Castlight Health, a health navigation platform, has selected pharmacy benefit manager WithMe Health to join its partner network with an aim to cut medication spending and improve outcomes, the PBM announced Monday.
WithMe touts its hands-on, tailored approach to helping patients who need support with medications, like those who are managing multiple health conditions. The San Mateo, California-based company describes itself as being more personalized and cost-effective than traditional PBMs, and sees itself as a digital front door.
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“Pharmacy is the most frequent touchpoint [within] the healthcare system, and we hope to deepen Castlight’s member engagement even further around the most common and impactful medication-related interactions,” said Joe Murad, president and CEO of WithMe, in a statement.
San Francisco-based Castlight has already established multiple disease- and condition-specific ecosystem partnerships, making pharmacy a clear priority, according to the companies.
“We’ve built out our portfolio of best-in-class ecosystem partners with the goal of integrating a broad and comprehensive set of resources for our client’s most pressing needs,” said Matt Moran, senior vice president of corporate development at Castlight, in statement. “It’s clear our clients are making pharmacy management a priority, and we are too.”
WithMe members have 24/7 virtual access to its in-house experts, primarily pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, who serve as “medication guides.” Members can also access assistance through its medication guide app, which houses member profiles and generates recommended interventions based on clinical information and analytics.
“What stood out for us about WithMe is not only their purpose-built mobile technology, but also their highly proactive outreach to members from medication guides to flag cost savings and clinical improvement opportunities,” Moran said. “This is the same high-tech, high-touch philosophy we’re grounded in at Castlight.”
Instead of focusing on one aspect of care or using disparate solutions to drive down cost, the companies are trying to make it easier for employers and health plans to access multiple solutions and savings in one place.
“We know plan sponsors are facing point solution fatigue, and members are confused about the resources available to them,” said Shane Giuliani, vice president at WithMe, in a statement. “By integrating with Castlight, we can simplify the experience for our clients and further elevate WithMe’s resources for the members who would most benefit from support in managing their medications.”
WithMe’s services will be recommended to members directly in the Castlight app and by Castlight’s care guides. Many members will also receive calls directly from WithMe’s medication guides with ways to save money and get assistance with taking medications as directed, as well as information on drug interaction and safety reviews, and help monitoring disease and symptom progression.
As the three PBMs that control the majority of the market, Express Scripts, CVS Caremark and Optum Rx, continue to be scrutinized and criticized for a lack of transparency, other smaller players are positioning themselves as an alternative. That includes companies like Capital Rx and Navitus, which vow to improve transparency, decrease costs and pass more savings on to consumers.
For its part, WithMe said its medication guidance services can also be added as an overlay to a client’s existing PBM “to provide oversight of the PBM and a more engaging member experience.”
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