WCPC Meeting 2025: The Evolving Landscape of Specialty Pharmacy: Trends, Challenges, and Health-System Strategies

October 2, 2025

In this educational activity, learners will explore current specialty pharmacy spending trends and their financial impact on health-system pharmacy budgets. The session will examine the unique distribution challenges of self-administered specialty medications and how evolving payer policies—such as 340B restrictions, white bagging practices, and vertical integration—are reshaping access and operations. Participants will also identify innovative strategies and emerging opportunities to optimize specialty pharmacy services, enhance patient access, and improve financial performance within their organizations.

Target Audience

  • Pharmacists
  • Other Healthcare Professionals

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this activity, pharmacists should be able to:  
  • Evaluate the latest specialty pharmacy spending trends and implications for health-system pharmacy budgets.
  • Distinguish key characteristics and challenges associated with the distribution of self-administered specialty medications.
  • Analyze the influence of evolving payer policies (e.g., 340B, white bagging, vertical integration) on specialty pharmacy access and operations.
  • Identify innovative strategies and emerging opportunities for health-systems to optimize their specialty pharmacy services and financial performance.
Course summary
Available credit: 
  • 1.00 ACPE Pharmacist
  • 1.00 General CE - Attendance
Course opens: 
10/02/2025
Course expires: 
12/01/2025
Event starts: 
10/02/2025 - 11:00am CDT
Event ends: 
10/02/2025 - 12:00pm CDT
Add to calendar: 
Dallas, TX
United States

FACULTY & PLANNERS

Faculty
Jeni Hayes, PharmD, MS, BCPS
Senior Clinical Manager, Market Intelligence & Forecasting
Vizient, Inc.
Planners

Elizabeth Dowell, PharmD
Sr. Project Manager, Pharmacy Aggregation Groups
ExcelerateRx
Vizient, Inc.

Samantha Gordon, MS 
CE Programs Manager              
Vizient, Inc.

Marilu Kelly, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, CHCP
Director, Continuing Education       
Vizient, Inc.

DISCLOSURE

As an accredited provider of continuing education, Vizient, Inc. is dedicated to ensuring this activity presents learners with only accurate, balanced, scientifically justified recommendations, and is free from promotion, marketing, and commercial bias. In accordance with The Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, all planners, faculty, and others in control of the educational content have disclosed the absence or existence of all financial relationships (of any dollar amount) with ineligible companies within the past 24 months.
 
Ineligible companies – those companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
 
It is Vizient’s policy that owners and employees of ineligible companies, and any individuals who refuse to disclose the absence or existence of financial relationships with any ineligible companies are disqualified from participating as planners or faculty.
 
Disclosure Statements
 
Absence of Relevant Financial Relationships
 
None of the planners, faculty, or others in a position to control content for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
 
Statement of Content Validity
Vizient, Inc. educational activities are intended to assist healthcare teams advance their professional responsibilities in accordance with the definition of continuing education. It is the policy of Vizient, Inc. to review and ensure that all content and recommendations for patient care within accredited CE is evidenced-based, based on current science and clinical reasoning while ensuring the content is fair and balanced. All recommendations must conform to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Vizient, Inc. does not permit accredited continuing education if it advocates for unscientific approaches to diagnosis or therapy, or if the education promotes recommendations, treatment, or manners of practicing healthcare that are determined to have risks or dangers that outweigh the benefits or are known to be ineffective in the treatment of patients.
 
FDA Off-Label Use
 
Faculty presenters are also expected to disclose any discussion of (1) off-label or investigational uses of FDA approved commercial products or devices or (2) products or devices not yet approved in the United States.
 
Disclaimer
The education provided through this activity is for continuing education purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in this activity are those of the faculty/presenters and do not necessarily reflect the views of Vizient, Inc.

Joint Accreditation Statement

In support of improving patient care, Vizient, Inc. is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

 

 
Designation Statement(s)
 
Pharmacists (CPE)
 
Vizient, Inc. designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 contact hours for pharmacists.
 
Universal Activity Number: JA0006103-0000-25-095-L03-P
 
Other Healthcare Professionals (General CE Credit)
 
Vizient, Inc. will award all other healthcare professionals who successfully complete the activity a Certificate of Participation. Various state license boards and credentialing bodies accept certificates of participation from accredited CE activities to meet CE requirements for license renewals and re-certification. It is the responsibility of the participant to contact their state licensing board and/or certifying body for verification on credit eligibility reciprocity.

Available Credit

  • 1.00 ACPE Pharmacist
  • 1.00 General CE - Attendance
Please login or register to take this course.

 

Select the “Obtain Credit” button to access the activity evaluation and to claim CE Credit.
 
Please Note: 
  • If the "Register/Take Course" tab is displayed instead of the "Obtain Credit" tab, you must first login to proceed with the credit claim process.
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Please click here to enter the code you received at the end of the activity to verify your attendance if you have not already done so: https://continuingeducation.vizientinc.com/code

 

 

Required Hardware/software

 

The Vizient CE Learner Portal is compatible with most modern web browsers (such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari) and can also be accessed with mobile devices.