Skip to content
MarketScale
‹ Back to IndustriesHealthcare

At the Center of Care: How Specialty Pharmacy Aligns Patients, Providers, and Payers

Specialty pharmacy has become central to modern healthcare by coordinating care across patients, providers, and payers while managing high-cost therapies that represent over half of U.S. drug spending. The sector addresses critical challenges like financial toxicity and treatment adherence through clinical oversight, financial navigation, and emerging technologies.

This story was produced through MarketScale. See how Healthcare teams put it to work with Executive Thought Leadership.

Promoted content from I Don't Care on MarketScale.

By Kevin Stevenson · Drug PricingHealthcare StrategyManaged CarePatient Access
Share

Key takeaways

01

As healthcare costs continue to rise, more patients are finding themselves navigating not just illness, but the growing complexity of paying for treatment.

02

Specialty pharmacy sits right at the center of that challenge—often out of sight, but increasingly essential to how modern care actually works.

03

These high-cost, high-touch therapies now make up more than…

Get featured

Want to get featured in MarketScale Healthcare?

Create a free MarketScale workspace and get your company's expertise featured across our Healthcare coverage. No credit card, no demo required.

Start free

As healthcare costs continue to rise, more patients are finding themselves navigating not just illness, but the growing complexity of paying for treatment. Specialty pharmacy sits right at the center of that challenge—often out of sight, but increasingly essential to how modern care actually works. These high-cost, high-touch therapies now make up more than half of total U.S. drug spending, despite representing only a small share of prescriptions, a shift that’s reshaping how patients access and stay on treatment.

Why has specialty pharmacy become the linchpin between access, affordability, and outcomes in modern healthcare?

On this episode of I Don’t Care, host Dr. Kevin Stevenson sits down with Grant Knowles, SVP of Clinical Services and Payer Strategy at Senderra Specialty Pharmacy, to unpack the evolving role of specialty pharmacy in improving patient outcomes. Together, they explore how clinical oversight, financial navigation, and emerging technologies are reshaping how patients access and adhere to life-changing therapies.

Top insights from the talk…

  • Specialty pharmacy goes beyond dispensing medication, serving as a central coordinator across fragmented healthcare stakeholders to manage complex therapies and patient needs.
  • Financial toxicity remains one of the biggest barriers to adherence, with 23–25% of patients delaying or abandoning treatment due to cost pressures.
  • Technology and AI are transforming patient engagement, shifting communication from phone calls to digital-first experiences while maintaining critical human touchpoints.

Grant Knowles is a healthcare executive with over 15 years of experience across specialty pharmacy, managed care, and pharmaceutical operations, with expertise in business development, contracting, and supply chain strategy. He has held senior leadership roles, including SVP of Clinical Services and Payer Strategy at Senderra Specialty Pharmacy and executive positions at Ardon Health, where he led growth, operations, and industry partnerships. A managed care residency-trained pharmacist, Knowles is recognized for driving innovation, improving patient experience, and delivering sustainable growth in highly competitive healthcare markets.

Article written by MarketScale.

Featured companies

I Don't Care

Part of this channel

I Don't Care

Candid healthcare leadership conversations with Kevin Stevenson

Visit the channel

Your experts belong here

Every story in MarketScale Healthcare starts with a company putting its clinicians, service-line leaders, and field engineers on the record. Buyers are already reading this topic. The only question is whose experts they find.

Service-line buyers vet vendors quietly, and your clinicians become the proof they find while doing it.

Get your team featuredSee how it works15 minutes, straight to a calendar.

About the author

Kevin Stevenson
Kevin StevensonTop Hospital Administrator & Healthcare COO, I Don't Care

Follow Healthcare Insights

Get new expert content in your inbox.

Healthcare: are you visible to AI?

Before they reach out, Healthcare buyers ask AI engines which vendors to trust. Explore how your experts, customers, and partners can become useful content for buyers and AI search.

Free plan

You just read one Healthcare expert. Your company is full of them.

This article was produced through MarketScale. The same platform turns your clinicians, service-line leaders, and field engineers into the articles, video, and social content Healthcare buyers are searching for. Create a free workspace and see it with your own people. No credit card, no demo required.

NPS +73 · 1,000+ creators · 38+ countries

What you get, free

Your own MarketScale workspace, up to 10 people
One professional video edit a month for qualifying companies
Media requests to your crowd, remote recording, AI writing tools
$0, no credit card, nothing that expires

More Healthcare Insights

Most reprocessing audit gaps trace back to training, turnover and leadership

Most reprocessing audit gaps trace back to training, turnover and leadership

Joint Commission findings on its reprocessing standard point mostly to training, turnover, leadership and missing ownership, not sterilizers. CDC epidemiologists and a 2019 review add cleaning verification and manufacturer instructions as the steps to watch. Audit people and process steps as closely as the autoclave.

  • 01Of the Joint Commission's list of reasons hospitals miss reprocessing standard IC.02.02.01, at least eight concern people, priorities and management, so competency records and a named process owner belong in the audit as much as sterilizer logs.
  • 02A structured audit tool that scores compliance step by step, as a 2020 BMC Health Services Research study did across 189 reprocessing cycles, shows where training hours should go; the Nepal hospitals scored best on cleaning and storage and worse on the steps between.

Sep 14, 2026

From Data to Decisions: Leadership, Trust, and AI in Healthcare with Dr. Julia Rehman

Healthcare leaders often struggle to convert abundant data and AI investments into actionable decisions that improve care. Dr. Julia Rehman emphasizes that effective AI integration requires human judgment in the loop, strong governance frameworks, and frontline staff engagement, especially in resource-constrained settings.

  • 01AI should target specific operational challenges like staffing, readmissions, and bed capacity, with humans retaining decision-making authority.
  • 02Few healthcare organizations have governance structures to ensure accountability, audit trails, bias monitoring, and oversight as AI adoption accelerates.
  • 03Data richness without strategic insight and human judgment informed by experience limits the value of technology investments in healthcare.

Sep 14, 2026

Two Radiology Deals Signal Focus on Coverage, Not Scanners

Two Radiology Deals Signal Focus on Coverage, Not Scanners

Colorado Imaging Associates and TRA Medical Imaging announced Sept. 8, 2026 that they are forming Affiliated Radiology to expand physician coverage for a shared health system client, Radiology Business reported. Separately, Align Capital Partners said in late May 2026 it agreed to acquire Boise-based Heritage Imaging, a mobile diagnostic imaging provider operating in 14 states, according to Radiology Business.

  • 01Affiliated Radiology was formed by combining Colorado Imaging Associates and TRA Medical Imaging to expand physician coverage for a shared health system client.
  • 02Heritage Imaging operates mobile diagnostic units across 14 states, providing PET-CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, ultrasound and echocardiography to critical access hospitals and community clinics.
  • 03Health system sourcing teams should request service-level commitments, credentialing procedures, cross-location read routing, and PACS/RIS/EHR integration details before contracting with coverage-focused or mobile imaging arrangements.

Sep 12, 2026

Explore More Healthcare Insights

Read more expert perspectives from across Healthcare.

Browse Healthcare Hub

About the Expert

Kevin Stevenson
Kevin Stevenson

Top Hospital Administrator & Healthcare COO

I Don't Care

For B2B teams

Your experts could be publishing here

Stories like this one run on content MarketScale captures from real practitioners. See how your team's expertise becomes coverage in Healthcare and beyond.

Book a 15-minute demo

Or call us. No forms required. We pick up. 214-945-2512