SmithRx

💬 "I swore I'd never work for a PBM." In her past roles supporting specialty pharmacies, our Chief Customer Success Officer Joy Gilbert spent years on the receiving end of legacy PBM tactics—watching them dictate reimbursement rates below drug costs, steer patients away from independent pharmacies, and force brand-name drugs for rebate capture. Even with her industry expertise and connections, when her own family needed specialized care, navigating the healthcare maze proved nearly impossible. She ended up paying cash for alternative, non-covered treatment because the system failed to connect the dots. 💬  “I realized that if someone in the industry struggled to use the system, we couldn’t possibly expect patients—often at the most vulnerable point in their lives—to self-serve.” So what changed her mind about joining SmithRx? 🧡 She wanted to leverage her deep operational and service background to help build the ethical, patient-centric PBM the industry desperately needed, and patients and their families deserved. In her latest piece, Joy explains how experiencing the "dark side" of PBM practices shaped her commitment to help build a radically different kind of PBM than our industry was used to dealing with—and why empathy at scale isn't just ethical, it's a competitive advantage that drives real business outcomes. 💡 Explore her perspective on why “doing good” doesn’t have to come at the expense of making money: 🔗 How Empathy At Scale Drives Bottom Line Results & Patient Outcomes: https://rebrand.ly/5f2opuc #PBM #ModernPBM #MemberExperience #CustomerSuccess #Leadership #PharmacyBenefits #SmithRx

Pharmacy benefits might be one of the largest line items draining your budget—but can you verify where that money's actually going? SmithRx is sponsoring The Millennium Alliance's Benefits Leadership Transformation Assembly in Charlotte next month, and our Founder and CEO Jake Frenz is leading a roundtable session designed specifically for CFOs who want to take control of their pharmacy spend. 🎤 Roundtable Discussion: Modern PBMs: Reducing Pharmacy Benefit Cost & Improving Fiduciary Alignment 📅 December 5, 2025 | 8:50 - 9:50am 👤 Jake Frenz, Founder and CEO, SmithRx 📍The Omni Charlotte Hotel, Charlotte, NC For many CFOs, understanding pharmacy benefit spend is challenging. Legacy PBM contracts are designed to obscure true costs, leaving organizations overpaying by 20% or more while facing serious fiduciary risk from opaque pricing structures. Jake will share the simple "back of the napkin" math you can use immediately to spot critical red flags with your current PBM—no complex audits required. You'll walk away with practical formulas to identify overspend, strategies to reduce costs across your unique employee population, and clear pathways to finding a transparent PBM partner that's actually aligned with your bottom line. 🎁 Plus, don’t miss your chance to stop by our event table to grab exclusive resources, get your PBM questions answered, and pick up some SmithRx giveaways for the road! #CFO #CFOs #PBMs #PharmacyBenefits #HealthcareCosts #ModernPBM #FiduciaryDuty #MillenniumAlliance #SmithRx

🗞️✨ November Broker Brief newsletter is live! What's inside for brokers: ✓ On-demand webinar: How data access and reporting drive real PBM savings ✓ PBM transition guide: Tools to help clients make the switch ✓ Specialty drug costs: The truth legacy PBMs don't want you to know ✓ BAM Summit recap: Key PBM insights from industry leaders Read now + subscribe for monthly updates 👇 #PBMs #Healthcare #EmployeeBenefits #BenefitsBrokers #ModernPBMs #BrokerBrief #SmithRx

