AJ Loiacono, founder and CEO of Capital Rx (Judi Health), discusses beating giant legacy pharmacy benefit managers despite having lower gross drug purchasing leverage.
Assertion Contradicted
Loiacono: Competing PBMs Faked Mandatory Federal Compensation Disclosures in 2023
“23 people needed to start reporting this information, people being pharmacy benefit managers and administrators like ourselves, Had to start reporting this information. And what we realized is people were faking it. They either weren't doing it or they were pr…”
Opinion
Loiacono: Traditional PBMs have a 'horrible conflict of interest'
“I felt this was a horrible conflict of interest. The conflict of interest is, think about it, if you're asking someone to manage your benefit plan, and the more expensive the medication, the more money they make, that doesn't sound like a recipe for good outco…”
Opinion
Loiacono: Smaller Employers Suffer From Shadier, Highly Commissioned Brokers
“The smaller the employer group, usually the shadier the broker. And what I mean by this is they're going to be like, I'm going to get paid on everything and anything. The larger the client, you start to see, I would say some professional behavior here and some…”
Insight
Loiacono: A $10M ARR startup is nothing in consolidated healthcare markets
“Healthcare is highly consolidated. CVS, Cigna, and United Healthcare. Three publicly traded companies, all of which are I'm gonna say Fortune eight, Fortune 10, Fortune 14, respectively, in that range. And so when you're battling with titans, yeah, ten million…”
Assertion Partly supported
Loiacono: Traditional PBMs Charge Hundreds of Different Prices for Same Drug
“You know, so if a traditional pharmacy benefit manager, someone we compete with, they'll have hundreds of different prices for the same drug, same day, same pharmacy for different customers.”
Insight
Loiacono: Screen for mission alignment by awaiting unprompted healthcare grievances from candidates
“Can't ask. You just avoid it. They have to bring it up. And if they bring it up, and the other and to this logic string is, and they shared something personal. Like, I have witnessed how bad healthcare is. Let me tell you why. Odds are, this is personal. They …”