The breakfast program will offer female attendees an opportunity to connect with one another and learn about the importance of “presence” in both our professional and personal lives. Attendees will have time to network and converse before a 45-minute interactive workshop: “Presence: Impact and Influence,” led by Karen Hough, founder and chief executive officer of ImprovEdge. Karen will guide attendees through exercises that demonstrate how you can use the art of improvisation and your own authentic presence to build trust, impact, and influence. Attendees will learn simple communication techniques that are essential to building better relationships, examine different modes of influence — including effective questioning, and build awareness of influence based on perception and brain science.

Then, a panel will share their personal perspectives and experience with presence. The panel will speak for about 30 minutes during which there will be an opportunity for audience Q&A.

7:00 am Breakfast
7:30 am Presence: Impact and Influence
8:10 am Panel Discussion and Audience Q&A
8:45 am Breakfast Ends

On January 31, 2019, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a proposed rule that amends the discount safe harbor regulation to eliminate protection for price reductions, including rebates, that are offered by pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan sponsors under Medicare Part D, Medicaid managed care organizations, or PBMs under contract with them.

If the rule is finalized as proposed, the current safe harbor protection for rebates would end on January 1, 2020. Simultaneously, the OIG proposes to create two new safe harbors effective 60 days after the publication of the final rule, the first of which would protect certain point-of-sale (POS) reductions in price offered by manufacturer, and the second that would protect certain PBM service fees. If finalized as proposed, the rule would have a major impact on current drug supply chain transactions, and could result in significant cost transfers in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

During this session, Ian will discuss implications to the primary players in the supply chain if this rule were to be finalized.

HHS continues to take action on the four strategies contemplated in the American Patients First Blueprint they released in May last year: increased competition, better negotiation, incentives for lower list prices, and reducing out-of-pocket costs. Most recently, the long-anticipated proposed rule for removing safe harbor protection for rebates involving prescription pharmaceuticals and the creation of a new safe harbor protection for certain point-of-sale reductions in price of prescription pharmaceuticals and certain PBM service fees has the potential to disrupt the entire pharmacy supply chain. Pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers, and other stakeholders in the market have indicated that they recognize the scale of disruption this would involve.

During this session John will discuss the proposed rebate rule, as well as other actions being taken by HHS as they continue executing priorities detailed in the Blueprint.

The rebate contracting system we know today has been an extremely effective tool for drug discount negotiations and cost management.  As the comment period draws to a close for the HHS proposed rule to remove the safe harbor protection for rebates in Medicare and Medicaid, we expect significant changes to the system. During this session, our panel will discuss the drivers of this change and how it will impact the supply chain.

What will be the biggest disruptor to healthcare over the next few years? Amazon? Government? New Entrants? JPMorgan believes the biggest disruptor in healthcare services will be the consumer. Price, convenience, and quality will drive how and where healthcare services are consumed. Patients are more involved in healthcare decisions and how to allocate their healthcare dollars than ever before.

This session will explore trends impacting the U.S. specialty pharmaceuticals market.

During the session Doug will:

• Provide an overview of market trends including single digit growth, implications related to the hepatitis C and pain categories, and the impact of less brand inflation and more generic price deflation;
• Expand on differences between invoice and net and explain where rebates are going for Medicare, Medicaid, commercial plans;
• Review key market access trends including formulary exclusions, more burden on the patient, price transparency, vertical integration, IDNs and ACOs; and
• He will offer an update on biosimilars and other innovations in the pipeline.

Medicare Advantage (MA) drug policy has changed and beginning  January 1, 2019,  health plans can apply step therapy guidelines for physician-administered medications covered by MA plans. Step therapy requires beneficiaries to use evidence based  and condition-specific preferred medications before using more expensive drugs which allows health plans to provide beneficiaries with value based medication access.

By attending this session you should be able to:

• Describe Medicare Advantage (MA) plan options for addressing evidence based Part B drug utilization management;
• Outline 2019 CMS guidance on plan application of step therapy for Part B drugs and possible flexibilities that may be finalized for plan year 2020; and
• Explain MA plan strategies for advancing market based solutions to manage Part B drugs.