🎤 We're taking the stage Dec 4 at  2:15 PM ET at The Conference Board's Employee Well-Being conference! Join our Chief Customer Success Officer, Joy Gilbert, and guest speaker Marie Yorn, Director of Total Rewards at Keystone Cooperative, for "Escaping the Legacy PBM Trap." 📍 New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Ballroom D/E 📅 Dec 4, 2:15 PM ‒ 2:55 PM ET We'll explore how to evaluate PBM partners for fiduciary alignment, understand key accountability metrics, and manage the transition from legacy to modern PBM. Plus, hear real insights from an employer who made the switch, including the impact on drug spend, employee satisfaction, and what they learned along the way. Beyond the session: • Get your PBM questions answered: Schedule a 1:1 meeting with our SVP of Product Strategy, Alan Pannier, Pharm D,MBA, or our SVP of Sales, Jeff Snow • Visit us at Booth #35 for custom engraving and conversations about transparent pharmacy benefits 🎟️ Get more information and RSVP for your 1:1 meeting: https://lnkd.in/gSD2fZDn See you in Brooklyn December 4-5! #TCBWellBeing #EmployeeWellBeing2025  #HRLeadership #BenefitsLeaders #ModernPBM #PBM #TheConferenceBoard #PharmacyBenefits #SmithRx

💡 "Those who hold the paper hold the power." But only if you understand what's actually in that paper. Many medical and pharmacy contracts are designed to be confusing. And the numbers prove that legacy strategy is working to keep employers in the dark: Last week at the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions Annual Forum, we asked benefits leaders how comfortable they felt with PBM contracting. 🫤 60% said they weren't comfortable at all. 📥 Another 16% said they delegate it entirely to someone else. That's a risk—especially when those contracts directly impact your fiduciary responsibility and your organization's pharmacy spend. Jake Frenz, Founder and CEO, SmithRx and Cora Opsahl, Health Fund Director, Building Service 32BJ Benefit Funds tackled this head-on in "Courage in Contracting," a workshop that walked through real contract examples and identified red flags like vague rebate definitions and hidden offsetting clauses. ✅ The takeaway? Understanding your contract terms is an essential skill for benefits leaders. Modern PBM contracts should be clear, cost-based, and aligned with your fiduciary responsibility, not built on complexity that obscures true costs. Preparing for a contract review? Access our PBM evaluation checklist and other workshop resources: 👉 https://rebrand.ly/snaaeg3 #NAHPC2025 #NatAllForum #PBMContracting #PharmacyBenefits #BenefitsLeadership #SmithRx

Benefits leaders want to know: Is switching to a modern PBM worth it? This month at The Millennium Alliance's Benefits Leadership Transformation Assembly in Miami, HR leaders from Keystone Cooperative answered that question directly at the keynote, "Modern PBMs: Reducing the Cost and Complexity of Pharmacy Benefits." Angela Macke Hudgins, former Vice President Human Resources and CHRO, and Marie Yorn, Director of Total Rewards at Keystone Cooperative, joined  Ty Perry, VP of Sales at SmithRx on stage to share their transition story: 🔎 The evaluation process 📉 What to expect 💰 The real impact on their bottom line Angela summed it up: "When you think about that $1.8 million in savings that @SmithRx has saved us, it all goes back to your overall healthcare spend and ultimately lowered our bottom line." Marie added: "We love our SmithRx account manager—he feels like an extension of our team and is always bringing new ways for both Keystone and ultimately our members to save money on their pharmacy benefits." Thinking about making the switch? ➡️ 🎥 Watch our on-demand webinar with real insights on the transition process: https://rebrand.ly/si0z94p #MillenniumLive #PBMs #ModernPBM #BenefitsLeaders #HR #SmithRx

