Another year, another virtual National CooperativeRx Annual Meeting! Although we were disappointed to miss out on seeing our members and partners in person again, we are impressed with our turnout of 250 attendees and pleased to have delivered the same high-quality, informative keynote presentations our audience has always been accustomed to.
Mark O’Connell, our Board chair, kicked off the morning by giving an update on our Board members. Don Graham was officially reelected to another three-year term. Board members Valarie Wunderlich and Joy Matthews announced their retirement from our Board, having each reached the limit of two consecutive terms.
Josh Bindl, CEO, followed by highlighting our 2020 trend and COVID-19 dynamics, revealing that 12.4% of National CooperativeRx participant lives 16 years or older have been partially or fully vaccinated. Josh then went on to discuss our new pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) contract which begins January 1, 2022 (with an early adoption option of October 1, 2021) and specialty medication strategies. He concluded by highlighting state policy changes and thanking our audience for their continued partnership.
Our first keynote was John Barlament, partner at Quarles & Brady LLP, who gave an update on benefits law and new compliance obligations for plan sponsors, PBMs and third-party administrators. He also discussed the Biden administration’s immediate actions regarding policy and transparency regulations.
Concluding our Annual Meeting was Chief Clinical Research Officer at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health/UW Health Elizabeth Nugent, who enlightened attendees on COVID-19 treatment and prevention clinical trials and what we have learned from them. The future of the virus was also discussed, as she proposed what scenarios may look like concerning long-term immunity of those vaccinated, the idea of booster shots, and how vaccines impact community spread.
We have already received a lot of positive feedback from the event:
- Fantastic meeting! I really enjoyed Ms. Nugent’s presentation. Overall, this was very informative and a great use of my time.
- This was an excellent meeting. I learned a great deal of very useful data.
- Thank you! Another job well done! I appreciate all National CooperativeRx does for my company and our families.
Thank you all for attending our second virtual Annual Meeting and fingers crossed we can meet in person next year!
