Clearway Health, a specialty pharmacy services company, has officially announced the launch of several new initiatives, designed to help hospitals and health systems address hospital expense pressures, and increased medication costs in the face of a changing and uncertain legislative and 340B landscape.
Designed to deliver a rather interesting follow-up to the introduction of One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the 340B Rebate Model pilot program proposed by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Clearway Health’s new initiative actively prepares for new processes to address operational needs, and at the same time, predict anticipated financial repercussions from the new laws.
To achieve that goal, the company will deploy a team of regulatory and operational experts who, on their part, will tailor plans specific to each of Clearway Health’s clients, all for the purpose of helping them navigate changes, ensure compliance, and optimize the performance of their program despite the changing environment.
 Beyond that, the company will also offer more client webinars, routine updates and educational content so to address the regulatory and legislative changes, particularly the HRSA rebate model and IRA impacts.
“This year, Clearway Health added many new hospital partners, opened two new specialty pharmacies and is in the process of opening four more in the coming year. We have a strong pulse on the impact of new legislation on operating expenses, the 340B Program and drug acquisition costs because we understand first-hand the broad implications they will have on our hospitals and their patients’ access to specialty medications,” said Nicole Faucher, MS, president of Clearway Health. “Clearway Health’s new initiatives are designed to help hospitals withstand these changes and continue to provide their patients access to lifesaving specialty medications.
Next up, we must expand upon Clearway’s plan of dispatching several investments to enhance its manufacturer, payor, and PBM access capabilities. The core idea behind that is rooted in helping more hospitals gain access to otherwise limited distribution medications and restrictive payor networks.
For better understanding, navigating manufacturer and complex payor networks typically presents significant challenges. However, if successfully achieved, it can go on to dramatically improve a hospital’s financial performance.
Anyway, another detail worth a mention is rooted in the availability of several disease-specific initiatives for Clearway’s clinical services program. You see, the company launched a COPD and therapy optimization program earlier in the year during May, following the approval of dupilumab, a biologic indicated for COPD, in September 2024.
Clearway further launched a pharmacist-supported Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) program, which is purpose-built to accelerate early diagnosis and linkage to care for patients at risk of transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy.
Talk about these models on a slightly deeper level, they mandate clinical pharmacists to leverage data-driven screenings and streamlined patient engagement to ensure timely diagnosis, specialist access, and initiation of therapy. Not just that, the given pair of models also reduce delays in diagnosis, while simultaneously improving outcomes through earlier intervention.
In case that wasn’t enough, the company will also expand its existing weight management clinical program in the coming year to establish greater focus on solving cardiometabolic risk associated with obesity.
Rounding up highlights would be Clearway’s investment in enhancements for the Clearway Health Analytics tool, which happens to be a secure, web-based platform, capable of streamlining how the company reviews, classifies, and analyzes Electronic Health Records (EHR) and pharmacy data.
Thanks to these updates, hospitals and health systems can now securely log into upload files, whereas on the other hand, Clearway Health’s data teams can now bank upon the given tool to evaluate that data. Hence, by flipping complex information for actionable insights, the Analytics Tool should be able to facilitate smarter and faster decision-making.
“Each October, Clearway Health celebrates our anniversary as a chance to recognize our significant growth as a company and the accomplishments we have made to improving access to specialty medications for patients,” said Faucher. “As we look ahead, helping hospitals and health systems solve for operating expense pressures and increased medication costs during a time of significant change in the coming year is one of our top priorities. The new initiatives we have put forth will continue to evolve and grow throughout the year and will make a significant difference in overcoming barriers to accessing affordable medications.”
