Miranda Yeager, Chief Client Officer at Gateway Health Partners, has followed a unique career path in the field of pharmacy. Armed with a pharmacy degree, she pursued a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Policy and Evaluative Sciences to gain a deeper understanding of how prescription drugs impact patient outcomes and overall health economics. This non-traditional pathway for pharmacists reflects her commitment to exploring diverse aspects of the pharmaceutical field. 

Throughout her career, Miranda has had the privilege of learning from talented professionals across different roles and organizations. Early in her career, she worked as a sales representative with GSK (then Glaxo), where she gained fundamental insights into professionalism that have been valuable throughout her journey. 

Miranda’s career trajectory has taken her through various roles and industries related to pharmacy management. She has worked with health plans, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and now at Gateway Health Partners, where she serves as the Chief Client Officer. This diverse experience has provided her with a comprehensive understanding of the needs and dynamics of both clients and solutions providers in the managed pharmacy space. 

Miranda’s ability to work on both sides of the client-provider relationship has shaped her approach to service, allowing her to navigate the complexities of the industry effectively. Her career journey reflects a commitment to continuous learning and a dedication to making a positive impact in the field of pharmacy and healthcare. 

Tailoring Client Services 

Miranda emphasizes the importance of taking a personalized and client-centric approach in her role at Gateway Health Partners. Understanding each client’s unique business, goals, challenges, and the motivations of the individuals involved is essential. She emphasizes that there is no one-size-fits-all solution in the world of client service. Instead, it’s about tailoring, customizing, or even creating solutions that align with the specific needs and objectives of the client organization and its people. 

For Gateway Health Partners, this approach means supporting the client’s formulary rather than pushing them toward a standard formulary. It involves finding ways to accommodate client requests by leveraging the tools and in-house processes that have been developed. 

Miranda highlights that tailoring client services doesn’t necessarily mean starting from scratch with something entirely new. It’s more like combining existing elements, much like creating a new recipe from ingredients already on hand. In the business context, having a well-rounded team with diverse experiences, service styles, and personalities, as well as flexibility in data management, enables greater adaptability in meeting client needs. 

Her unique perspective as both a solutions partner and a client has been instrumental in her role. Miranda’s experience on the receiving end of one-size-fits-all solutions has informed her approach to training her team. They focus not only on understanding the basic questions but also the underlying reasons behind those questions. This comprehensive understanding leads to more targeted and complete answers, ultimately improving communication and building trust with clients. 

Building Strong Client Relationships 

Miranda emphasizes the critical importance of trust, predictability, and transparency in building and maintaining strong client relationships. These qualities should be deeply embedded in the organization’s culture, becoming an integral part of its service mentality rather than mere taglines or slogans. 

• Trust: Trust is the foundation of any successful client relationship. Clients need to have confidence that their partners are experts in their field, committed to honoring their commitments, and genuinely prioritizing the client’s best interests. 
• Predictability: Clients should be able to rely on their partners to consistently deliver a high level of service, every time. Predictability ensures that clients can count on receiving the same quality and standard of service consistently. 
• Transparency: Open and transparent communication is key. Clients should not be left with vague answers or “because I said so” responses. Instead, partners should be willing to explain the rationale behind their recommendations and provide clients with enough information to validate those recommendations. Transparency builds understanding and trust. 

Miranda’s perspective underscores the idea that these qualities should not be superficial but deeply ingrained in the organization’s culture. When every employee understands the importance of these attributes and incorporates them into their everyday activities, it creates a strong foundation for lasting client relationships based on trust, predictability, and transparency. 

Tailoring Client Services in Healthcare 

Miranda’s approach to tailoring client services in the healthcare business highlights the importance of understanding the unique needs and characteristics of each client type. It involves investing time and effort to learn and educate others about the specific requirements and differences between various client categories, such as health plans, pharmacy benefits managers, large employers, hospice, workers’ compensation groups, and long-term care clients. 

Key elements of this approach include: 

• Client-Centric Approach: Rather than trying to fit different client types into a one-size-fits-all service model, the focus is on leveraging available information about each client and their specific business needs. 
• Continuous Training: Teams are equipped to handle varying client types through a combination of in-house experts and external consultants who provide training on different lines of business. 
• Stay Informed: Staying updated on clients is crucial. This involves following clients on platforms like LinkedIn, setting up Google alerts to track news related to them, subscribing to industry news sources, and engaging in discussions with peers in the industry. 
• Client Relationship Management: Devoting time at the beginning of each client relationship to thoroughly map out their requirements and expectations is essential.  

By adopting these practices, Gateway Health Partners ensures that its services are highly tailored to meet the specific demands of each client category, fostering stronger, more enduring client relationships based on a deep understanding of their unique requirements. 

