Strengthening Health System Specialty Pharmacy Strategies with Eric Huckins, PharmD, of Lumicera Health Services, SSM Health

Summary

Podcast Summary: Strengthening Health System Specialty Pharmacy Strategies

Podcast: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Guest: Eric Huckins, PharmD, VP Pharmacy, Lumicera Health Services (SSM Health)
Host: Brian Zerman
Date: November 17, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode focuses on strategies for strengthening health system specialty pharmacy capabilities, featuring insights from Eric Huckins of Lumicera Health Services. The conversation covers current trends in specialty pharmacy, the impact of policy and financial pressures, technological innovation, the importance of partnerships, and what’s on the horizon for Lumicera and the industry.

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Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. Background and Role of Lumicera Health Services

[00:21–01:48]

• Eric Huckins describes his career and Lumicera's mission:
  • Pharmacist by training, VP of business development.
  • Lumicera is health system-owned (majority by SSM Health, with Navitus, a transparent PBM, as an owner).
  • Focused on supporting health systems nationally with specialty pharmacy services, 340B initiatives, and technology enablement.
  • “We’ve had immense growth... over $5 billion in traditional specialty spend. That’s given us the size and scale to help other health systems grow.” (B, 01:21)

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2. Industry Trends: Growth of Specialty Pharmacy and Direct-to-Consumer Models

[01:48–03:52]

• Specialty drugs dominate the pipeline, especially in infusion, cell, and gene therapy.
• Shift in patient therapies from infusions to self-injectables; Lumicera helps health systems manage the entire patient journey.
• Rise of direct-to-consumer models:
  • Transparency and cost reduction are key.
  • The patient pharmacy experience must stay at the forefront—size, scale, and payer/manufacturer relations are essential.
• “What isn’t fluff is really the pharmacy patient experience.” (B, 02:56)

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3. Navigating Policy & Financial Headwinds

[03:52–05:24]

• The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), rebate changes, and Medicaid funding shifts present major challenges.
• Few health systems are fully prepared for upcoming IRA implementation.
• Collaboration within the industry is vital:
  • Data analytics are crucial for understanding and adapting to policy impacts.
  • Lumicera provides partners with advanced analytics to anticipate effects on 340B and specialty pharmacy performance.
• “If you’re a health system and you don’t have a work group or impact analysis completed at this point of the year with the IRA coming up, you’ve got your work cut out for you.” (B, 04:30)

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4. Concrete Examples of Lumicera’s Work with Health Systems

[05:24–06:30]

• Focusing on the IRA’s MFP-priced drug list, especially three specialty products.
• Assisting health systems in deep dives on utilization, prescribers, and care team coordination.
• Preparing now for the 2026 and 2027 IRA drug lists—building lasting infrastructure for ongoing policy changes.
• “What we build now will resonate for future years as this model is really here to stay.” (B, 06:17)

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5. Technological Integration and Future Opportunities

[06:53–09:07]

• Major investments in technology interoperability and AI to streamline specialty pharmacy workflows.
• Emphasis on systems integration to prevent care fragmentation and improve patient access.
• Growth in home infusion services as boundaries blur between infused, injectable, and home care.
• Insurance complexities and benefit designs are increasing; Lumicera leverages PBM ownership to aid partner health systems.
• “AI can only do so much unless it’s integrated... That’s really where we see some of the future of letting the technology do some of the work.” (B, 07:06)
• “The lines have really blurred... at the end of the day it’s all pharmacy.” (B, 08:09)

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6. The Case for Strong Partnerships

[09:07–10:22]

• Importance of working with partners who understand health system incentives and have the necessary size and scale.
• Collaboration accelerates innovation and success.
• “To maximize success and speed to innovation, you need to find a strong partner...aligned incentives with both the health system and the patient.” (B, 09:35)
• Advocates for event networking (like Becker’s Summit) to find strategic partners.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “What isn’t fluff is really the pharmacy patient experience.” (Eric Huckins, 02:56)
• “If you’re a health system and you don’t have a work group or impact analysis completed at this point of the year with the IRA coming up, you’ve got your work cut out for you.” (Eric Huckins, 04:30)
• “What we build now will resonate for future years as this model is really here to stay.” (Eric Huckins, 06:17)
• “AI can only do so much unless it’s integrated... That’s really where we see some of the future of letting the technology do some of the work.” (Eric Huckins, 07:06)
• “To maximize success and speed to innovation, you need to find a strong partner...aligned incentives with both the health system and the patient.” (Eric Huckins, 09:35)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:21: Eric Huckins introduces himself and Lumicera’s mission.
• 02:05: Discussion on specialty pharmacy trends and direct-to-consumer models.
• 04:30: Impact of the Inflation Reduction Act and the role of analytics.
• 05:39: Real-world example of prepping for IRA’s MFP-priced drugs.
• 06:53: Technology, AI, and home infusion as future opportunities.
• 09:28: Closing thoughts on partnership and collaboration.

