“We are often asked in interviews what our most memorable experience has been as a pharmacist,” said Marc. “I used to have a go-to story I thought was amazing, but now that story has been replaced.”
Marc Ream
Clinical Pharmacist, Magellan Rx

This month, we’re celebrating our amazing pharmacists and the work they do to impact members at virtually every point along the patient-care continuum. Today we’re sharing a story from clinical pharmacist Marc Ream, who partnered with the commercial pharmacy team to go above and beyond the call of duty for a family in need.

Although he did not know it then, when Marc Ream took a call late on a Friday afternoon, he was about to experience what would become the most rewarding moment in his career as a pharmacist.

The call came from a mother with an urgent request for an oncology drug approval for her 10-year-old daughter, Jane.* Jane, who lives with Leukemia, needed a specific medication that is relatively rare and not easily accessible. The family was leaving on their long-awaited vacation the next day, so they needed the medication that same day. Marc quickly realized that  getting this medication to the member quickly would require collaboration with the prescribing oncologist, as well as with multiple parties including the health plan, account managers, technicians, pharmacists, physicians and the dispensing pharmacy.

Marc quickly went to work, placing a call to the prescribing oncologist to gather a comprehensive history on the young girl, as well as the necessary clinical rationale to make the approval. Typically, once a medication is clinically approved, the pharmacist’s job is complete and the prescription can be filled by a local pharmacy. However, this particular oncology drug was classified as a limited-distribution medication, typically dispensed only through mail-order facilities. Realizing that the family would not have time to wait, Marc contacted a specialty pharmacy in the area to try to come up with a quicker solution.

He reached out to the pharmacy’s lead oncology pharmacist and confirmed that the medication was in stock, and they conferenced in Jane’s physician to place the order.  Marc worked with the oncology pharmacist to schedule delivery of the medication to the family. When they called the mother to tell her the good news, they could hear the emotion and gratitude in her voice. Thanks to the swift and diligent work of many, Jane and her family were off on their dream vacation with this important medication in hand.

Thank you to Marc Ream and the commercial pharmacy team for this empowering story that shows just how passionate and committed we are to leading humanity to healthy, more vibrant lives.

*Details around the specific circumstances of this story have been changed to protect the identities of both Jane (not her real name) and her family.

Contemplating life and death is probably common when in the midst of a natural disaster. As the eye of Irma passed over me on September 10, I was thinking about suicide and suicide prevention. September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and Magellan Complete Care, our health plan for individuals living with serious mental illness in Florida, had been busy preparing for summits to draw attention to and dialogue around suicide prevention to local communities. Two days before Irma hit, I was busy canceling vendors for the summits. The day before Irma, I was dealing with a surprise, last-minute mandatory evacuation order while trying to locate a friend who was experiencing homelessness and depression, and who had expressed a desire to let the storm take his life instead of seeking shelter.

As the winds howled, windows rattled, and rain pounded against the home I had evacuated to, I sat on a closet floor thinking about how much I wanted to live and how that desire to live had not always been there. There were years where, like my friend, I was lost in my own storm. Depression had flooded my soul, my thoughts were battered by negativity and I never felt safe. The aftermath, similar to a hurricane, was a life left in shambles, just wishing for normalcy.

Recent hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires remind us of the value of life. Suicide Prevention Awareness Month provides another reminder. Every 13 minutes that the winds and rain of Irma pelted my home state, someone in this country was ending their life too soon by suicide. With a completed suicide happening in Florida every three hours , the death toll from suicide may end up being higher than that from Irma’s destruction.

Natural disasters and the realities of suicide provide the same call to action to communities. We have a responsibility to watch out for each other and take care of each other. When the power is out, you share the food and batteries you have and a reminder to hold on. When someone’s internal light is out, you share hope and support and a reminder to stay strong.

There is much work ahead to rebuild lives, homes, and communities devastated by recent natural disasters; to support communities in reducing death by suicide; and to help individuals struggling through adversity. I am living proof that a life can be rebuilt. Whatever challenge you are facing, hold on, stay strong and don’t be afraid to ask for and accept help.

Magellan’s offices in Virginia have been abuzz for the past few months, busily preparing to implement a brand-new contract as Magellan Complete Care of Virginia (MCC of VA), serving individuals who qualify for Medicaid due to a disability or who are age 65 or older.

