Q&A: Pharmacist’s Perspective on How Biosimilars Will Impact the Field in the Coming Years

Chelsee Jensen, PharmD, BCPS, works in the supply chain and finance field as a pharmaceutical formulary manager at the Mayo Clinic. In her role, she has spearheaded a biosimilar implementation initiative across the entire organization. Although she initially planned on working in the retail setting, she said she has found her role to be very interesting and that she has learned a lot so far.

Q&A: Pharmacist’s Perspective on How Biosimilars Will Impact the Field in the Coming Years / lexiconimages - stock.adobe.com

In a conversation with Drug Topics, Jensen discussed some of the rewards and challenges she faces in her setting, a specific program she implemented that exemplifies the value of pharmacists in patient care, what the biggest opportunities are for pharmacists to expand their role in patient care in today's health care landscape, and how biosimilars will impact the pharmacy profession in the coming years.

Drug Topics: What initially drew you to the pharmacy profession and how has your career path unfolded?

Chelsee Jensen, PharmD, BCPS: What initially drew me to the pharmacy career path was just the medical field in general. I initially thought I wanted to go nursing, but after my grandmother was on multiple medications, and I used to help her do her pill bottles and things like that, it just got me interested in the pharmacy profession.

My career path has unfolded in multiple different ways. I initially thought I was going to be working in the retail setting all the way through pharmacy school. It was literally the week of graduation that I got the call from Mayo Clinic. I decided to interview when I got back to town, and ever since then, I've been super happy to be with Mayo Clinic. I started as an inpatient pharmacist for 5 years, doing a few different roles. Since 2017, I've been in supply chain and finance, doing my role as a formulary manager. It's been super interesting. Lots of different turns. I've learned so much, especially since moving into the supply chain role. I think it has so much value. My previous experience in the hospital inpatient setting gave me a ton of value. I also had exposure to our outpatient infusion area. I think all of that has tied in really nicely to the work I do now, and I’m just super happy that I chose this profession and I've had the opportunities that I've had.

Drug Topics: Can you talk about some of the rewards and challenges you face in your practice setting?

Jensen: I would say some of the rewards are, just working on an enterprise wide, institution level. I take a lot of joy in being able to implement large initiatives across our whole enterprise, as well as the drive to cost savings that's been really rewarding. I also like to be a silo breaker, so really trying to be sure I'm communicating to our revenue cycle teams and our prior authorization teams about certain changes that are coming through, or if we're hearing issues, communicating that back to our pharmacy teams or practice leaders. That's been really rewarding for me.

I would say a challenge is, because we're such a large practice, there's a lot of different areas to cover. We also have a self-insured employee health plan, so trying to balance and make sure everyone's needs are met is sometimes impossible. You're just trying to do the best you can with every decision you make, recognizing there's a lot of different needs to meet and a lot of different facets that you could look at a drug at.

Drug Topics: Can you share something unique about your practice setting, patient population, or a specific program you've implemented that exemplifies the value of pharmacists in patient care?

Jensen: The biggest initiative that I've been involved with is our biosimilar implementation across the Mayo Clinic enterprise, as well as across our employee health plan. Also, getting my pharmacy revenue cycle management certification has been a huge asset to myself and in helping our task force members and the formulary committee make some of these decisions when it comes to medications. I'd say that's probably the biggest unique thing that has been rewarding in my recent experience.

I am removed from patient care. Obviously, we have an employee health plan population. But that's a little bit dissatisfying on my end. I wish we did have a little bit more direct patient care. When you're thinking globally of trying to drive towards something like biosimilars, or maybe a generic product, trying to make sure we get converted over to a generic product, it is really rewarding, especially when you can understand some of those cost implementation implications to the patient. You're trying to reduce their out of pocket costs, because financial needs are also a need of the patient.

Drug Topics: In your opinion, what are the biggest opportunities for pharmacists to expand their role in patient care in today's healthcare landscape?

Jensen: I would say any sort of background or preliminary training in informatics is going to be very impactful. There's so much data that we can leverage with our electronic health records. I don't see that changing at all. How AI plays into all of that in the future will be very interesting. I would definitely say that's an opportunity. The other thing I'll tout is just getting a revenue cycle management certification. Understanding how pharmacy revenue cycle works, how medications can drive up spending, and how monitoring how those medications are reimbursed is very important to an institution's financial solvency.

Drug Topics: How will biosimilars impact the pharmacy profession in the coming years?

Jensen: I think it's going to have a huge impact. I think there's still work to be done on both the inpatient and the outpatient and how medical and pharmacy will benefit with smoothing biosimilar transitions. We need to make sure we are making it easy for our providers to prescribe the right thing and easy for our pharmacists to be able to utilize those less costly alternatives that are covered by the patient's insurance. I think the snowball is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. We're going to have more biosimilars coming to the market. That's not changing. We just have to really get on board with figuring out what the tools are that everyone needs in their toolbox in order to facilitate easy implementation of biosimilars so that we can realize those cost savings for both insurance plans and for payers and directly for patients.

To read more from this series, visit our American Pharmacists Month resource center.

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