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Final Takeaways

• Specialty pharmacy is rapidly evolving with new therapies and business models.
• Policy changes are creating significant operational and financial pressures, requiring proactive analytics and strategy.
• Technology integration and home infusion innovations are key areas of investment and opportunity.
• Strong, philosophically aligned partnerships are essential for scaling success and maintaining patient-centric care in specialty pharmacy.
• Industry collaboration and networking are vital for shared learning and innovation.

Transcript

[A]

Hi everyone, this is Brian Zerman with Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning into the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Today we're on site live at Becker's Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit. And I'm joined by Eric Huckins, Vice President, Pharmacy, Lumicera Health Services with SSM Health. Eric, thank you for being here today.

[B]

Yeah, thanks for having me, Brad.

[A]

So to start here, let's just get some background from you for, for our listeners. Tell us about yourself, your, your professional development, your current organization, whatever you think's pertinent.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So as you mentioned, VP of business development, pharmacist by training, optimist by birth, I say I help support many of our strategic partnerships and initiatives at Lumicera, which is part of SSM Health. For those of you not aware of Lumisera, we're owned by Navitus, which is a full transparent PBM and our parent is SSM Health is the majority owner. So health system owned. And we've really been in the business of helping other health systems grow and be successful. We've got a national specialty pharmacy that helps support many clients health systems and we've had immense growth, I'd say over the last few years, over 5 billion in traditional specialty spend. And that's really just given us the opportunity to get kind of the size and scale to help other health systems grow. So yeah, we work across the country supporting health systems with 340B initiatives standing up their specialty pharmacy technology capabilities, looking at opportunities that they may be missing out on today.

[A]

Yeah, well, let's dive in and talk right about the specialty pharmacy which is obviously crucial to your growth and the work you're trying to support with your partners. Can you just talk about sort of, I guess the key trends or development at a high level you have a close eye on right now and how are they influencing the way you are partnering with organizations?

[B]

Yeah, well, specialty pipeline continues to flourish. You take a look at the drug pipeline and most of the drugs on the list are specialty. And so we're seeing a lot across the infusion space and managing high cost infusion cell and gene therapy. So we're really trying to help health systems manage some of that transition as more and more patients may start on an infusion medication, move to a self injectable. So we're really just trying to help health systems build the framework to manage that entire patient journey, whether that's from a optimizing purchasing or the site of care. And so that's been a really interesting development as the Specialty pipeline continues to grow and evolve. Secondly, the other I'd say hot topic in the industry has really been around direct to consumer. We love this concept because it's ultimately doing what Lumicera and Navitus and the health system model has been about, being transparent and removing some of those, I call them fluff with hidden fees that occur and getting down to a net lowest cost product and lowering drug spend. But what isn't fluff is really the pharmacy patient experience. And so that's our ability. Having that size scale, having that connections with payers, with manufacturers, with health systems has allowed us a seat at the table to be able to ensure that pharmacy, health system, pharmacy is there as part of these direct consumer opportunities. Because we're gonna see more of that in the future and, and we can provide a lot of value in that space.

[A]

Yeah. So a lot of exciting sort of drugs in development coming out available. That's exciting stuff. Also exciting new models, the direct to consumer that could change things and really benefit patients. But this is also. All these exciting developments are also occurring alongside some pretty significant policy and financial headwinds. The inflation reduction act, changes in rebates, in Medicaid funding. So considering those sort of headwinds, how's limocera sort of helping us, its partners strengthen their specialty pharmacy strategy and overall network integrity in an environment where there's exciting things to be doing, but some serious, serious pressure as well.