💡 A national labor union achieved 61.8% pharmacy cost savings that have lasted over three years. How?  ✅ They treated the root cause of rising costs, not just the symptoms. Just like a pain reliever masks a headache without fixing what’s causing it, some PBM solutions deliver short-term savings without addressing the real problem: misaligned incentives. When your PBM benefits from higher drug costs, long-term cost control becomes nearly impossible. The labor union experienced this firsthand. After years of escalating costs and weekly member complaints with their legacy PBM, they needed more than a quick fix. They needed structural change. In 2022, they switched to SmithRx. The results weren't just immediate—they were sustained: ✓ 61.8% reduction in per-member-per-month (PMPM) cost in Year 1 ✓ PMPM cost reduced to $56 by 2024—lower than their goal and below industry average ✓ 3.5+ years of consistent, below-market performance—and still going ✓ 20.6x return on investment (ROI) And most importantly, these cost reductions came with a sharp decline in member complaints, proof that excellent service isn't about how much you spend, it's about implementing solutions that work for your organization instead of your organization working for your PBM. How did they achieve this? By eliminating conflicts of interest and realigning their PBM with their needs: ✓ 100% pass-through pricing with transparent fees unaffected by drug costs ✓ Proactive savings tools that uncover opportunities instead of hiding them—like the $1M+ saved through the Autoimmune Pathway program ✓ Expert member support that doesn't just answer questions, but actively guides members through the complexities of the healthcare system The result? A foundation for long-term cost control that benefits both their organization and its members. 🧡 When you're ready to make the switch, we're here to help you build a pharmacy benefit that works the way a PBM should: as your partner in navigating care effectively and efficiently. 📙 Read the full case study: https://qrco.de/bgSphm #CaseStudy #Healthcare #PBMs #BenefitsLeaders #PBM #ModernPBM #SmithRx

The pharmacy benefits model has been broken for decades. 💡 It's time for a new category. Identifying a new category means taking a step back to observe and solve problems people may not even realize they have or don't have better options for solving. 💊 For pharmacy benefits, that problem was hiding in plain sight: Legacy PBMs manipulate the pharmacy supply chain in their favor, then report "success" based on discount percentages off inflated list prices, hiding actual net costs. Because this lack of transparency has become the industry standard, many benefits leaders don't realize they're evaluating their PBM with incomplete data. Our VP of Marketing, Vidya Drego, recently joined Vince Quinn on the Future Fuzz - B2B Marketing Podcast to discuss what it takes to create a category from scratch, and why the pharmacy benefits space needed a new option. 🎧 In Episode 134: Creating a Category From Scratch, Vidya shares: → Why legacy PBM pricing models are fundamentally broken → How we're educating the market on what transparency really means → The content strategies fueling a category shift in healthcare → What it takes to challenge decades-old industry giants Listen to the full conversation: https://qrco.de/bgSDpB #PBMs #PharmacyBenefits #EmployeeBenefits #HealthcareCosts #BenefitsLeadership #Transparency #ModernPBM 

⏫ Fresh stats: 31% of employers now contract with transparent PBMs—up from just 12% last year. New survey data from National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, reported by Fierce Healthcare, reveals the momentum behind the movement away from legacy PBMs: 📈 31% now use transparent PBMs (vs. 12% in 2024) 📉 61% still contract with the Big Three—down from 72% 🔄 55% are considering switching in the next 1-3 years The data on why employers are moving is equally compelling: • 53% say healthcare costs are making it harder to compete • 40% can't access key claims data from their current PBM • Employers with transparent PBMs are 1.6x more likely to report lower premiums Our latest blog explores what's driving this movement and how modern PBMs deliver for enterprise organizations—including one national enterprise employer that achieved 35% savings by switching to SmithRx's transparent model and using our Drug Pathways Engine. Keep reading: 🔗 Blog | Why America’s Largest Employers Are Switching PBMs: https://qrco.de/bgSF68 #EnterpriseHR #HR #ModernPBM #BenefitsLeaders #EmployeeBenefits #PharmacyBenefits #SmithRx

👋 At the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions Annual Forum this week? Join us tomorrow morning for "Courage in Contracting", an interactive workshop on navigating PBM contracts with confidence. You'll learn how to recognize contract risks, ask informed questions, and approach your next negotiation with confidence. 🎤 Workshop: Courage in Contracting 📅 November 12 | 9:00-10:30 AM 👥 Jake Frenz, Founder and CEO, SmithRx | Cora Opsahl, Health Fund Director, Building Service 32BJ Benefit Funds 🧡 Until then, find us at Table 21 today to ask questions, enter our Yeti cooler raffle, and grab SmithRx giveaways.  Stop by—we're here to help! #NAHPC2025 #PharmacyBenefits #ModernPBM #SmithRx