Allyson Moellenhoff, Director of Product Marketing at Kalderos Shares Insights on a New Portal Designed for Drug Manufacturers

Shots:

Allyson gave a brief overview of Kalderos and spoke about a new portal designed for drug manufacturers to provide a more efficient way to process drug discount claims
She also elaborated on how this Drug Discount Management platform will help drug manufacturers to organize their discounts by taking this data out of Excel spreadsheets and streamlining it all into one place to organize and standardize it
The interview shows Kaderos’s vision to bring clarity and transparency through its first Drug Discount Management platform, simplifying drug discount program compliance for all stakeholders

Smriti: To start with, would you please give our readers at PharmaShots a brief overview of Kalderos (its history, journey, vision, etc.)

Allyson Moellenhoff: Kalderos was founded in 2016 by Jeremy Docken, our chief strategy officer. We build technological solutions to tackle systemic problems in healthcare. As part of that mission, we have created the world’s first Drug Discount Management platform. Our platform helps ensure transparency between all stakeholders in the drug discount ecosystem, such as covered entities (CEs), drug manufacturers, and state payers.

We’ve grown dramatically since 2019, securing two rounds of funding that have been used to further develop our platform and fuel our growth strategy. In just a few years, the Kalderos platform has had a major impact on the industry, with more than 4,250 CEs onboarded, 850,000 Medicaid and commercial claims reviewed, $675 million in noncompliance identified, and CEs in all 50 states responding to inquiries.

Last year, we launched Discount Hub as part of Kalderos for Covered Entities and welcomed a new CEO, healthcare technology veteran Brent Dover, to guide the company as we accelerate growth and sales.

Smriti: Shed some light on your Drug Discount Management platform, Kalderos for Manufacturers.

Allyson Moellenhoff: Our Drug Discount Management platform supports all the solutions we have built for the stakeholders in our ecosystem. One of those product suites is Kalderos for Manufacturers, a web-based suite of tools for pharmaceutical companies that sits on top of the Drug Discount Management platform. The Kalderos for Manufacturer’s product suite includes Medicaid Discount Rebate Program (MDRP) Monitoring, Commercial Discount Monitoring, and 340B Pay solutions.

Smriti: How does this platform ensure a simplified and more efficient way to process drug discount claims?

Allyson Moellenhoff: Many drug discount programs are mandated by statute or rule at the federal level, so generally there’s a 30-day window for Medicaid rebates within which the manufacturer has to either pay the invoice or dispute the invoice and pay less. It’s really challenging for manufacturers to make those determinations within 30 days because of the sheer volume of prescriptions written in the U.S. every day. Drug manufacturers typically organize their discounts through Excel spreadsheets, manually scrub them, and try to find noncompliance through automated rules. This is an arduous process that takes a lot of time and resources.

Generally what manufacturers do is what we euphemistically call ‘pay and chase.’ They’ll pay the invoice even if they can’t manually reconcile it within 30 days. But if the manufacturers eventually determine they paid on noncompliant discounts, they must try to recover the money that's already been paid to the state. This can be very hard to do.

Our platform helps drug manufacturers take this data out of Excel spreadsheets and other disparate data sources, streamline it all into one place, and organize and standardize it. The platform can acquire and apply customized business logic through our data engine to these drug discounts, at scale, in a timely fashion. From there, users view their data in our platform through an easy-to-use interface and take action on claims as they see fit. Thus, we’re providing our drug manufacturer clients with an opportunity to make an accurate determination inside the 30-day window.

Smriti: Highlight the key benefits of the Kalderos platform, which includes the Kalderos for Manufacturer’s product suite. What makes this platform a ground-breaking alternative for drug manufacturers vs the existing systems?

Allyson Moellenhoff: We are a technology-first platform. Many other vendors are holding workflows together with manual processes and people. We fill those gaps with technology that saves time and resources. Kalderos works with all stakeholders in the drug discount process to ensure transparency to all players. We work with CEs, state payers, and drug manufacturers to provide everyone with transparent data throughout their processes.

Smriti: For those who would want to participate and benefit from this platform, what is the process to access this drug discount program?

Allyson Moellenhoff: Drug discount programs are implemented either through government policy or contracts with pharmacy benefit managers. Kalderos does not control access to drug discount programs. If a CE, state payer, or drug manufacturer wants to work with Kalderos, they merely have to reach out. We have specialized teams dedicated to helping each drug discount stakeholder group.

Smriti: Give us some insights on Kalderos commercialization plans for the Drug Discount Management platform. What are the geographical locations where your company plans on commercializing this platform?

Allyson Moellenhoff: We currently provide a drug discount platform only in the U.S. That’s because the regulations we created for our platform are U.S.-specific. I wouldn’t want to speculate about other markets at this point.

Smriti: How does this platform eventually going to benefit the end user i.e., patients?

Allyson Moellenhoff: Drug discounts are confusing and hard to track, and the programs for them are expanding every year, which also means noncompliance is growing. Data silos, broken infrastructure and dated technology have led to program dysfunction and fractured trust among stakeholders. Navigating the challenges drains time and financial resources that should instead be spent supporting patients. By ensuring that these funds are used in the right way through a transparent system, patients can get the resources meant for them.

Our platform also has an impact on patients by helping to prevent drug price increases. When pharmaceutical companies conclude they’re losing 10% to 25% of forecasted net revenues in drug discount programs, their natural impulse is to raise drug prices. And that hurts all patients down the road.

Further, if you look at the actual beneficiaries of many of these drug discount programs, they are healthcare providers in underserved communities, either in rural areas or large urban county hospitals. Those discounts help providers in underserved communities keep their doors open. That has a huge impact on patients.

Image source: Canva

About the Author:

Allyson Moellenhoff is the Director of Product Marketing at Kalderos. She has more than eight years of experience in product marketing at B2B technology companies. Moellenhoff specializes in helping companies refine their stories and advance their go-to-market strategies. She did her Bachelor of Science in Business and Marketing and Business Administration and Management from the University of Minnesota.