At this year’s Asembia AXS25 conference, we hosted a dynamic conversation focused on collaborative solutions to our nation’s affordability crisis. Moderated by our Co-Founder and CEO Srulik Dvorsky, the panel included leading voices from across the healthcare ecosystem, including Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy, Pfizer, MetroHealth, and Pink Fund.
The panelists explored what it takes to build a truly connected affordability network–one that reduces barriers to care and delivers value to all impacted parties.
Here were our top takeaways:
1. Affordability isn’t a one-stakeholder problem.
Affordability challenges are systemic and impact every stakeholder. As Srulik Dvorsky noted in his opening remarks, patients often fall through the cracks between siloed solutions. “At the end of the day, the patient is lost,” he said.
Unless we create an interconnected effort, patients will continue to face barriers to care. That’s why a network-driven approach is essential—one where providers, pharmacies, life science companies, and other parties join forces to streamline access to financial resources.
2. Financial toxicity is a grade-four side effect.
Molly MacDonald, a cancer survivor and founder of Pink Fund, underscored the urgency of addressing affordability at the clinical level. After her own early-stage cancer diagnosis and job loss, she faced foreclosure in just three months.
“Patients aren’t being screened for financial burden at diagnosis,” she said. “By the time they’re not showing up for a chemo treatment or not picking up their prescription, it’s already a post-mortem analysis.”
She compared the financial pressure many patients experience to a game of Jenga. With each challenge—from loss of income to high copays—a block is removed from the tower, which “rocks the foundation of [patients’] lives.” “What we’re trying to do together is put scaffolding around the family and the patient, so the tower doesn’t collapse,” she said.
It’s a vivid reminder that treatment cost isn’t a separate issue; it’s structurally tied to health outcomes.
3. Technology enables scale, speed, and patient impact.
For healthcare organizations managing high volumes and limited staff, technology has become essential. Ebony McCroskey, Supervisor of Ambulatory Pharmacy at MetroHealth, shared how her team used automation to reduce the time it takes to process a prior authorization.
“Our next step to closing that affordability gap was to implement our financial navigation solution to proactively identify patients who are eligible for assistance programs,” she explained.
By automating and expediting program enrollment, the platform allows the MetroHealth pharmacy team to redirect their time towards patients. This includes following up to ensure patients are staying on therapy, managing side effects, and reenrolling in financial resources as needed.
4. Affordability goes beyond copays. Support needs are complex.
As Tracey James, COO of Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy, emphasized, affordability is more than just medication costs. “Can they store the medication? Do they even have electricity? Do they need nutritional support?” she asked.
She explained how the Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy team helps patients holistically, connecting them to a variety of resources to address their needs. This whole-person approach helps improve adherence and builds trust with patients facing overwhelming barriers.
5. Policy changes create uncertainty.
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) included provisions, such as the $2,000 Medicare Part D cap, that are expected to ease cost burdens for many. But there’s still uncertainty.
Srulik Dvorsky noted that foundation funding decreased significantly last year, “leaving many more patients behind.”
Ebony McCroskey added that the changing healthcare landscape creates challenges for patients as well as safety-net providers like MetroHealth. In the current climate, she noted the importance of “leveraging affordability resources so that the organization can realign their internal charities to [meet] other patient needs.”
6. Payers play a role in the affordability network.
While the panel did not focus heavily on payers, the discussion made clear that health plans are a crucial part of the affordability puzzle. Prior authorization processes, formulary access, and cost-sharing design all impact whether and when a patient starts therapy.
As the healthcare system moves toward value-based care, payer participation in coordinated affordability strategies will be essential, especially when it comes to reducing delays and improving adherence.
7. Trust starts with listening and local connection.
Both Pfizer and Walgreens highlighted the importance of embedding within communities. Whether through partnerships with patient advocacy groups, local nonprofits, or care teams, building trust is key to driving impact.
For example, Tracey James spoke about the work of Walgreens’ community-based pharmacies: “Our teams really take care of every patient that crosses our door, putting their needs front and center … That pharmacist, that technician, that financial assistance individual—they become the families of these members.”
8. Treatments save lives. Partnerships make access possible.
All panelists agreed: Addressing affordability can no longer be seen as a supplemental service or a “nice-to-have.” It directly affects outcomes and health equity. And it’s not only about helping patients. Organizations also benefit when patients stay on therapy and avoid abandonment, nonadherence, and delays.
Marianne Gandee, VP of Oncology Patient Solutions & Alliances, highlighted the importance of partnerships to ensure breakthrough treatments are accessible: “It’s going to take this network of us trying to un-silo how we work together so that we can continue to drive these amazing, incredible innovations that are extending people’s lives—and we are not driving people into bankruptcy as they’re trying to get those medications.”
A Comprehensive Solution
As healthcare becomes more personalized, complex, and expensive, the cost of care must be addressed head-on. Our AXS25 panel made one thing clear: no single organization—or sector—can solve affordability alone. It requires a connected, committed group of providers, pharmacies, manufacturers, patient advocates, payers, and others, supported by innovative technology and shared accountability.
“It does take a network,” Srulik Dvorsky concluded. “Being proactive, sharing data, and aligning on this important mission is what will drive change.”