[B]

Well, if you're a health system and you don't have a work group or impact analysis completed at this point of the year with the IRA coming up, you've got your work cut out for you. I'd say the good thing is that everyone is still trying to figure out as it evolves, what it's going to look like. So we are working and developing together. That's what Becker's is. So great. Cause it's really health systems helping health systems and health system partners figuring out kind of solutions for us to be prepared for these upcoming changes. What lumisaire specifically has done with our health system partners is we're providing a lot of the data analytics to help support our health systems kind of position themselves for these upcoming changes, the impacts to 340B and really helping them make those, as I said, informed decisions using kind of the data from, from their own EMR and pharmacy dispensing platforms.

[A]

Yeah, at a high level that gives us a really good idea of the kind of work you're doing. Can we zoom in even more? Maybe there's a specific example you can share with folks to help, I guess, sort of concrete the concepts and the ideas that you threw out there in terms of the work you're doing.

[B]

Yeah, well, if you look at the IRA list, MFP price drugs, there's three specialty on there specifically for any health system that doesn't think there's going to be margin compression or cash flow issues with those products is probably living under a rock. So we've really helped kind of dive in, drill into those specifics, look at that utilization, the prescribers, and then coordinate as part of that patient care team what the impact can be, what solutions there are around that, and really kind of position themselves not only for the list that we see coming out in 2026, but fortunately we already know the list coming out in 2027. So we're already preparing and building because it's going to be very synergistic. What we build now will resonate for future years as this model is really here to stay.

[A]

Right, right. And thinking about this, and especially thinking about sort of the, the rapid growth you all have had, I guess, seems like you're probably pretty busy. Seems like you probably also have a lot to be excited about. So can you, can you share a little bit about what's on the horizon specifically for Lumisera? What opportunities are you really hoping to take advantage of in your continued work with your partners?

[B]

Yeah, well, we've got continued technology enablement and interoperability. The age of AI is upon us and the pace is only going to pick up. But AI can only do so much unless it's integrated, you know, And Lubasera has made some major innovations, investments in ensuring that the systems can talk to each other and work together. And that's really where we see some of the future of letting the technology do some of the work with specialty because there's so many great products, solutions, innovative ways to make the process more efficient, improve patient access. But unless they're talking together, working together and really focused around that pharmacy patient care team, it can become fragmented pretty quick. So that's really. Lubacera has done a ton in investing to make sure that we have ways for our technologies to talk with one another. Probably the other major piece that we're really excited about coming up is our home infusion solutions. We really been expanding as the lines have really blurred. Whether it's infused product, that's patients moving to self injectables, to patients that need a home infusion due to site of care, the lines have blurred, which is great because at the end of the Day it's all pharmacy. And Lumisar has always been working upstream to find ways to improve that transition to care and make sure patients aren't lost in the process. Insurance is only going to get more complicated with these high cost products coming out. The direct to consumer piece adds other variables. So benefits plans are really trying to take a look at, you know, how can they optimize different benefit designs to ensure that there's cost containment. And because of our partnership, our ownership with a pbm, we have some really interesting perspectives that can help health systems prepare for some of those upcoming changes that that plans are making. And infusion is a big, big component of that.

[A]

Yeah, it seems like you're uniquely positioned here to sort of slot into the various, I guess, attributes of this current moment with specialty pharmacy and some of those headwinds and make a big difference for your partner. So that's exciting stuff. Is there anything we didn't get to touch on final thoughts you want to share? Maybe something you want to reemphasize before we, we, we let you go?

[B]

Oh, well, coming out of health system pharmacy and helping kind of live the day to day to specialty pharmacies. I know health systems can do it alone, but I've also learned the hard way that to maximize success and speed to innovation, you need to find a strong partner. You need a partner that can align with you philosophically, that understands health systems structured in a way that aligns incentives with, with both the health system and the patient and also has the size and scale to impact some of that change. So if you don't have, if you're a health system and don't have that partner by your side today, Reach Out Beckers is such a great meeting. As I said earlier, it's partners and organizations, health systems helping each other and there's a lot of those partners here that we can rely on and help help each other.

[A]

Excellent. Well Eric, we'll leave it there. Thank you so much for your time.

[B]

Yeah, I really appreciate you giving me the time. Thanks.

[A]

Thank you. And we also want to thank Lumicera Health Services for sponsoring today's episode. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and look forward to having you tune in for future episodes.