Strengthening Client Relationships 

Miranda’s experience at Gateway Health Partners showcases the significance of maintaining strong client relationships and actively supporting clients in their growth endeavors. Miranda acknowledges that managing the unexpected is a common challenge in any industry, and how organizations respond to these challenges can make a significant difference. She highlights two instances where clients decided to end their relationships with Gateway in pursuit of different contracting strategies for rebate management. However, in both cases, these clients returned to Gateway within a year because they did not receive the value they expected from others. This experience underscores the importance of maintaining relationships and providing quality service even in challenging situations. 

In these instances, the close relationship with a PBM client played a crucial role in addressing a competitive challenge and enhancing the client’s proposal.  

This experience highlights the importance of open communication, responsive support, collaborative problem-solving, and providing customized solutions. It also demonstrates the value-added partnership that can strengthen client relationships and foster long-term loyalty. Overall, actively engaging with clients, listening to their feedback, and working collaboratively to address challenges can lead to improved solutions and successful outcomes, ultimately benefiting both the client and the service provider. 

Staying Informed and Proactive in Healthcare 

Miranda’s approach to staying informed and proactive in the dynamic healthcare industry emphasizes the importance of maintaining a robust professional network. Instead of solely relying on publications or conferences, she actively engages in regular conversations with former colleagues who occupy various roles within the healthcare sector. These discussions provide valuable insights into industry trends, emerging challenges, and the priorities of different healthcare companies. 

In addition to her network, Miranda keeps a close eye on federal and state regulations, collaborating closely with her legal team to stay updated on regulatory developments. This proactive approach allows her to be well-prepared to support clients as regulations evolve and ensures that they can meet reporting requirements imposed by government agencies. 

By combining insights from her network and legal expertise, Miranda can offer informed guidance to clients and remain agile in addressing the ever-changing landscape of healthcare regulations and industry trends. This approach underscores the value of staying connected and being proactive in a complex and highly regulated industry like healthcare. 

Significance of Effective Communication 

Miranda’s communication philosophy revolves around directness, timeliness, and customization to effectively address the needs of clients and colleagues. She emphasizes that being vague, delaying conversations, or withholding information for power plays is not a productive approach to communication. Instead, she believes in open and transparent communication to build trust and collaboration. 

Customizing communication styles to suit the preferences of both individuals and organizations is a key practice. This involves considering whether a phone call or email is more suitable for a particular audience and recognizing when a phone call is more appropriate than a text message. Ad-hoc phone calls are seen as complementary to regularly scheduled meetings, ensuring that important information is conveyed promptly rather than waiting for the next formal interaction. 

Moreover, Miranda’s proactive approach extends to internal communication within her organization. She initiated bi-weekly meetings involving all Gateway departments to address and resolve client issues collaboratively. This practice ensures that decisions are made with input from all stakeholders, preventing the kinds of issues that can arise when decisions are made in isolation. It promotes alignment and a shared commitment to delivering high-quality service to clients. 

Insights from Miranda 

Before joining Gateway, Miranda faced the challenge of instilling a client service mindset throughout the organization, extending beyond client-facing teams. Without this mindset, it could be difficult to proactively address client needs or provide complete and accurate responses to their questions. At Gateway, the company culture is intentionally built to prioritize individuals who are deeply committed to delivering quality client service and who embrace collaboration. The hiring process focuses on finding people who are creative problem solvers and process improvers in addition to their dedication to client success. 

Building Trust in Client Partnerships 

Miranda emphasizes the importance of building trust in client partnerships and underscores that trust is something that must be earned. She advises against assuming that a title or position automatically conveys authority but instead encourages demonstrating trustworthiness through actions and behavior. This includes proving one’s expertise while also helping others shine and being open, direct, and proactive in interactions. 

Miranda also stresses the value of deepening knowledge in one’s field of expertise while also gaining a surface-level understanding of adjacent disciplines. Regularly reaching out to clients and contacts, rather than waiting for them to initiate contact, can also strengthen relationships. 

Lastly, maintaining a composed demeanor, even in challenging situations, is highlighted as a defining characteristic. Taking a moment to organize thoughts before speaking can be valuable. Treating others with respect is crucial for preserving mutual respect and fostering future collaboration and partnerships. 

Gateway’s Vision 

Miranda expresses excitement about Gateway’s future and its commitment to offering more comprehensive services for clients. The goal is to maintain Gateway’s position as the largest independent provider of pharmacy management services in the industry. As the market continues to evolve, the company is focused on leveraging new opportunities to advance as a pure pharmacy management cost containment solutions provider. 

Building trusted partnerships will remain a top priority, and Gateway aims to uphold its three pillars: Clarity, Insights, and Expertise. The company’s agility will enable it to continue serving as a growth engine for clients as they seek to cater to their target markets. 

This vision reflects Gateway’s dedication to evolving with the industry, providing valuable services, and maintaining strong client relationships to support its clients’ success in a dynamic marketplace. 

Please visit: https://gatewayhealthpartners.com/