News Briefs: Blues Plans Roll Out Contracting Org for Medical Benefit Drugs
A group of Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates has founded the Synergie Medication Collective, a medication contracting organization focused on improving affordability of clinically administered drugs that are covered under patients’ medical benefit. The goal of the organization is to establish “a more efficient contracting model” for things like multimillion-dollar gene therapies and infusible cancer drugs while “utilizing a transparent business model in collaboration with industry stakeholders.” The independent entity will go to market “in January of 2023,” according to a Jan. 5 press release, and is owned by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), Elevance Health, Blues-affiliate-owned Evio Pharmacy Solutions and Prime Therapeutics, and nine regional Blues plans. Pharmaceutical industry veteran Jarrod Henshaw will serve as Synergie’s CEO, and BCBSA President and CEO Kim Keck will be the organization’s initial board chair.
