00:25:19:20 - 00:25:43:01

Abdou Bah

Right. And we don't get or we did not, receive claims for blood pressure reading and kind of sharing the clinical data around blood pressure reading from EMR is also spotty in terms of, the partnerships. Right. So one of the things that was important for us is this measure now move towards being more of an admin measure was, number one, how and where can we capture more blood pressure

00:25:43:03 - 00:26:08:08

Abdou Bah

Readings. The measure itself has changed that. Now member reports, self-reported data can also be integrated and that allowed as part of the provider record. But it's also about how do we make sure that a) we identify the member's blood pressure and b) when it's elevated, we can act on it. So our focus was not just about the screening, but also creating robust workflows where we would let the providers know.

00:26:08:08 - 00:26:24:15

Abdou Bah

We would also let our care management know to put members in the right programs and make sure that if we needed to do things such as, home monitoring, which is one of the programs that we've launched this year, all of those were integrated so that we could certainly help and support members beyond just the one time screening.

00:26:24:15 - 00:26:46:04

Abdou Bah

Right. And really making sure that we were targeting this cohort. Obviously, as I mentioned, it's a pretty, large volume and most of our quality measures, and this is a heavy weighted measure. So certainly there's a direct connection on the hedis side, but this is also a medication adherence measure. So if you think about it, there is multiple direct connection on the quality side.

00:26:46:08 - 00:27:06:07

Abdou Bah

And as I mentioned earlier, this is also a high cost driver on the medical side. So it's in all of our best interests as we kind of think about population health management that we focus on this measure. And as I mentioned earlier, our number one focus on in terms of our partnership with the pharmacies was to think about the pharmacy as a location where blood pressure could be done.

00:27:06:12 - 00:27:27:01

Abdou Bah

Right. A management of blood pressure could be started there. And essentially using that as a referral pathway to all of the programs that I mentioned, and really thinking about that as an opportunity to identify members and do frequent checks. Right? So as you can think about this management in kind of today's world, remember, may go to the provider at twice three times a year.

00:27:27:03 - 00:27:43:15

Abdou Bah

But if the member could be, screened and received the readings and being shared with both the health plan and the provider on a more frequent basis, it could adjust the medication. We can talk about different management from a member standpoint. So those are all of the opportunities that we were looking at.

00:27:43:17 - 00:28:14:11

Emily Endres

Yeah, I think that's incredibly helpful and insightful. And to your point, pharmacies are so well positioned to support this quality measure for all of the reasons that you had mentioned here. And in an effort to really take this leap as a profession into providing more of those primary care type services for their patients, right? Yeah. I'm thinking again about holistic patient care and the multitude of touchpoints that pharmacies are having.

00:28:14:16 - 00:28:32:15

Emily Endres

You know, it's a really key component, as you mentioned. You know, I spent ten years in community pharmacy, in lots of different ways. And there were so many times that in my tenure, over that decade, I was asked to take a blood pressure reading because someone just didn't feel quite right, or they had a question.

00:28:32:15 - 00:28:56:18

Emily Endres

They needed some guidance, and it wasn't something that they necessarily wanted to call their physician about. It was a moment in time. Hey, I'm here. I'm here with the health care provider in that setting. I think this is something that they can help me with. And certainly, in my time in and in the pharmacy were absolutely always willing, and very much ready to, to assist and provide any, any guidance.

00:28:56:18 - 00:29:26:22

Emily Endres

So I say that to say to your point, do you know, there's just so much more happening than this transactional drug dispensing, truly going on in the pharmacy, and patients are incredibly comfortable asking these questions, and receiving this type of care within the pharmacy. And, actually one of my favorite, stories that I like to tell, our example, if you will, a success story comes from a pharmacy that's within the EmblemHealth Network.

00:29:26:22 - 00:29:48:15

Emily Endres

And we first started down this partnership around controlling blood pressure and enabling our community pharmacy network with that data to collect those readings. There was a particular pharmacy that just knocked it out of the park. So within the first couple of weeks, we started to see a significant number of blood pressure readings come back. We thought, this is fantastic.

