Tapping Former Payer Decision Makers Brings Unrivaled Insights to Clients

 January 5, 2017 – New York, NY – Precision for Value, the market leader in supporting global pharmaceutical and life sciences companies in demonstrating the value and outcomes of innovative medical products, today announced major additions to its Payer Strategy Team with the hiring and promotion of several key executives.

Addressing the pharmaceutical industry’s urgent need to leverage real-world market insights in response to growing government and payer scrutiny over drug pricing and access, Precision for Value (Precision) has strategically assembled an industry-leading team of former payer decision makers with a direct understanding of the evolving drug marketplace, as well as strong ties to their current industry counterparts. By understanding how payers measure value and the supporting evidence, Precision has helped dozens of clients secure desired levels of market access for their innovative medical treatments.

“We are very excited to continue to add to our growing Payer Strategy Team, a highly differentiating aspect of our service model for years,” said Dan Renick, president, Precision for Value. “As the market continues to evolve, Precision is keeping pace, growing quickly worldwide to meet the needs of our clients. Our new additions and executive promotions build upon Precision’s depth of payer experience and industry knowledge that adds unrivaled experience to our team and directly benefits our clients.”

Further background on each team member is detailed below.

Jeremy Schafer, PharmD, MBA, was recently promoted to senior vice president of specialty solutions. In his new role, Jeremy is responsible for enterprise leadership on specialty strategy across the payer team organization and integration with other enterprise groups, including health economics and outcomes research, provider marketing, access and analytics, and media outreach. He has more than 10 years of experience in specialty pharmacy programs and networks, pharmacy and therapeutics committee processes and review, fee schedule management, and pharmacy benefit migration.

Before joining Precision, Jeremy served as a corporate account manager for Grifols. Prior to his time there, he spent over seven years at Prime Therapeutics, one of the five largest pharmacy benefit managers, where he held a variety of leadership roles in formulary, utilization management, and specialty pharmacy.

Jeremy has published original research and market insight pieces in such publications as the Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy, Life Science Leader, Clinical Pathways, and Pharmaceutical Commerce. He is a regular presenter at industry meetings, including AMCP and ARMADA.

Andrew Cournoyer, RPh, MBA, was recently promoted to vice president, strategic services. Andrew brings 15 years of experience within the managed care payer industry, working primarily with integrated health plans on the regional level and national level.

Before joining Precision, Andrew served as senior director of formulary and utilization management for Aetna Medicare, where he was responsible for leading clinical strategy, development, and end-to-end administration of drug formularies across all lines of business. Within this role, Andrew created formulary value propositions, interfaced with internal and external sales teams, and served as business owner for various key decision-making and governance committees.

Prior to his time at Aetna, Andrew worked at Cigna and Tufts Health Plan in a variety of areas, including commercial formulary management, value-add program creation, and specialty drug management.

Savitha Vivian, PharmD, has joined the Precision team as vice president, formulary access solutions. She brings more than 15 years of experience within the managed care payer industry to her new position, working with all lines of business, including commercial, Medicare, Medicaid, and health exchanges.

Previously, Savitha served as the senior director of clinical utilization management at OptumRx (formerly Catamaran), where she was the internal and external corporate clinical expert for all drug utilization management–related activities, including overall enterprise strategy, clinical development, and end-to-end operational capabilities for both specialty and nonspecialty drugs. In this role, Savitha also participated as business owner for various key decision-making and governance committees regarding formulary and clinical program strategy.

Prior to her time at OptumRx, Savitha worked at CVS Caremark and gained extensive experience in a variety of areas, including the pharmacy and therapeutics committee review process, drug pipeline surveillance, and drug trend management.

 About Precision for Value’s Payer Strategy Team
Precision for Value’s Payer Strategy Team is an internal consulting group of former payers who use their real-life experiences to develop more relevant ways to demonstrate and communicate value, assisting clients in making critical market access decisions. The Payer Strategy Team consists of three primary disciplines: Formulary Access Solutions, Specialty Solutions, and Quality and Population Health Solutions.

About Precision for Value
Precision for Value supports commercial excellence for global pharmaceutical and life sciences clients through the demonstration and communication of product value and outcomes. The Precision for Value teams provide clients with services grounded in decades of industry knowledge, demonstrated analytics proficiency, and marketing and communications prowess—making Precision for Value the preferred strategic partner in the industry. Visit www.precisionforvalue.com for more information.

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Media Contact
Louis Landon, Precision for Value Media Relations
310-984-7707
louis.landon@precisionhealtheconomics.com