Episode 5: AI and Automation Perspectives in 340B: A Conversation with Plenful’s Joy Liu, Founder & CEO and Tim L’Hommedieu, Senior Vice President of Pharmacy

As you may know, 340B Report now has two podcasts. In addition to Inside 340B Report—a twice monthly podcast featuring conversations between our editorial team on the latest 340B news developments—we launched a business focused podcast called 340B 360° earlier this year. We are excited to announce that we are changing the name of the business podcast to 340B Leaders Upfront. The new name more accurately reflects the podcast’s purpose of showcasing conversations with industry executives who are at the cutting edge of innovation and leadership in the 340B space.

In our latest episode of 340B Leaders Upfront, host Anna Mangum sits down with Joy Liu, founder and CEO of Plenful, and Tim L’Hommedieu, Plenful’s senior vice president of pharmacy. Built to automate healthcare’s most manual, fragmented workflows, Plenful streamlines a diverse range of complex processes. Plenful's Agentic Platform offers end-to-end solutions for leading healthcare organizations including 340B Optimization, Intake Authorization and more.

Key Topics Covered:

From Healthcare Operations to the C-Suite

Joy and Tim describe the progression of their careers from operational roles in health care systems, including specialty pharmacy, to executive leadership posts with Plenful. Joy shares a personal story about serving as a patient advocate for a family member, witnessing firsthand the challenges of navigating specialty pharmacy. At Shields Healthcare Solutions, she helped implement 340B specialty pharmacy programs and gained exposure to workflow inefficiencies. Tim, a third-generation pharmacist, discusses his experiences in 340B, starting in pediatric and other hospital and healthcare system settings, and later, at firms focused on leveraging automation and AI to improve efficiencies and patient outcomes.

AI in Pharmacy and 340B

Joy outlines Plenful’s focus of reducing operational inefficiencies and powering a better health care system for all. Plenful believes that administrative workflows are a major area for optimization and growth, especially for the AI technology that they are building. Joy discusses three key areas where Plenful creates value: 1) time and cost savings, especially in administrative workflows; 2) increasing revenue, margin, and/or capacity expansion, which is highly relevant in maximizing 340B savings; and 3) institutional knowledge and ensuring that a covered entity's specific nuances, such as in 340B, are housed in one platform that can handle that complexity at scale.

340B Audit and Optimization Suite

Tim describes Plenful’s 340B Audit and Optimization Suite, which includes automation and AI solutions to perform compliance audits, access savings opportunities, capture referrals and meet government and manufacturer reporting requirements. Plenful also offers a tool to enable effective claims reconciliation in the forthcoming 340B rebate pilot program, and an intake authorization suite that is particularly relevant to 340B providers responding to contract pharmacy restrictions.

Selecting AI Vendors

Tim outlines what to look for in AI vendors, stressing the importance of connecting AI solutions for pharmacy to the organization’s overall digital transformation strategy. Among other things, he emphasizes the importance of selecting an AI partner that brings both pharmacy and healthcare expertise, as well as feedback loops that facilitate improved performance of automation and AI tools over time. 

Preparing for Emerging Challenges

Joy highlights the importance of proactively responding to the rapid pace of change in 340B, and engaging partners who understand the unique nuances, compliance requirements and other dimensions of this space. 

You can learn more about Plenful at plenful.com. You can read the article Tim references, “How to Vet AI Partners: A Pharmacy Leader’s Playbook”, here in Becker’s Hospital Review.

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