00:29:48:15 - 00:30:17:20

Emily Endres

So trying to be super curious and dig in. Obviously we called this pharmacy to understand what is the key to success here. This is new, brand new, something that we haven't necessarily talked about with our pharmacy network before. You know, that specific program. So we reached out and the pharmacy was very quick to, describe for us the level of service that he puts all of his, patients that have high blood pressure on.

00:30:17:20 - 00:30:48:02

Emily Endres

So as a standard of care, if you're a patient receiving a blood pressure medication within this pharmacy, when you come in to pick up your prescription, you have to sit down. They were using an automatic, kiosk blood pressure machine to facilitate this. So the patient knew they had to go put their arm in that machine, wait the time, go to the consultation window, asked for their prescription, pick up, report the results, have a consult, talk about their medication regimen, understand,

00:30:48:04 - 00:31:10:12

Emily Endres

How are you feeling? How are you doing today? How have you been over the last 30 days since I last saw you? Your blood pressure is great. Or maybe there's an identification that there's something that's not quite right. They thought that's a fantastic use case and scenario and one that we know is not isolated to this one pharmacy.

00:31:10:14 - 00:31:43:15

Emily Endres

In, you know, the Manhattan area of New York, we know that this is happening out there with much more prevalence, and opening up these pathways. I think that that's the responsibility that we have. And I appreciate you mentioning this, Abdou, around just the evolution of the quality measure itself. As an industry, we need to continue to find these pathways to further integrate community pharmacy into the health care continuum, whether that's through quality measure evolution, regulatory and legislative changes that are out there.

00:31:43:17 - 00:32:11:17

Emily Endres

You know, these are all really key aspects. And to being able to continue, again, that integration of community pharmacy. So, appreciate that. Now, there's another aspect to this Abdou, that we haven't quite talked about yet. And that is, as I briefly mentioned, some of this is very new. And for pharmacists, there are certainly many of those out there that maybe haven't taken that clinical course.

00:32:11:19 - 00:32:54:07

Emily Endres

They've been dispensing, medications for quite some time, and they may be slightly out of touch with taking blood pressure readings or conducting A1c’s, at the point of care, whatever that looks like. I think, and I want to emphasize here is just a mutual understanding, if you will, that this is a change in behavior. While patients love going to the pharmacy, having discussions, it is not necessarily always in their kind of course of behavior and thinking about, I'm going to make a trip to the pharmacy to say that they should expect to have an A1c test or expect to have a blood pressure reading done.

00:32:54:09 - 00:33:14:21

Emily Endres

So there's a change in behavior we need to account for on the patient side. And there's certainly a change in behavior we need to account for on the pharmacy side too, as they're trying to think about how do we most efficiently and effectively incorporate these, opportunities and care gap closure interventions within workflow? There's certainly a lot going on.

00:33:14:21 - 00:33:42:00

Emily Endres

So very much this kind of crawl, walk, run approach. And that's something I, you know, and you have always been very understanding, and certainly others and what that evolution looks like. So just again, level setting some expectations that we're not going to get there overnight. But this is an evolution. This is a process. And I don't know if you have any comments to add there of do, but certainly something I wanted to underscore.

00:33:42:02 - 00:34:07:21

Abdou Bah

Yeah. First of all, that example to me is wow, right. From a health plan standpoint, what else can we ask for from our pharmacy partners? What else can our provider groups can ask for their partners, right. The pharmacy. So I think that ability to go above and beyond is important. I would just highlight two points. Point number one, I think pharmacies need to do, just a better job of marketing those services so their partners understand.

00:34:07:21 - 00:34:26:15

Abdou Bah

Right. Because to your point, often time we see the results, but we don't know the secret sauce. Like there is no place where we can go and say pharmacy ABC, you're doing all of these above and beyond services that are not part of the dispensing rate that we should partner on. I'll give an example around that.

00:34:26:17 - 00:34:52:14

Abdou Bah

We've kind of similar situation where one of our local pharmacies, we've learned about all of those extra services that they're offering, and I was so impressed by those. I was like, well, how can we look at the population, your service area, and look at specifically it was about asthma and think about programming that could be done where members would come to classes, member could learn because it sounds like you have a solution that's working, and we just need to think about the right model to be able to support both sides.

