Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: We have been very deliberate and intentional in the company to talk about the mission and why we exist. We have a mission statement that says we care about our members and we want them taken care of the same way we would take care of our own loved ones. And in healthcare, hopefully you're fortunate enough that you haven't had to be the patient in a tough situation. But if it's not you, I'm sure you have a parent, a loved one, a friend, somebody who has gone through that. And so I think always going back to the mission and basing and we are really impacting members at times in their lives where they're not feeling great and it may be I have the flu or strep throat or it may be something really life changing.
We have the ability to impact through what we're doing and kind of remembering that and talking about that and reinforcing the importance of that. And every single person in the company is doing something that is in some way impacting that patient experience and that mission that we're about.
Welcome to the A and M Significant Healthcare Voices podcast series featuring insights on healthcare trends and hot topics direct from industry leaders.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Welcome To A&M's significant healthcare voices podcast series. I'm Christina Park, Managing Director in Alvarez and Marcel's Healthcare Industry Group. I'm joined today by my colleague and co host, Managing Director Doris Stein. And we are thrilled to have Linda Smith joining us on our podcast today.
Linda's senior Vice President of Enterprise initiatives and she's the Chief of Staff to the CEO at Prime Therapeutics.
Prime is a leading pharmacy benefit manager that partners with health plans to deliver transparent, cost effective pharmacy solutions. And with almost two decades of experience in healthcare leadership, Linda has dedicated her career to healthcare and held significant positions at MagellanRx Management, Magellan Health and Luminass. We're so excited to learn more and look forward to diving into our conversation today.
Welcome to the podcast, Linda.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Thank you. Happy to be here. Really appreciate the invitation.
[00:02:00] Speaker C: And I'm going to do a quick introduction myself, Doris Stein, also a managing director, as Christina mentioned, in our healthcare industry group. And Linda, you and I have been working a long time together and excited to do this podcast with you.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah, thank you. I mean I was thinking about that in preparation for the conversation today. I mean we've I think gone back three companies or more over the years. So long and great relationship with you.
[00:02:26] Speaker C: Also great. I'm gonna start the question, Linda, with you and as we talked about, we've been working together a long time and you have just built such a wonderful career and now a leader in healthcare and pharmacy services. And just wanna hear a little bit about your career path and how you got into your leadership role at Prime.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, it's funny, like I always laugh cause people are like, ooh, I always dreamed of working at a PDM like no one would probably ever.
But you know, it's interesting because when I first started I in college studied psychology and I really wanted to go in a clinical track and kind of be practicing clinician. And I was sort of burned out on school and so went right into the working world in healthcare and really, really loved the business side of it. And the more I kind of was exposed to that and realized how many more people you can actually impact with healthcare, being on sort of this business side of it versus the care side was really intriguing to me. And so that just sort of started my trajectory. But you know, I would say I've been in healthcare my entire career and have been so fortunate to just have relationships where one role led to another role led to another role. I haven't, thank goodness, had to do an actual like full fledged interview probably in 25 years. I don't know if I even would be able to do it at this point. But you know, just really building upon relationships and experience that I had over the years and just kind of, you know, moving with people that I knew from one opportunity to the next has been an amazing and really fun trajectory.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: So yeah, you've had just such an amazing career and it's been such a pleasure to be able to work with you over these many, many years. As Doris mentioned, your role now as head of Enterprise Initiatives gives you great insight to the priorities of PRIME and what's going on. And can you just help us understand kind of what you're seeing from a 2026 Critical Initiatives perspective and what you're working on and what's important to you?
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean we've got, you know, a whole host of priorities, but there's a couple things I think that drive a lot of what we're doing. You know, the PBM industry is changing a lot. So so much pressure kind of from all around us. And so a lot of what we're focused on at prime is really how do we continue to evolve the models of how we deliver and work with our customers and continue to sort of be responsive. And I think one of the fortunate things within prime is, you know, we're sort of structurally set up a little bit different being owned by a bunch of Blues Plans who are very mission driven nonprofit organizations. And so we have sort of a different opportunity and a different structure where that full transparency and pass through model is the way we were founded and operate. And we have such a footprint in Medicaid and government fee for service, which is also that very transparent administrative services model. And if you think about the pressures on the PBM industry as a whole, reading the tea leaves, there is a move in that direction. And so we're really looking at how do we really tap into some of the differentiation of the way we're already structured to be able to continue to kind of deliver that and work with our clients in a different way. So it's, you know, all those new models and things that enable us to focus on the patient experience. We talk about the importance of delivering exceptional experiences to all the stakeholders, but you know, especially for members and customers and how do we bring digital experiences and tools to really enhancing what it's like for the member at the counter. We've all been in that position and sometimes it's not so great. And so being able to really get that focus in a business that is largely B2B versus B2C is something we've been talking a lot about and then just really, you know, a lot of technology, modernizing our platforms. We've got this great relationship with Judy Health and so continuing to really move to a modern cloud based platform, more automation AI. Obviously everybody's doing AI. Big focus for us as well. So there's kind of a whole host of things that we're focused on for prime.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: Wonderful. Linda, you just touched on a little bit about the AI, but you know, there's a lot of obviously issues and talk about medications being affordable to members in the world out there. And how are you breaking down those barriers and how you talked a little bit about AI and how does predictive analytics also work into this equation as well?
