HOSP Forms to Advocate for Integrated Specialty Pharmacies
As the specialty pharmacy industry continues to grow, more entities within the health care system are boosting their capabilities in this area, and various health systems are implementing some form of a specialty pharmacy. These entities have some issues and challenges that may differ from those of traditional specialty pharmacies. In order to make sure their voices are heard, a group of seven health systems plus a specialty pharmacy integrator have joined together to form a new alliance known as the Health System Owned Specialty Pharmacy Alliance (HOSP).
In an Aug. 18 blog on his Drug Channels website, Adam Fein, Ph.D., CEO of Drug Channels Institute, a subsidiary of Pembroke Consulting, Inc., shared information from the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists’ survey of 487 pharmacy practices located in hospitals. That survey found that 26% of respondent hospitals in 2019 owned a specialty pharmacy, up from 20% in 2018 and less than 9% in 2015.