On Aug. 1, MCC of VA made its debut in the commonwealth as a full-service managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS) health plan selected by the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) to serve members enrolled in the Commonwealth Coordinated Care Plus (CCC Plus) program. The plan initially launched in the Tidewater region, then in the Central Region on Sept. 1, and has been approved to roll out in the Charlottesville/Western region on Oct. 1. MCC of VA will go live in phases for additional regions across the commonwealth through early 2018, pending DMAS approval.

 What are managed long-term services and supports?

MLTSS is the delivery of long-term services and supports through capitated Medicaid managed care programs. Many states use MLTSS as a strategy to expand home- and community-based services, promoting community inclusion, ensuring quality and increasing efficiency. In Virginia, care management is the foundation of CCC Plus, which focuses on improving quality, access and efficiency through high-touch, person-centered support.

Magellan’s role in CCC Plus

Enrolling in CCC Plus means that members will now have their medical, behavioral, substance use disorder and long-term services and supports provided all under one program. When individuals select MCC of VA as their health plan, they can expect to benefit from Magellan’s vast experience coordinating care for individuals who have multiple complex conditions, including chronic physical and behavioral health challenges.

Our person-centered culture is woven into everything we do, as is our dedication to offering choices for our members, who serve at the center of their care coordination team.

 Our approach: It’s all in the ‘neighborhood’

We believe individuals should have a choice in where they live and receive services. Therefore, a key component of MCC of VA’s program is what we call our Integrated Health Neighborhood^SM. [Link to IHN infographic] The IHN is a custom model that helps us work with individuals within their own neighborhoods and communities to improve care, quality of life and health outcomes.

Our care teams live and work within the same communities where our members reside. These team members have first-hand knowledge of community strengths, resources, services, and service gaps.

Our integrated, high-touch, team-based IHN approach drives close collaboration with community partners. This allows us to customize care for our members and provide a seamless, one-stop system of services and supports. We can then address each member’s unique needs and circumstances and continually adjust our interventions as the member’s needs change.

Looking toward the future

We invest our resources into making an impact, one person at a time, by taking a highly individualized, high-touch, community-based approach to care coordination – because we know that each person can live a vibrant, healthy life as independently as possible. And we look forward to helping the individuals we serve in Virginia to meet this goal.

Learn more about MCC of VA

We’ve all been impacted by the horrific flooding taking place in Texas due to Hurricane Harvey, and witnessed the many instances of heroism and community support in response to this tragedy. In addition to the widespread damage occurring, we have a number of Magellan team members and their families who live in impacted areas and who are witnessing the devastation first-hand. Unfortunately, some are without power, and others have been displaced from their homes.

Leading humanity to healthy, vibrant lives is what we do on a daily basis on behalf of our members, so it’s no surprise that so many of us want to do something to help. I’m proud of what we as a company are doing to support our Texas-based customers, members and affected communities:

• Supporting the Houston Community: The State of Texas, specifically the Houston area, will be living with catastrophic damage for some time and rebuilding from this damage for even longer. The Magellan Cares Foundation is supporting these clean-up efforts with a contribution of $25,000 to the Houston Relief Fund, which is the organization that has been established by the mayor. This contribution will help local efforts to assist those in need.
• Utilizing Our Expertise: When we looked at the forecast for Hurricane Harvey, we opened our 24-hour crisis line early Friday morning for all Texans affected by the storm, whether they are our members or not. Free, confidential counseling services and other resources, such as referrals to local non-profit organizations, shelters and additional community-based support are available to assist Texans as they work to cope with this natural disaster. This line will remain open in the coming weeks and months as the community begins to assess damages and the full impact of the storm.
• Customer/Member Impact: We continue to serve our Texas-based customers, members and others who have been impacted by the storm. Some have likely spent time in shelters, others have lost power, and still others are facing challenges of which we are probably not aware. I’ve asked all of our associates to think about their situation and consider additional ways in which we can best serve them.

No one ever expects to be challenged with a catastrophic event, but I’ve been so proud of the way in which our team has sprung to action to help those in need in Houston.

Privacy is a funny thing, and peoples’ choices about privacy when technology is involved is often hard to explain. We don’t think twice about letting companies track what we like and don’t; what we search for and when we search; the photos we like and the ones we don’t; our shopping patterns and our wish lists; where we go and when; and now, we welcome full-time listening devices into our homes. I often wonder if these listening devices would find their way into our kitchens if they looked more like a reel-to-reel recording device versus a cute little modern orb with fancy LEDs.

Despite how comfortable we are with technology in some parts of our lives, there seems to be a line that many won’t cross. For some reason, discussing our finances while the orb is listening is okay, but using technology to help us manage our healthcare strikes some people as going too far.

This line is moving, albeit slowly.

