TMS Health steps more deeply into specialty services with acquisition of inVentiv's Patient Access Solutions (iPAS)

At the CBI Hub Models Conference (San Diego, Sept. 29-30), Valerie Sullivan, managing director of the newly acquired business unit, had a simple comment on the changed ownership: "People who knew iPAS as part of inVentiv will recognize the same services and level of quality as part of Xerox. We're excited at the direction we're going in."

Under the acquisition, announced at the beginning of September, iPAS will become a business unit of TMS Health, a Xerox Company, which is one of the largest providers in the US of call-center and inside-sales support to life sciences companies. iPAS itself is primarily a call center, specializing in handling patient-access and reimbursement services for specialty pharmaceutical marketers. As part of “an ongoing relationship” with inVentiv, says Xerox, iPAS will continue to provide its services to clients of inVentiv’s Contract Commercial Organization.

iPAS has been one of a growing number of organizations providing what are commonly called hub services to specialty pharma marketers; the specialty products usually stand out because of their high cost and complex methods of arranging reimbursement with payers. Some hub providers (like iPAS) concentrate on the reimbursement and prior-authorization requirements; others add in ongoing patient counseling or care coordination with other healthcare providers and pharmacies.