00:34:52:14 - 00:35:12:06

Abdou Bah

Right. So I think, I would suggest for pharmacies that are doing some of these extra activities to not only do, documentation explain what those services are, but also help their partners look at those services as maybe opportunities to drum up more business and think about additional partnership opportunities, Emily.

00:35:12:08 - 00:35:31:09

Emily Endres

Yeah, I think that's a fantastic point. I'm glad that you brought that forward. You know, as we discussed there, certainly lots of pharmacies out there doing all kinds of great work in this space already. We just need we need to talk about it. And, we have to do that together kind of as a community. Great.

00:35:31:11 - 00:35:59:07

Emily Endres

Okay. Let's transition really quickly because it's September. So almost October. Flu season is here. And we're talking about some clinical care opportunities. But let's just start in round out this discussion for kind of the bread and butter of pharmacy clinical services. Right. You mentioned to already the Covid 19, I mean, these pharmacies were the vehicle that essentially saved a nation, let alone an entire world.

00:35:59:07 - 00:36:27:06

Emily Endres

You may argue. And so as a health plan, what can you  share with us around expanding these immunization opportunities? Is there a way that we can think differently about bundling preventative care services with other clinical care opportunities? Again, and so I think it's timely. We know that pharmacies are certainly taking advantage of the opportunity to immunize, but what else can we do with that from a health plans perspective?

00:36:27:08 - 00:37:08:06

Abdou Bah

Yeah, definitely. And I think to your point, this is the one piece out of all the conversation where we've had around screening and so forth, where pharmacies essentially aren't a driver and they're at the center of success. Right. And obviously, to your point, we're entering flu season and just immunization season in general. And I think number one, leveraging and thinking about ways to partner as an example, Emblem has done a lot of work with our pharmacies to think about what we call internally, our flu clinics, right where we would specifically partner with local pharmacies or retailer to come up with specific dates and kind of think about our population, such as our commercial members.

00:37:08:06 - 00:37:28:06

Abdou Bah

And instead of expecting members to show up at the pharmacies delivering services at their workplace, delivering services in the community, one of the assets that Emblem has that I'm very proud of is we have 15, what we call neighborhood care centers, which are embedded in the communities where we support not only our members, but also nonmembers.

00:37:28:10 - 00:37:48:24

Abdou Bah

It's one of the things that drew me to Emblem Health, which was our ability to support our communities beyond just the talk. Right. And so being able to be in the community and being able to offer services where members could come in and be essentially supported with whatever health care needs that they have, but also thinking about bringing health screening to those events.

00:37:48:24 - 00:38:11:15

Abdou Bah

So what we do today is, we offer to some of our clients the ability to deliver flu clinics in their offices, right, and pick a date and essentially coordinate around that and conduct some of those immunization. I think it's equally as important as you kind of look at the data over the last couple of years, since technically Covid, but the pediatric immunization has also significantly gone down every year.

00:38:11:21 - 00:38:35:07

Abdou Bah

That's one of my big worries today, is that, as you kind of think about the long-term impact of that, it's important for us to continue to think about innovation in this space, to get back on track and make sure that, kids and younger, adults are getting all the immunizations that they need to remain healthy. So, again, just partnering with pharmacies and also thinking about, “how do we bring that into the community?”

00:38:35:07 - 00:38:41:14

Abdou Bah

And we bring that in partnership with our provider groups and others in terms of making sure we're closing that gap.

00:38:41:16 - 00:39:03:21

Emily Endres

That's fantastic. You know, I think you definitely hit the nail on the head. And what I heard so often with that, and within your explanation, there is just the notion of community. And we're talking community pharmacies, and you're talking about enabling communities to have access to really important care from the young ones to the elderly ones.

00:39:03:21 - 00:39:33:24

Emily Endres

Right. And so, we know pharmacies have certainly demonstrated, you know, their success within, their abilities to execute on vaccines. And there's some great strategies that we've seen pharmacies put into place. First, we've already covered the convenient access point. And again, back to your comments around community. They're the cornerstone of the community, the ability to provide patient education and do campaigning in that way is fantastic.

