Acentrus Specialty
Bridging the Gap between Health Systems and Specialty Drugs

Healthcare systems often rely on limited distribution specialty drugs to effectively manage chronic and complex health conditions for patients. These specialty therapies are frequently high dollar drugs with complicated shipment, storage, and dispensing protocols that require a significant investment in specialty pharmacy operations.

This is where Acentrus Specialty makes a difference by uniting health system specialty pharmacies in a network focused on improving access to medications, strengthening performance, and creating data-driven solutions.

“Our vision is to empower our health system partners and enhance their performance through access, outcomes, and insights,” says Julia Hancock, Vice President and General Manager. “By improving access, enabling innovations, and delivering performance insights, we aim to optimize patient care and speed to therapy.”

Acentrus helps health systems and hospitals navigate drug access in both open distribution and limited distribution models. Specialty drugs are frequently available only through limited distribution models to a select number of pharmacies. These limited distribution networks give manufacturers the advantage of greater control, consistency of care and patient oversight, and closer engagement between providers, pharmacists, and patients, which results in better adherence and improved treatment outcomes.

As a health system specialty pharmacy network administrator, Acentrus works with many stakeholders in the specialty pharmacy space to achieve the shared goals of better patient outcomes, lower costs, and new insights into how therapies work best. Accessing limited distribution drugs is a top priority for client health systems, and the steps involved require a major commitment to operational excellence and data management. Acentrus also works with drug manufacturers to help them identify health systems best suited for inclusion in a limited distribution network. Factors typically include whether the health system is a center of excellence and which disease states are represented in the system’s patient population.

Hancock also emphasizes the growth of clinical-pharmacy integration in transforming how drugs are dispensed. “Medically integrated dispensing has significant benefits to patients. It improves speed to therapy and supports greater adherence because there is better clinical care coordination and patient monitoring.”

Acentrus supports its network partners in data management by aggregating patient data across multiple health systems with the goal of better understanding drug adherence, treatment outcomes, and cost of care.

This collective data is already pointing to the efficacy of medically integrated dispensing. Proving this differentiator is crucial to the Acentrus network’s strategy on gaining access to restrictive payor networks for client health systems and the patients they treat.

More than 140 of the nation’s largest health systems belong to the Acentrus network, which represents 808 hospitals, 234,000 prescribers, 6.2 million admissions, and one million health system employees. These numbers continue to increase as a growing number of health systems look to Acentrus to help optimize their specialty pharmacy operations.

The Acentrus network’s extensive portfolio of benefits starts with creating a flawless welcome experience for new partners joining the network. The onboarding process begins with an overview of a new client’s specialty pharmacy operations followed by an evaluation of any gaps. A team of regional account directors works directly with health systems to build robust specialty pharmacy programs. As part of this process, Acentrus assists clients with long-term planning, drug pipeline monitoring, and building data platforms.

Our vision is to empower our health system partners and enhance their performance through access, outcomes, and insights. By improving access, enabling innovations, and delivering performance insights, we aim to optimize patient care and speed to therapy

Engagement and collaboration form the heart of Acentrus, and these mission-driven values are supported through advisory councils, health system committee workgroups, coalitions, and the Acentrus Specialty Conference, which brings clients together to learn from each other, share best practices, and engage in open dialogue between industry experts spanning health systems, drug manufacturers, service providers, and clinicians. The keynote speaker for the next Acentrus Specialty Conference in April 2023 is Dr. Atul Butte, MD, PhD, the chief data scientist for the University of California Health System and the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor at the University of California San Francisco.

“One of the biggest trends shaping precision medicine is that of health systems partnering to aggregate data from their patient populations,” says Dr. Butte. “This collective data is leading to new evidence for drug efficacy and transformative insights into therapeutic interventions. Pharmacy data in particular is incredibly useful real-world data, and with that and in partnership with patients, we all need to find ways to discovery what’s working, what’s not working, and what’s missing in medicine.”

In the rapidly evolving world of healthcare, vision and strategy are key to success. By working collectively to achieve better medication access, operational excellence, and clinical-pharmacy care integration for its clients, Acentrus is empowering health systems to provide exceptional care backed by data shining an unprecedented light on how therapies work. With participation open to all organizations, regardless of GPO affiliation, Acentrus is a powerful partner in the advancement of healthcare and a leader in driving better outcomes for patients nationwide.