There are real challenges in advancing technology in healthcare. But most importantly, we need to allow consumers to choose how they want to see their health information.

Texting is common in healthcare today, but it is inefficient, and often, confusing. Most healthcare-related texts contain either redacted information, such as, “You have not filled AtorXXXXXXXX prescription,” or contain links on which you have to click to take you to another message. Amazon doesn’t make a customer guess at the contents of their message or follow a clunky process to share information, so why do we do it in healthcare?

There are a number of regulations that govern Protected Health Information (PHI), and it’s critical that we take them seriously. After all, we’re talking about very sensitive and private material about diagnoses, medication, diagnostics and other information.

But, with careful planning and execution we can balance what is required of us by law while providing consumers with information that will help make their healthcare journey more efficient and tech-enabled. For example, we were able to craft, on behalf of our clients, end-user agreements that allow us to send texts that look like this:

“Your health is important to [Insert Client Name], please take your cholesterol medication as prescribed.”

The results from this texting pilot were nothing short of amazing. 26 percent of the people who received this message, none of whom were previously following their doctor’s orders, promptly filled the prescription. Interestingly, we saw similar results in every category we piloted. Why? It’s simple: nothing had to be decoded, no incremental steps needed to be taken, no password had to reset, etc. The best part of the pilot? 87 percent of the people who started, stayed in the program.

With pilots like this, we moved the line a smidge.

Texting was one of our first pilots and it was critical to challenging our thinking and finding new ways to solve old problems. The line needs to keep moving forward and we welcome the challenge.

Over the past decade, technology has become enmeshed in our lives. From the ubiquitous smartphones we all carry, to connected houses, cars, cameras and more — it seems like just about every object we come into contact with is gaining new capabilities from being connected to the cloud. At Magellan Health, we feel strongly that an individual’s health should benefit from these technological advancements, too.

We are excited to announce that Magellan is expanding its existing collaboration with Click Therapeutics to create Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared therapeutic apps.

Digital health apps are an area that Magellan continues to lead in research and development. Magellan’s Director of Innovation, Brian Keenaghan, recently shared his experience building apps to promote healthy vibrant lives.

 FDA Clearance for Digital Therapeutics

Click will leverage Magellan’s portfolio of software programs, associated intellectual property, and data to create mobile apps for people challenged by conditions such as insomnia, substance abuse, depression and anxiety, and apply for FDA clearance for such apps on the basis of valid scientific evidence supporting the safety and effectiveness of the software. This augments Magellan’s work to provide broad-based, digital and data-driven programs for primary care and specialty care providers.

Magellan Health and Click Therapeutics: Rethinking Healthcare

Last year, Magellan launched a tobacco cessation program with Click Therapeutics leveraging Magellan’s clinical coaching and pharmacy benefit management (PBM) capabilities with Click’s technology and machine learning platform, including the mobile application, CLICKOTINE®, to create an all-in-one solution.

Magellan’s CCBT modules have undergone numerous clinical trials in which they have matched, and in some instances exceeded, those reached by conventionally delivered cognitive behavioral therapy. In addition, Cobalt has received the highest rating from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP).

You can learn more about Magellan’s Cobalt CCBT capabilities here.

I shared this message with all 10,000 associates at Magellan yesterday. As I said in my message, times like these require all of us not to be silent, but instead to stand tall and make it very clear that we are committed to an environment where all people can progress personally and professionally, and work in a positive, uplifting workplace. Given the current state of events in our country, and particularly the divisive events of this week, I felt it important to reaffirm the values we hold dear within Magellan.

“Leading humanity to healthy, vibrant lives” is what guides our decision making and inspires us to accomplish meaningful, positive change in the lives of those we serve. This can only be done if we respect and value each other, and every person we serve, without condition or qualification.

For the many years I have been associated with Magellan, I have been impressed by the integrity and commitment of Magellan team members to create a culture of caring. I have seen great respect for people of all races, religions, gender and sexual orientation, to name only a few of the things that make us different. There is no doubt that the diversity of our people allows us to better understand and execute our vision of making a powerful impact on the world around us.

I want to reaffirm in a direct and simple way that we will never diverge from valuing differences, and creating a culture in which we can learn from each other and grow as individuals, teams, and a company.

Times like these require all of us not to be silent, but instead to stand tall and make it very clear that we are committed to an environment where all people can progress personally and professionally, and work in a positive, uplifting workplace. Our differences are to be celebrated; they are absolutely key in helping us in “leading humanity to healthy, vibrant lives.”

Thank you for the great work you do. I am proud to be associated with you.