Blue Cross, 4 other Blue plans invest in Evio Pharmacy Solutions

As part of its efforts to lower the skyrocketing cost of prescription and specialty drugs, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan announced earlier this year that it’s investing in a new company called Evio Pharmacy Solutions.

The other four Blue plans investing in Evio are Blue Shield of California, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Independence Blue Cross and Highmark Health.

Evio is based in Denver, Colo., under the leadership of CEO Hank Schlissberg, an industry veteran with Michigan roots. He’s committed to improving the patient experience with pharmacy and addressing patients’ concerns around access to affordable prescription and specialty drugs to manage their complex and chronic health conditions.

Lynda Rossi, executive vice president for Strategy, Innovation and Public Affairs, will represent Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan on the Evio board of directors. Rossi and Atheer Kaddis, Blue Cross vice president for Pharmacy, with support from leaders in Health Care Value, Pharmacy and Finance, have built the foundation of this venture over the past year.

Blue Cross supports Evio’s vision to innovate to create a better experience for our individual plans’ members and providers, improve clinical outcomes and reduce the unsustainable costs of all medications.

Evio’s focus is to use real-world evidence to support a value-based model for pharmacy management, design best practice strategies for therapeutic management, build and acquire capabilities and partner with innovators in the value chain for pharmacy and specialty pharmacy.

To start, the company is working on behalf of the five investors as individual clients. At Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Evio will complement the work of our newly retained Pharmacy Benefits Manager, OptumRx, whose role will be to manage drug benefits for our customers with Blue Cross pharmacy coverage, manage drug pricing to customers, manage our retail pharmacy network and stock and deliver drugs through home delivery.

Our investment in Evio is another example of our ongoing efforts to improve health care affordability. Earlier, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan joined other Blue plans nationwide in teaming with Civica Rx to address the high cost of generic drugs.

The launch and growth of Evio further enhances our ability to provide our members with a simpler, more affordable pharmacy experience and to work with health care providers to deliver high-quality health outcomes.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.