00:39:34:05 - 00:39:59:20

Emily Endres

The use of digital, marketing reminders, systems, etc. is a huge driver for community pharmacies and being able to ensure that they're getting those patients, you know, back in the door, for the right immunization at the right time. And then also expanding immunizations. We had the RSV vaccine come out last year. We're in flu season right now.

00:39:59:22 - 00:40:25:02

Emily Endres

And there's just a significant amount of opportunity for, I think, pharmacies to think holistically. And we know that they are about, you know, what do they do from a community perspective, and how can they tie those in-person and, patient care opportunities across other, intervention types that may be available for that patient as well? Right.

00:40:25:02 - 00:40:48:15

Emily Endres

So is that the right time to also conduct a blood pressure screening, you know, while you have that patient there and sitting down filling out some paperwork, is that a great time to do some additional counseling on medication adherence, A1c testing, etc.? So, so we kind of think about all of these really great success and execution strategies that we've seen for pharmacies.

00:40:48:15 - 00:40:55:17

Emily Endres

It's kind of exciting to just think about, how do we use that to then expand upon other clinical care type of opportunities.

00:40:55:17 - 00:41:18:03

Abdou Bah

And yeah, and Emily, if you don't mind me adding one more point, I think, and again, maybe more of a tip from a health plan standpoint, one of the things that, you may want to think about doing, if you're not doing today is obviously as a health plan, and this is also a caps member satisfaction measure. But we think about our flu campaigns and our flu strategy as a standalone, as an example.

00:41:18:03 - 00:41:42:12

Abdou Bah

And we start by thinking about, before we do anything, what are our providers doing, right? And kind of put on the calendar. We know providers are going to send text message, letter and so on. And then same thing with our pharmacies, right? What are the nationals doing? When are they doing it? And also the locals to be able to think about where do we fit in from a health plan standpoint, not only from a messaging standpoint, making sure the message is aligned, right?

00:41:42:12 - 00:42:00:05

Abdou Bah

I think one of the things that's a little bit of a concern here. Often time is sometimes the messaging is not clear, right. In terms of what's important, what are the number one versus number two. And if I can only do one shot today, which one should I take. And really aligning that clinical, strategy with the execution.

00:42:00:05 - 00:42:16:05

Abdou Bah

So as we look at all of the communication that go out to the member, we also want to make sure we're not overwhelming members because at some point a member will turn it off and say, you know what, I will not do it because I'm being bombarded from all angles. So really thinking about making sure it's almost like a year round effort.

00:42:16:05 - 00:42:37:05

Abdou Bah

And also to your point earlier about by age group, right. Certain immunizations are due by a certain age. How do we make sure that that happens? How do you make sure that you leverage registries, right? How do you make sure you leverage EMR data from your provider to tell as close to the complete picture as possible? And then on the back end, how do you make sure that you're communicating to our members?

00:42:37:05 - 00:42:59:15

Abdou Bah

So obviously you do a lot of reminders about the flu, but very few plan. Think about, you know, sending the post, flu vaccine messages. So we do a lot around thanking members for taking their flu shots. Right. And looking at, to this day, Covid data to look at how many people, got their immunization, their booster and so forth as an ongoing kind of population health thing.

00:42:59:15 - 00:43:07:06

Abdou Bah

So I just want to add that a little bit nugget of just things that health plan can do as they partner with their provider groups in their, their, pharmacies.

00:43:07:08 - 00:43:34:16

Emily Endres

Yeah, I think that's fantastic tips, that you able to share with us there, Abdou. And all going back, to your right, around issues that we're seeing around health literacy, etc. and that's a real that's a question for a patient. I, I can only have one today or should I only have one today? I think that goes back to the patient education piece that pharmacies are so impactful with too.

00:43:34:16 - 00:43:57:21

Emily Endres

So a great way to kind of tie that all together. All right. Before we get to any type of, Q&A, we have one last item to go through here, and this is a message to the pharmacy. So, we've covered some really great ground over the last few minutes here around what pharmacy partnerships can and do look like between health plans and pharmacies.

00:43:57:21 - 00:44:28:03

Emily Endres

We've talked about some really great success stories and determined, certainly that community pharmacy as a channel of health care is integral. So for our pharmacies that are out there, a certainly a message is that this is the time to keep shining. You're already shining. Just keep shining. For many years, pharmacies, you know, we've been looking to diversify revenue streams, from the drug dispensing channel, because we know that they're producing diminishing margins in return.

