AmerisourceBergen launches nation’s first specialty-focused PSAO

Global healthcare company AmerisourceBergen is introducing Accelerate Specialty Network, a pharmacy services administration organization the company said is the first to focus on specialty pharmacy. 

Conshohocken, Pa.-based AmerisourceBergen said that Accelerate uses the company’s data-driven PSAO strategy to enhance managed care access and optimize business performance in community-based specialty pharmacies. Member run the gamut from health system specialtuy pharmacies to independent specialty pharmacies and medically integrated dispensing practices. 

“As specialty pharmaceutical development continues its upward trajectory, the need for higher-touch care coordination for patients will also rise. More and more, patients want to find that care on their own terms,” said Willis Chandler, president of health systems and specialty services at AmerisourceBergen. “Over the years, payors have narrowed their networks to contain costs and outcomes, but that has dictated where patients can go to get their specialty medications. Accelerate was built to work with payors to help promote and enable accessible community-based pharmaceutical care.”

The company said that Accelerate oifers solutions meant to deliver beneficial payer contracts and reduce the time that providers spend on administrative responsibilities. It uses data and insights to expand member access to specialty contracts via agreements with local, regional and national commercial payers and pharmacy benefit managers. Members also can review their pharmacy’s data alongside the PSAO’s experts to find ways to optimize their business. Accelerate also is aimed at helping members navigate complex managed care networks. 

“At AmerisourceBergen and Accelerate, we believe in unlocking the value of specialty medications and community-based care at a national scale,” said Angela Ward, senior vice president of specialty services at AmerisourceBergen. “Through our diverse national network of high-performing health systems, independent specialty pharmacies, and medically integrated dispensing practices, we are working with payers to achieve national coverage and consolidated contracting. No one knows a patient like their provider; that’s why we have an uncompromising focus on enabling accessible care in the communities where patients live, with the providers they know.”