Clinical and financial success depends on anticipating the trends that will have the biggest impact on your market. That need is true whether you’re a specialty practice, hospital or health system pharmacy, independent pharmacy or healthcare provider organization.
Four of the most read blog posts on McKesson.com over the past few months identified the top trends that each of those four industry segments should be watching. Knowing the top trends will help you make business model changes that create more value for customers, patients and your business.
Specialty practice trends
In “Top Four Specialty Practice Trends for 2018,” Sandy Smith, vice president of US Oncology Research and McKesson Specialty Health, identified the trends that will reshape the market for community-based specialty practices this year. Smith said your specialty practice should expect:
- Growth in drugs and other therapies to expand treatment choices for patients.
- Increased need to use advanced analytics to measure and report clinical results.
- Engaged and connected patients to push you to improve the patient experience.
- New patient needs that require you to expand the care team with non-clinical staff.
“I would characterize the four trends as tailwinds that forward-looking practices can ride to improve clinical outcomes for patients and business outcomes for themselves,” Smith said.
Hospital and health system pharmacy trends
In “Top Five Health System Pharmacy Trends to Watch in 2018,” the McKesson RxO team, a group of trusted advisors working to help health system and hospital pharmacy leaders track, manage and grow their pharmacy operations, revealed five trends that will have the biggest impact on your hospital or health system pharmacy this year. They said you should expect:
- Growing oversight and reimbursement changes to the 340B drug pricing program.
- Increased use of analytics to improve outcomes and operational efficiency.
- Continued growth in the specialty drug market to create new clinical opportunities.
- Increased pressure to recover revenue and pursue new revenue opportunities.
- The need to centralize services in response to industry consolidation.
“As value-based care models continue to grow, health system and hospital pharmacies are increasingly charged with generating revenue and improving savings that contribute to the system’s bottom line,” said Mark Eastham, senior vice president and general manager of McKesson RxO.
Independent pharmacy trends
In “Top Five Independent Pharmacy Trends for 2018,” Crystal Lennartz, chief pharmacist at Health Mart, McKesson's independent pharmacy franchise, outlined the five issues that will define the market for independent pharmacies this year. Lennartz said she expects your independent pharmacy to experience:
- Continued downward pressure on prescription drug reimbursement rates.
- Stronger focus on the performance measures your pharmacy can influence most.
- Continued transformation of your pharmacists into providers to better serve patients.
- Greater use of technology to improve efficiency and health outcomes.
- More collaboration with other providers to improve care coordination.
“The five trends present opportunities for forward-looking independent pharmacies to continue to reinvent their traditional business models,” Lennartz said. “Those that do will not only survive but thrive, while at the same time keeping patient care at the heart of their businesses.”
Supply chain management trends
In “Five Healthcare Supply Chain Management Trends to Know,” McKesson’s editorial staff tapped five credible industry sources to identify the trends that will have the biggest impact on the healthcare supply chain this year. This is what they identified:
- Web-based technologies will push the supply chain management market past $2.2 billion.
- Increased use of analytics will drive supply chain management performance improvement.
- Population health management will have a material effect on supply chain management.
- The use of risk-based contracting will redefine the relationship between providers and suppliers.
- Healthcare supply chain leaders will upgrade and expand their skill sets to improve performance.
“As these five trends suggest, the healthcare supply chain of the future will look vastly different from the supply chain of today,” the post said. “The need for healthcare organizations to improve outcomes and reduce costs will drive the adoption of new technologies, new data-driven strategies, new patient-centered delivery methods, new supply chain leaders and new types of provider-supplier contracts.”
Whether you’re a practice, pharmacy, or provider, you need to know what’s around the corner. The four blog posts above offer actionable market intelligence to help you make informed clinical and business decisions.
Related: Learn more about McKesson’s pharmaceutical distribution services for pharmacies