00:44:28:03 - 00:44:55:09

Emily Endres

So how do we diversify as a pharmacy? Strategies have been around building out your patient’s market basket, right, with other over-the-counter items or front end items. But what about embracing health plan and other partnerships that are paying for enhanced care services, things that you are doing within the pharmacy and to provide that exceptional, or maybe to get paid for that exceptional care that you're already providing to your patients.

00:44:55:09 - 00:45:21:18

Emily Endres

So today, there are significant dollars available to pharmacies for engaging in these types of programs and partnerships. Your health plan has gone above and beyond and put a lot of incentives out there for pharmacy. So with that being said, do you have a message to give to the pharmacy partners out there that have either taken advantage or not taken advantage of these types of opportunities?

00:45:21:20 - 00:45:24:02

Emily Endres

What would you like to say to them?

00:45:24:04 - 00:45:58:14

Abdou Bah

Yeah. So first of all, thank you, Emily, to kind of framing that up, I think to echo your sentiment about thank you. Thank you for everything that you guys do for, members and your patients. Right. I think you serve a critical role to that patient experience and that overall health outcome that we've talked about today. From a messaging standpoint, I think the most important one is be open to partnership, be open to new ideas and kind of think about, what are the things that are your levers that will need to be met in order for this to be a win-win situation?

00:45:58:16 - 00:46:22:13

Abdou Bah

I'll kind of say to you and to folks listening today, one of the challenges in this journey, as Emily mentioned, about the walk and run situation, is that oftentimes as we reach out to pharmacies and we try to find the right person to talk to you, it's been a challenge, right? It's been a challenge to find the right person at the local level, to be able to have this conversation with about the value proposition.

00:46:22:13 - 00:46:48:16

Abdou Bah

Right. And then same thing as we have conversations with the decision makers and pharmacies being able to see the opportunities and being able to assess if those are the right opportunities for you. I think today one of our struggles is to be able to even present that value proposition. So, I would love, as you mentioned earlier, to create that community where we can bounce ideas, we can think about ways to enhance the programing that we do today.

00:46:48:18 - 00:47:08:10

Abdou Bah

Certainly looking for feedback every year I think about what else can we add to our program to continue to bring more value to not only the health outcomes of the members, but also the, the value to the pharmacies? And I'll just close my message to say, as I look at, you know, the last couple of years that we've ran these programs, we've seen an impact.

00:47:08:10 - 00:47:30:17

Abdou Bah

We've seen a direct, improvement in terms of medication adherence. We've seen a direct improvement to our screening rate for blood pressure and others that we've been able to leverage to increase our quality score. So that's a direct impact in terms of that. These strategies work. We just have to continue to build upon them and continue to think about what else can be added so that we can create a holistic, end to end value.

00:47:30:17 - 00:47:51:05

Abdou Bah

But if you think about it today, providers are receiving incentives, members are receiving incentive, and pharmacies are now receiving incentive. And obviously the plans are receiving incentive. When people are healthy and through our quality program. So again, it's aligning all of these different levers and incentives to create true value and better health outcomes for everybody.

00:47:51:07 - 00:48:29:14

Emily Endres

Absolutely. I mean, I think you're spot on. That alignment of incentives is so incredibly critical. And we're here, we're getting to that point in time where we are finding this alignment. So, you know, from a pharmacist perspective, a few things I think to consider, really, when you're evaluating these more enhanced care services and programs that are offering incentives, again, for that great care that you're already providing some things to consider for our expanded role in patient care, an increase in job satisfaction as we've worked with so many great pharmacies out there, that's been an overwhelming piece of feedback.

00:48:29:14 - 00:49:10:01

Emily Endres

Is that and is, you know, from a corporate level or even at an individual independent pharmacy level, empowering yourself and your staff to work at the top of your license. Even technicians in our blood pressure program, technicians are certainly an allowable source for taking either a blood pressure or an A1c screening, performing the test itself. So there's certainly that increased, sense of job satisfaction, which is really important, especially at a time in an industry where we need help, and we need human resources to be able to fill these provider and provider type roles, increase revenue opportunities.