Activity Type: Knowledge-based (K); Target Audience: Pharmacists (P); CEUs: 0.050; UAN: 0841-0000-19-001-L04-P

This session will explore the trends and upcoming pipeline agents that will be moving the market in the upcoming few years. Farrah will offer a sneak peek into key pharmacy trends, products that are anticipated in the next few years, she will discuss underlying factors on key cost drivers, and she will provide examples of what payers are doing to outpace these challenges.

By attending this session, you should be able to:

• Identify at least two high impact pipeline drug agents; and
• Outline how health plan data and modeling influence drug management strategies.

Activity Type: Knowledge-based (K); Target Audience: Pharmacists (P); CEUs: 0.050; UAN: 0841-0000-19-002-L04-P

This session will discuss the U.S. interest in measuring healthcare value – how it works, who does it, and what is  happening in the U.S. versus outside the U.S. Kjel will touch on the Administration’s work to improve value in specialty including their Part B proposal and initiatives related to Part B stepped care and biosimilars. He will also review value-based contracting across the system and what various stakeholders are doing.

By attending this session, you should be able to:

• Describe the best ways to measure healthcare value;
• List the current Medicare value efforts; and
• Develop a strategy to improve healthcare value.

Activity Type: Knowledge-based (K); Target Audience: Pharmacists (P); CEUs: 0.050; UAN: 0841-0000-19-003-L04-P

With the continued escalating pressure on pricing of biopharmaceuticals, activity in more formally assessing their value has grown in the U.S. While several entities have proposed or implemented different methodologies for value assessment, rarely are these assessments updated as evidence evolves. The session proposes a novel approach for dynamically updating value assessments as new evidence becomes available by applying modified versions of accepted methodologies often incorporated into health technology assessments used around the world. The output can then be leveraged for both pricing decisions by biopharma companies, pre- and post-launch, as well as for payers to formalize the basis for informing initial and ongoing coverage decisions. With ICER’s intent to report on products whose price increases are not supported by evidence, and governmental inquiries into the rationale for price increases, the approach provides a method for both biopharmaceutical companies and payers to achieve more accurate and current value determination under their own terms rather than to have product value dictated by others.

By attending this session, you should be able to:

• Describe factors driving a need to link pricing with evolving evidence;
• Explain ways in which existing value assessment methodologies are effective and yet lacking in supporting pricing and coverage decisions;
• Identify reasons why linking dynamic evidence assessments with pricing decisions would be beneficial to a biopharmaceutical company; and
• Identify reasons why linking dynamic evidence assessments with coverage decisions would be beneficial to a benefit manager or health plan.

Activity Type: Knowledge-based (K); Target Audience: Pharmacists (P); CEUs: 0.050; 0841-0000-19-004-L04-P

This session will offer a strategic recap of where the industry is with regard to value based contracting (VBC). As every company in the health care continuum scrambles to develop value contracts, questions remain – are we accomplishing what we set out to do? During this session, Lisa will provide an overview of some of the goals of VBC and review regulatory and other challenges. She will discuss parts of  VBC beyond design and whether VBC can ever be a valid formulary tool. She will present a case study and explore lessons learned from pilots and mistakes. And she will explore what’s next, specifically opportunities related to rare disease and gene therapy.

By attending this session, you should be able to:

• List two challenges related to value based contracting;
• Describe the parts of a value based contract; and
• Outline opportunities for rare disease and gene therapy applications of value based contracts.

Activity Type: Knowledge-based (K); Target Audience: Pharmacists (P); CEUs: 0.050; UAN: 0841-0000-19-005-L04-P

Given the need to demonstrate value in specialty pharma where disease populations are increasing become niche, this session will address how pharma and biotech companies should build appropriate data assets and find appropriate patient populations.

By attending this session, you should be able to:

• Define an evidence platform and list three possible sources of data for evidence platforms; and
• Describe two benefits of AIML for finding rare disease populations.

Activity Type: Knowledge-based (K); Target Audience: Pharmacists (P); CEUs: 0.050; UAN: 0841-0000-19-006-L04-P