[00:07:09] Speaker A: I mean, I think it's all of these things and right. All the rhetoric that you hear about the cost of drugs is, you know, that sticker shock you have at the counter when you're standing there. And you know, we have all of these, you know, high deductible health plans that really haven't kept up with now the changes and how expensive drugs are. And so I think there's a lot of differences to the model that need to change. And then there's, you know, a lot of specific drugs and clinical conditions that are driving a huge part of the trend in drug spend. And so really being able to get Very specific about the opportunities, who are the patients that are most likely to be on that track to certain drugs and certain, you know, conditions that we know are going to be very complicated to manage.
Being able to identify those earlier and really in a lot of cases, partnering with our health plan clients, you know, talk about oncology, for example, where there's, you know, so much spend on both the medical and the drug side and being able to bring those things together. And a lot of that is really driven from getting that integrated data set and being able to work in partnership between the pharmacy and the medical management. So that is definitely a big piece for us. And, you know, our depth on the medical pharmacy management side is really a big piece of that also.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: That's helpful. And Linda, I can hear and just having worked with you for so long, recognize the passion that you have for what you do and your work in healthcare, which I think is tremendously important. And as healthcare is constantly in and continues to be in sort of this uncertainty and constant change, one of the things we like to do on the podcast is just help other women, help other people who are looking to get into the healthcare industry or building careers in the healthcare industry understand kind of what maybe has helped propel you in your career and or what advice you would have for aspiring female leaders in trying to make an impact in your communities and how do they help their organizations propel forward, Maybe just share a little bit of some of your experience and what kind of drove you and motivated you as you've kind of developed your career throughout the years in healthcare.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: The first thing I would say is, you know, anything in healthcare, it's very easy to understand and identify with the mission.
And, you know, we have been very deliberate and intentional in the company to talk about the mission and why we exist.
And we have a mission statement that says, you know, we care about our members and we want them taken care of the same way we would take care of our own loved ones. And in healthcare, hopefully, you know, you're fortunate enough that you haven't had to be the patient in a tough situation. But if it's not you, I'm sure you have a parent, a loved one, a friend, somebody who has gone through that. And so I think always going back to the mission and basing and like, we are really impacting members at times in their lives where they're not feeling great and it may be like I have the flu or strep throat or it may be something really life changing that we have the ability to impact through what we're doing and kind of remembering that and talking about that and reinforcing the importance of that. And every single person in the company is doing something that is in some way impacting that patient experience and that mission that we're about. And so I think that that is just a very powerful thing that I think keeps people motivated to show up every day and, like, care about how they're coming to work. And then beyond that, I would say sort of, you know, I think especially for women, identifying with the culture that you want to create, and again, really thinking about and talking about it, reinforcing it. And, you know, we always say you can't give yourself a nickname. You can't give yourself a culture, but you can be thoughtful and deliberate about what you want it to be and live it and breathe it and reinforce it. And again, I just think that that's an area that, especially in a service industry, in the healthcare industry, like, our people are our differentiator, right? I mean, of course we need technology and clinical expert expertise and all of these other things, but without people who are really driven by, you know, the right levels of integrity and delivering results and collaboration and delivering for clients, all that stuff is so important. And I think, again, as females, a lot of us live our lives that way. And I think the intentionality of just reminding and reinforcing that, for me, has been a big part of kind of my personal brand.
And I think it shows up in the workplace and is often overlooked over, you know, sort of just your business results or your numbers or your growth trajectory or whatever. And it, underneath it all is the people that are there in those relationships. And I mentioned it in the intro, like, that's. For me, what has brought my career through is just people that I've worked with and built trust with and, you know, know I work very well with. And that has been incredibly fruitful and fulfilling.
[00:12:17] Speaker C: Linda, that is such a powerful message. Love it. It's so true. And I think it hits us all personally as we take care of our loved ones and our mothers and our fathers, and we've all been through that, most of us. So I just want to say thank you so much. This has been a wonderful podcast, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. So appreciate it.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: Great. And to everyone who joined us, thank you for listening. For more information about A and M and to find more of our podcasts for significant healthcare voices, please Visit Alvarez and marcel.comhealthcare have a great day. Thanks, Linda.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Thank you.
