Vativorx: Innovative, Proactive, Targeted Pharmacy Benefits Management Company

Vativorx: Innovative, Proactive, Targeted Pharmacy Benefits Management Company

Healthcare and pharmacy are one of the important pillars of every society worldwide. COVID-19 pandemic has further made us realize how important it is to support and fund healthcare and pharmaceutical organizations. Here’s VativoRx, one of the most influential pharmacy benefits management companies.

We got in touch with Lisa Quarterman, the CEO and Managing Partner of VativoRx, to help us understand what her company does and how it’s making an impact on the world. Let’s hear more from her in this interview:

What steps have you taken towards healthcare facilities with the COVID-19 pandemic?

We’re taking a lot of steps to help combat the virus. I can say that our technology is much advanced, which has helped us go virtual right now, allowing our customer care people to work remotely. Fortunately, the pandemic has not affected the flow and operations of our business or our ability to still provide the same services we were providing before the entire country shut down.

But, if we find a vaccine for this virus or a cure or even just a medication, we’re going to have to be a little bit proactive and make sure that we’re building the sophistication to allow our formularies to manage this aspect of healthcare. Things like evolving and adapting the pharmacy benefits, negotiations with manufacturers, keeping the payors informed, as well as a few other factors have to be kept in mind when attempting to stay ahead of any pandemic or unforeseen crisis.

What do you feel makes your firm as one of the most influential companies today?

I feel that that one of the things that make us influential is that we’re transparent with our customers, transparent on what they’re spending their money on, and what’s being paid for and to whom. We’ve recognized the specialty pharmacy has started to make a huge impact on the overall cost of prescription medications and that makes us quite influential.

For instance, the average cost of one specialty medication for one treatment could be up to fifteen thousand dollars. Technology and clinical expertise has allowed us to create some very unique and innovative programs around managing the specialty pharmacy. We’ve made a huge impact in some of our existing customers both financially and clinically, and given them the insight and the wherewithal of helping to save them money on these specialty medications.

Another thing that makes us so influential is that we’ve created our own proprietary software; building a crosswalk between the hospital, physician offices, and Vativorx, allowing us to incorporate all prescription medications outside of the traditional dispensing venues to be included in the overall PBM program.

Can you tell us key differentiating factors that make your company different from others?

One of the main differentiators is that our technology allows us to provide services at a minimal cost due to the fact our infrastructure and operations run so efficiently. This allows us to be very flexible. A lot of times when you’re a small business or even a middle-market business, you end up going to a large PBM. VativoRx offers what the large PBM’s offer at more affordable price and convenient, seamless implementation. We’re willing to design a plan all the way down to the individual patient level, and ensure we design each unique plan that’s best for our customers. So we are super flexible and can manage the benefit down to a specific member in a specific zip code by a specific position.

If there was one product/service that you would highlight, which one would it be?

I would highlight the pharmacy benefit management clinical aspect and our ability to do the clinical oversight. We build and design clinical programs that are unique to each client and its members depending on their needs and wants. These clinical programs, when implemented, save our customers thousands of dollars on their pharmacy spend. VativoRx is also one of the most aggressive and successful Rebate Administrators in the market today. We have been able to return our customers up to nearly two times more than our competitors, as it relates to Rebates. We have incorporated our proprietary software into the PBM and Rebate Management programs to ensure no paid prescriptions are falling through the cracks, even those not filled at a traditional pharmacy setting.

Every company needs the right set of people to thrive. Tell us about the people at your company.

Having a technology foundation and based on our ability to be so innovative, I can hire one person to do the job of four. So obviously, if I can only hire one person to do the job, I can pay that one person what I would pay two or three people and I’m still saving money. With that in mind, we hire the highest caliber of people that have to meet the same philosophy and the same vision as the founding partners. I previously founded and grew my first company, Cypress Care, which became, and still is, the largest Workers Comp PBM in the country, from one person in my basement to 450 employees. I know how to build a company and surround it with quality people that share the same mind-set that we do and will represent the company in every aspect.

I interviewed every single one of them, you know, to make sure that that they met both from an educational standpoint and experience standpoint, but also a cultural standpoint. And believe it or not, the culture of the employees makes a huge difference. So we bring in people that have knowledge of the space, but also have the same vision and morals that we do. I’ve been super, super lucky with the people who are with us

Let’s talk about the future. What’s the roadmap ahead?

We have recently hired two new sales reps, one on the West Coast and one in the Midwest to continue grow the PBM portion of our business to the middle market and Self-Insured clients. Our vision also extends to both through acquisition and retention to grow our rebate management portion of the business. We are looking at some partners that we can work with to either acquire or build a strategic relationship with. And then lastly, continue to evolve the software that we’re developing and bring it to market not only for direct customer use, but for business-to-businesses.

Tell us your mission and vision statement

Our mission is to be the most innovative pharmacy benefit management company today with the ability to provide the middle market or smaller sized businesses the same fast, robust plan that the Fortune 500 companies have. We’re always looking forward to continuing to be innovative; we’re constantly building products to our service offering, evolving the foundation of the business by building internal software applications.

In fact, we’re building software that’s integrating our company, our customers, and the healthcare providers altogether. We want to be able to eventually build the pharmacy management with the total healthcare of a patient and give the healthcare providers the foresight into how the pharmacy prescriptions are affecting the total care of a patient.

Introducing the Dynamic Persona

Lisa Quarterman,
Chief Executive Officer, Managing Partner

Lisa has overseen pharmacy benefit management (PBM) programs for patients, TPAs, and self-insured organizations since 1993. In 2001, she founded Cypress Care, the first PBM to serve patients receiving benefits under major insurers’ workers’ compensation programs. In 2005, she was named winner of the RX Benefit Innovation Award by the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute for “innovative solutions to problems surrounding drug benefit programs.” In 2006, she was a finalist nominee for the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and in 2007, listed among the “2007 Women to Watch” by Business Insurance Magazine.

As chief executive officer of Cypress Care, Lisa implemented PBM programs for large self-insured organizations, including the California State Insurance Fund, and like funds in Georgia and Florida, as well as for county governments and municipalities. She developed and managed PBM plans for major insurers, including Zurich, Coventry, and Liberty Mutual.

In 2016, Lisa founded VativoRx, which has grown to be one of the most successful Rebate Management PBM’s in the space. Lisa was most recently awarded “2020 Entrepreneur of the Year” by Healthcare Tech Outlook Magazine while VativoRx was also recognized as one of the “Top 10 Pharmacy Management Solution Providers of 2020”.