AscellaHealth
Providing a Rare and Special Perspective

Dea Belazi, President & CEO, Bill Oldham, Chairman & CFO, AscellaHealth

However, there are many barriers to access these novel therapies including the exorbitant costs associated with these treatments which pose a significant challenge for patients and stakeholders, such as employers, government-funded healthcare programs, commercial payers, and healthcare providers. To overcome this issue, stakeholders can embrace innovative solutions as well as value-based pricing, outcome-based agreements, risk-sharing models, and innovative reimbursement strategies.

AscellaHealth plays an essential role in this scenario by offering its proprietary pharmaceutical financial solutions and HUB services designed to effectively manage the fulfillment of high-cost specialty drugs and CGTs, ensuring that patients have access to these potentially curative therapies.

The global specialty pharmacy and healthcare services organization provides end-to-end solutions to multiple stakeholders in the industry, including payers, pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers, and providers. It enables a streamlined approach to pre-commercialization and market access, international specialty pharmacy fulfillment, and exclusive distribution partnerships. These services are supplemented by customized financial and copay assistance programs, patient support and HUB services, specialty medical and pharmacy benefit management, and group purchasing services.

By connecting all the players in this space, the company is positioned to improve medication access and drive exceptional health outcomes, that positively impact the patient journey across the care continuum.

“Our consultative business approach is crucial to identifying clients’ challenges and developing customized programs to address unmet needs,” says Dea Belazi, the President and CEO of AscellaHealth.

Offering Unmatched Pharmaceutical Financial Solutions

AscellaHealth’s Pharma FlexFund™ program utilizes a pay-over time approach for payers to help offset the exorbitant costs of potentially curative CGTs, helping to ensure novel therapies have a pathway to commercialization and funding. Additionally, the organization’s Copay Advisor™ programs offers complete transparency into copay assistance, enabling manufacturers to ensure that allotted funds are used toward patient out-of-pocket expenses. These programs are truly revolutionary in how they address the unmet financial needs in the specialty pharmacy industry.

A Patient-Centric Care Approach

AscellaHealth focuses on high-touch patient services utilizing expert care coordinators who provide education, one-to-one outreach, and documentation of progress throughout the treatment journey. Given that the diagnostic odyssey for a rare disease can take years, this added support is instrumental in helping patients achieve optimal outcomes.

“Our customized clinical protocols streamline the communication between patient, prescriber, and pharmacy and include interventions at key points in therapy for increased compliance and adherence,” says Belazi.

Shaping the Specialty Pharmacy Ecosystem

In sharp contrast to other companies, AscellaHealth does not take a cookie-cutter approach to serving clients. Its customized, a la carte menu of programs and services for improving access to expensive specialty pharmaceuticals allows clients to select the most relevant solutions based on their individual preferences and requirements.

Transforming Specialty Pharmacy with a Technology-Driven Platform

AscellaHealth prides itself on the success of its customized clinical and technology-driven services, especially the custom communication protocols that increase response rates of patients based on their preferred channel—text, email, mobile app, or phone.

Our customized clinical protocols streamline the communication between patient, prescriber, and pharmacy and include interventions at key points in therapy for increased compliance and adherence

AscellaHealth’s customized HUB and patient-focused programs demonstrate average patient compliance rates of 95 percent, well above the industry standard. For instance, AscellaHealth currently serves a client that launched a product for a small patient population through multiple vendors. The client received lackluster support from their vendors, who were not providing tailored or high-quality, patient-focused services. A disjointed strategy and poor communication were hindering the success of the product. AscellaHealth partnered with the client and developed programs and services customized to the ideal patient population. It transformed and streamlined care coordination, leading to increased therapy compliance and enhanced outcomes.

Fostering a Culture of Growth

Creating a diverse team and investing in employees gives AscellaHealth a competitive advantage. Its leadership team demonstrates values of innovation, technology, diversity, and passion to better the lives of patients. They have perfected the recipe for building solutions to enhance outcomes for specialty and rare disease patients.

Its culture is also focused on giving back. Employees are encouraged to volunteer their time and support activities in local communities and regional organizations.

Continuously Pushing the Envelope

By providing the best-of-breed services to tighten the specialty pharmacy value chain, AscellaHealth is moving the industry forward, both in the U.S. and globally. It has adopted multiple channels to widen its reach, including its newsletters - Developments in Specialty Pharmacy® and Specialty Pharmaceutical Pulse™ - that share news from advocacy organizations, industry updates, and unique solutions to contain costs and enhance outcomes of specialty therapies. This information channel reaches a broad audience in the rare disease community. It is gaining attention around the world, helping to shine a light on the challenges and barriers to accessing care.

Industry-focused webinars and podcasts are organized to unite top experts to address crucial healthcare topics and their relevance to the industry. They lead panel presentations and facilitate discussions in key meetings, including the Self Insurance Institute of America (SIIA), the National Association of Specialty Pharmacists (NASP), and the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchasers Coalition (NAHPC).

The future of rare disease specialty therapies is undoubtedly promising. The rapid evolution of the market will provide specialty and rare disease patients with improved treatment options and better quality of life. AscellaHealth is well positioned and has the expertise and capabilities to accelerate this and help ensure patients, worldwide can access novel treatments.