00:49:10:01 - 00:49:45:13

Emily Endres

It goes without saying. And we just talked about the really important aspect of that. And, absolutely, aligning incentives across healthcare, enhanced patient satisfaction. And I appreciate in our discussion today that we've definitely taken an opportunity to double down on that a little bit because, again, we are all here for patient health care outcomes, their well-being. And that is something that as a pharmacy, as a pharmacist, as a technician and working through these programs and improving patient outcomes, you get to do what's right for the patient's health and well-being.

00:49:45:15 - 00:50:12:04

Emily Endres

And that's incredibly powerful just in and of itself. So, Abdou, I think we've covered a lot of really important and significant ground here today. So I want to open it up to our audience, to see if there are any questions that, we can answer for you. So. So it looks like the first one. Abdu, I'm going to toss this over to you really quickly.

00:50:12:06 - 00:50:25:15

Emily Endres

What are best practices for a health plan or at-risk provider groups for contracting with pharmacies to support quality efforts? That may be a loaded question, but I wanted to send it your way.

00:50:25:17 - 00:50:44:16

Abdou Bah

Yeah, I think great question. I think in our case, we've leveraged this partnership that we have with PQS and kind of started to just think about here's what we're looking for and hearing their thoughts and innovative ideas around how it gets deployed. And I think from a contracting standpoint and leveraging their relationship with the pharmacies that they have.

00:50:44:16 - 00:51:05:22

Abdou Bah

Right. And being able to kind of build that model around it. And then essentially looking at our data to create a true incentive that would work for both sides. So, today we do not have to direct contract anything different with our pharmacies. We are essentially creating these sorts of pass through opportunities directly through our existing contract.

00:51:05:24 - 00:51:28:06

Emily Endres

Fantastic. Okay. Incredibly helpful. Next question and I think I'll take this first and then I'll pass it to you. First, this, came from the audience and gave us some kudos here. So finding the concept of gathering data from pharmacies and providing to health plans is an awesome concept. So this data can be really helpful in a lot of use cases.

00:51:28:08 - 00:51:51:16

Emily Endres

So for adoption on the pharmacy side, are we required to put incentive models in place and how well does Incentivization work. So again I'll take the first part of that. And absolutely would love to hear your perspective on this Abdou. And I think that truly, we just, touched on that a little bit when we talked about the importance of aligning incentives and is Abdou mentioned.

00:51:51:16 - 00:52:29:05

Emily Endres

We're incentivizing providers for this. We're incentivizing the member as well. There needs to be an incentive for the pharmacy in consideration as a part of this kind of trifecta. At that point in time, given the landscape that pharmacy exist in today, these are all patient care opportunities that are being reimbursed across other provider types. So if this is something that's of priority and needs to be prioritized appropriately for members, the pharmacies need to have some type of an incentive included in there too. Abou you can agree or not agree?

00:52:29:07 - 00:52:31:07

Emily Endres

I would love to hear your thoughts here.

00:52:31:09 - 00:52:51:01

Abdou Bah

Yeah, I agree 100% with you. Right. And I think it's kind of starting somewhere. Right? For me, the most important part is you may not build the right model in year one. Right? I think about kind of our evolution. We started with a number that we thought made sense and we built it. And based on utilization, based on engagement, we realized we wanted to do more.

00:52:51:06 - 00:53:09:06

Abdou Bah

I think kind of working with your large pharmacies in proposing those models before you finalize it. We received feedback. And essentially we received kind of a way to use that as a feedback loop to continue to grow and enhance her model. And then we went back and we said, yep, that works for us. Let's add and continue to enhance.

00:53:09:06 - 00:53:29:16

Abdou Bah

And then like I'll use our 2024. We wanted to think beyond just the one and done in the incentive. Right. So we started to think about kind of that longitudinal view of creating ongoing opportunities, not just for outcomes, but also the work that's being done to reach an outcome. And I think we are seeing very, very early good signs of that progress.

00:53:29:16 - 00:53:43:15

Abdou Bah

And again, the engagement and education behind it is going to be critical, right. Because it's one thing that you offer an incentive program, but how are you explaining it and presenting it to the pharmacy is going to be critical.

