Pharmacy Benefits for Specialty Drugs: Access and Management – NEW e-Book, Second Edition, 2023. The new second-edition e-book is an easy to read updated and expanded reference through 2022 for all healthcare, pharmaceutical, employer professionals, and pharmacy students that better helps them understand the complex world of managed pharmacy benefits, particularly as it applies to specialty pharmaceuticals. The e-Book includes a comprehensive 25-page Glossary of Common Drug-Related Benefit Terms and Acronyms.

• What and why are specialty pharmaceuticals important and where are they used
• Relationships among specialty pharmaceutical contracting and prescribing
• Specialty pharmaceuticals distribution and dispensing
• Medical and pharmacy benefit coverage of specialty drugs
• Current trends and strategies

As these products continue to be the norm for treatment of chronic conditions in various patient populations, they also become associated with the growing trend in the overall total cost of care increases that include diagnostics and devices along with provider professional fees.

A companion volume to Pharmacy Benefits for Nonspecialty Drugs: Access and Management and Glossary, this book helps readers understand the relationships among pharmaceutical contracting and prescribing, pharmacy distribution and dispensing, pharmacy utilization management and policies, patient cost sharing and adherence, and how to “follow the money” throughout the system.

The e-book features 70 pages with a 25-page Glossary, 8 tables, 8 charts and 4 call-outs in the following chapters:

• Introduction: Modern Medicine and Evolution of Patient Treatment
• What Specialty Pharmaceutical Products Are and Why They Are Important
• Where Specialty Drugs Are Used
• The Interdependency of Stakeholders/Players, and the Drivers of Risk in Coverage and Access
• Trends and Issues for Medical and Pharmacy Benefit Coverage of Specialty Drugs
• Summarizing Current Trends and Strategies
• Glossary of Terminology

About the Authors:  The e-book and Glossary were developed in partnership with Access Market Intelligence (AMI), and the Institute for Integrated Healthcare (IIH).

The Glossary and e-book are authored by F. Randy Vogenberg, Ph.D, R.Ph, Principal with IIH. Dr. Vogenberg is a national expert on commercial employee benefits and plan design, education on insurance, applied outcomes research, and strategic benefit consulting on medical-legal, clinical, or economic issues in commercial health care.