We put hospital leaders into the specialty pharmacy business by removing financial, operational, organizational and execution risks so hospital pharmacies can thrive from day one.
Shields Hospital Specialty Pharmacy pillars for success:
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- Access, to payors and specialty (LDD) drugs
- Care, a world class patient care model
- Technology, a purpose-built specialty pharmacy engine using data analytics and artificial intelligence to transform patient experience and outcomes.
All Shields services are built upon these three pillars, and include:
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Creating a better care model for patients and physicians – Patient liaisons, along with pharmacy technicians and nationally accredited pharmacists are provided to our hospital partners, on-site, from day one of engagement. Our hospital partners avoid the hassles of hiring and training dozens of new employees required to start or grow a pharmacy program. This team of care providers seamlessly integrates with hospital physicians and nursing staff to remove administrative burdens from providers such as insurance paperwork, medication pre-approvals and much more. In addition to forming trusting, face-to-face patient relationships, Shields Liaisons are tightly integrated with the centralized Shields Patient Support Center to ensure attention and care is provided in the most timely manner possible.
Known as the PSC, the Patient Support Center is a centralized resource at our headquarters for all Shields hospital partners. The PSC team provides unique expertise when required by hospital liaisons, such as drug interaction research, prior authorization research, financial aid and much more. Shields is fully committed to providing partners with the best Financial Aid specialists in the industry, all of whom are committed to sourcing funds for patients in need. Our financial aid specialists have reduced patient co-pays to an average of $10, an industry best. Wait-times for calls at the Patient Support Center are typically under five seconds, also an industry best.
The Shields TelemetryRx software platform – Shields immediately solves all of the data requirements for hospital partners with the nation’s only purpose-built, specialty pharmacy data analytics and machine learning software platform. Hospitals can immediately plug into the TelemetryRx software platform, saving the time and capital required to create a technology platform of their own. TelemetryRx has proven to attract and retain 40%-60% more patients to a hospital’s specialty pharmacy while cutting the total cost of healthcare by placing patient liaisons in the right places at the right times, connecting patients with care providers, clinical pharmacists and vital support services before they need urgent help.
Limited Distribution Drug access is often the first question asked of hospital partners. How many LDDs can we get access to, and how quickly can we start writing prescriptions for them? While the answer varies depending on the status of pharmacy accreditations, the drugs themselves, and other factors, our track record has been to have LDD agreements in place – in the hospital’s name – in months not years. Some take longer, while others take less time. The industry average is anywhere from one year to five or even seven years before LDD distribution agreements are fully in place. Shields has secured access to hundreds of LDDs in the name of our hospital partners and has an unsurpassed best practice model for doing so.
Qualifying as a 340B entity, or re-qualifying after losing 340B status, is an expertise unlike any other. Making sure our hospital partners understand the intricacies of the 340B qualification process, and ensuring they never lose their status is a foundational element of a Shields partnership.
After LDD access, payor contracting is the second most-asked question from hospital partners. Can we get access to all payors in our state? How quickly can we secure them? What does it take to qualify? Well, often it takes a great deal of data analytics to gather information, process it and report back to insurance providers, and drug manufacturers in formats that they require. Aggregating hundreds of possible data formats and turning them into meaningful, actionable information is exactly what the Shields TelemetryRx software platform was designed to accomplish.
Often overlooked, RCM is the one place where all specialty pharmacy functions converge. Rectifying which claims will be paid by whom, what co-pays will be assessed, which drugs will be covered, for how much, and at what discount level. That and more all falls under revenue cycle management. Missing a single point can mean hospitals miss out on reimbursements that can be directed back into care for the most vulnerable patients. Shields Revenue Cycle Management is the most advanced in the specialty pharmacy industry thanks to ongoing relationships with payors, providers and drug manufacturers around the country.
Starting or accelerating growth of a hospital specialty pharmacy comes with risks; financial, execution, and operational among them. Shields removes all of these risks for our health system partners because we are willing to help fund start-up and expansion costs. That is how confident we are that Shields can get our partners into the specialty pharmacy business faster, more proficiently and with little risk to all involved. We provide our partners with all of the front line and back end operational support needed to supplement existing hospital staff. We support and elevate your teams across all functions, bringing best practices from a variety of revered hospital-owned specialty pharmacies around the country.