00:53:43:17 - 00:54:05:13

Emily Endres

Right. Absolutely. Thank you for your additional feedback there. One more question, maybe two more. So the use case to improve quality metrics from pharmacy data is understandable. In what other use case can we leverage this data? Are there any practices in the risk landscape as well? I'm going to turn that one over to you, Abdou.

00:54:05:15 - 00:54:26:19

Abdou Bah

Yeah. I think from a risk standpoint, it may just be around giving you, opportunities where members may have chronic conditions. Right. You know, which medications the members are taking. And you can essentially map it towards identifying potential, risk condition. You certainly cannot use it in terms of submitting your risk data, but one of the things you could do is to profile a population.

00:54:26:19 - 00:54:48:18

Abdou Bah

And typically, if you think about it, you will see for new members,a  prescription being filled before you will see a visit and a claim. Right. So we do a lot of work around just looking at our pharmacy data to identify members profile to put the member in the right clinical program. So if I see the members filling diabetes medication, then clearly it may be a sign that the member is diabetic.

00:54:48:18 - 00:55:03:07

Abdou Bah

Right. So you can do early intervention. On the clinical side, on the population health side, on top of the risk adjustment side. So I think there's definitely multiple use case scenarios here to identify opportunities beyond just the quality improvement.

00:55:03:09 - 00:55:32:02

Emily Endres

Fantastic. Incredibly helpful. Okay. One last question here. And then we are going to get to a feedback form. But the question was around pharmacies can absolutely provide these services. But they may not have the capability to document, so that these readings are valuable to you as a health plan. And so, Abdou, I think I'll, I'll take that one here first, and perhaps you can validate my, my thoughts here, but that's where finding the right partner

00:55:32:04 - 00:56:14:03

Emily Endres

to help with the data transformation, dissemination and pharmacy partnership is really important. For us here, at PQS by Innovaccer specifically, we have found a pathway in some of those allowable changes for the NCQA measures that allow for this data to be helpful to the health plan and directly contribute to your numerator status within those Hedis measures. You know, that's a significant portion of the value that we're providing back to you as a health plan and also to our pharmacy partners through a data standardization way, a tool to document that data within, so that we can give that back to you in a valuable way.

00:56:14:05 - 00:56:15:12

Emily Endres

Anything you'd like to add there, Abdou.

00:56:15:12 - 00:56:35:19

Abdou Bah

You know, I think Emily, that's key right there. Right. It has to be in a reportable format. It has to be in a trusted way. So that, again, it can be audited and it can be ingested, from an NCQA standpoint. So that's that's a must have. And again, I think it's the future I see here is how can health plan help to support, that engagement.

00:56:35:19 - 00:56:51:20

Abdou Bah

Right. So if you're a pharmacy today that want to do all of those things, but, you're not able to, have that kind of third party support, happy to work and coordinate in terms of how can we go above and beyond to make sure that those are tools that are available to you?

00:56:51:22 - 00:57:12:10

Emily Endres

Fantastic. Thank you so much. Okay. Well, I think that kind of rounds it out here. For our Q&A session. I wanted to leave us just a little bit of time. You should have access to a feedback form that's kind of popping up on your screen. We'd love to get some initial feedback from those of you that were able to join today.

00:57:12:12 - 00:57:36:19

Emily Endres

We were always happy to chat with you here at the PQS by Innovaccer side. And Abdou is also willing to, have any types of conversations from the health plans perspective or even pharmacy perspective around, you know, what are those great things? And EmblemHealth is doing, successes that they've been able to recognize through these great programs and more.

00:57:36:21 - 00:57:42:14

Emily Endres

All right. Abdou, any closing thoughts before we wrap up for today?

00:57:42:16 - 00:57:47:11

Abdou Bah

No. Thank you so much for this conversation, and thank you for attending.

00:57:47:13 - 00:58:03:16

Emily Endres

Yeah, likewise. We really appreciate everyone spending some time with us today. Again, don't hesitate to reach out. We hope that this was insightful and helpful for you. We also hope that you have a really fantastic day. So thanks for joining our conversation.

00:58:03:18 - 00:58:25:07

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