Last Step: Double Check

In 1999, NASA’s space mission blew up right at launch all because someone forgot to calculate using metric units.

Silly mistakes can cost money, reputation, and even lives.

We are not perfect, which is why we’ll catch our own errors if we care to double-check our work.

Go in with a fresh mind and new approach so you can catch those stealthy errors.

You’re not done until you’re done.

Biosimilar Entry Is Not Generic Entry

Biosimilar adoption brings with it real disruptions to pharmacy and provider workflow.

Access barriers can dampen biosimilar uptake despite state-permitted interchangeability designations and automatic substitutions.

AJHP offers a glimpse what needs to be done to make provider workflows biosimilar-ready:

• Educate staff on biosimilar formulations, concentration, interchangeability status, and patient resources
• Update EHR to ensure product database for the biosimilars is up to date
• Review current support for benefits investigation and prior authorization services and anticipate increased demand/workload
• If feasible, obtain direct numbers for most commonly utilized specialty pharmacies
• Discuss with the most common health insurance plans in the practice to determine which biosimilar products are preferred
• Start educating patients currently on reference product about the potential prescription changes to help mitigate nocebo effect
• For those who transition to a biosimilar, counsel on potential differences and ensure patients are connected to the correct financial and medication access resources as available per the manufacturer
• Continue to stay up to date on the biosimilar landscape, as more products may be approved and interchangeability laws may evolve
• Implement monitoring program post-biosimilar transition to ensure clinical stability and minimize nocebo effect
• Designate a primary champion for biosimilars who can serve to update the collaborate scope of practice; continue to refine workflows; and be the point person in the clinic for patients relating to biosimilar education, questions/concerns, and workflow needs

Managed Care Glossary

Here’s a living glossary of managed care terms: https://www.amcp.org/about/managed-care-pharmacy-101/managed-care-glossary

AMCP enrolls experienced managed care pharmacists to keep this glossary updated for anyone who is interested in understanding and learning the basics of managed care.

Stand Up

Our future is too fragile for us to go with the flow.

Pick a side and stand up for it. Going against the flow takes guts. Go!

Win or Lose Together

We all sit on the same side of the table.

The enemy that should lose in a conflict is not a person but an ideology: darkness, ego, greed, and arrogance.

Don’t defeat them, but the flawed ideology and the negativity that it’s provoking among us.

Win

True champions are in love with learning, experimenting, thriving, and struggling.

Lewis Hamilton is Formula One’s winningest driver. His 10 minutes at the podium are founded on thousands of hours working out, practicing, and racing.

Winning is rare and only accounts for a tiny fraction of the time spent in your pursuit. You only get to win if you’ve went through the first 4 levels:

1. Learn
2. Experiment
3. Thrive
4. Struggle

So, you better love the lower parts if you want to win. Says math.

Purpose Comes First

‘The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.’ -Pablo Picasso

Put another way: what I have is God’s gift to me; what I do with it is my gift to God.

The purpose is our backbone and insulates our self-esteem. Purpose enables us to live a passionate, inspired, and motivated life—a life we want to share with others.

When we aren’t pursuing our purpose, troubles arise. If there’s no purpose, the end of financial security and social connections is near.

Dancing In a Partnership

In every partnership there actually 3 relationships:

1. Your relationship with each other
2. Your relationship with your purpose
3. Your partner’s relationship with their purpose

If you can’t dance the way you want to, be curious about these 3 relationships to find a path forward.

Humility Is Nourishing

Ego and pride end more relationships than anything else: ‘I’m in the right, I know best, he’s wrong.’

Humility builds relationships. It’s also difficult which is why it’s for the emotionally fit.

Notice an expertise of theirs that you’ve taken for granted. Let them know about this extraordinary characteristic of theirs.

Every day we get a chance to be humble. It’s nourishing.

When the Student Is Ready, the Teacher Will Appear

What we know gets in the way of what we need to learn.

‘The only thing I know is that I know nothing.’ -Socrates

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.