D2 Solutions is uniquely focused on taking cost out of the healthcare delivery system: Dean P. Erhardt, President & CEO

“Our model is focused on specific areas in the delivery of specialty medications and the services required to support those medications.”

D2 Solutions empowers healthcare leaders with a unique combination of SaaS solutions and deep consulting expertise. It brings pharmaceutical manufacturers, payers, pharmacies, support providers, and patients together. The company serves clients across the United States.

D2 leads manufacturers through the commercialization process, adding value to trade and distribution, market access and reimbursement, as well as patient services. It also stands with pharmacies and hospital IDNs, providing the guidance they need to achieve compliance and licensure, solve regulatory challenges, and better connect with patients. The company’s proprietary technologies move clients even closer to their goals, finding that one point where everything moves forward.

D2 Solutions was incorporated in 2008.

The Silicon Review reached out to D2’s Missouri headquarters and spoke with Dean P. Erhardt (President), who serves as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Here’s what he said.

Interview Highlights

Q. What groundbreaking and proactive methodology does D2 Solutions implement to exceed customer expectations?

D2 has developed propriety SaaS-based tools with modular options that enable enhanced pharmacy and consumer/patient-focused solutions that can easily pair with already-established organizational workflows. We offer a two-pronged solution that includes:

• D2’s ComplySuite™, an automated solution that, staying abreast of ongoing industry changes, assists pharmacies to maintain their ongoing compliance with accreditation standards, licensing requirements and regulatory requirements
• A digital solution set focused on enhancing the consumer/patient experience for those prescribed a specialty medication. This solution, called UltraTouch™, includes a gamification patient engagement platform, the ability to automate prior authorizations across both the pharmacy and the medical benefit, as well as addressing copay solutions in real-time. UltraTouch is focused on addressing ‘never-starts’ (the 20–50% of patients that are prescribed specialty drugs but never start their medication), delays in care due to extensive prior authorization requirements (industry average is 7–14 days, however through UltraTouch, D2’s average time is less than 24 hours), prescription abandonment (lack of compliance/adherence), and affordability.

Further, D2 has developed the UltraTouch specialty pharmacy network. The goal of the UltraTouch network is to drive a faster, easier and better consumer experience for patients who depend on specialty medications. This innovative network of high-performing, technology-driven pharmacies was built to expand affordable and sustainable patient access to specialty medications through pharma and biopharma manufacturer-sponsored enrollment, along with patient support and assistance programs. UltraTouch makes it possible for patients to get a personalized, emotionally connected experience, similar to what they expect from their favorite consumer-centric brands.

Q. How does the combination of SaaS solutions and deep consulting expertise equip D2 Solutions to empower healthcare leaders?

Consulting is at the core of the intelligence D2 has captured during 14+ years of working with more than 500 clients. Historically, our focus has been distribution, reimbursement, pharmacy services and patient services. As such, we have worked with pharma, biopharma, specialty pharmacies, wholesalers, hospital systems, hubs and many other entities. This perspective spanning a cross-section of industry stakeholders has enabled D2’s consultants to encounter and react to industry trends while working with our partners to put them in the best position to succeed. 

We developed our technology-based platforms, ComplySuite and UltraTouch, to solve needs uncovered during our many consulting projects, incorporating more efficient and comprehensive ways to improve healthcare delivery and attain higher patient satisfaction.

Q. What are your other focus areas?

D2 is uniquely focused on taking cost out of the healthcare delivery system. Our model is focused on specific areas in the delivery of specialty medications and the services required to support those medications. This includes distribution, market access, reimbursement, pharmacy services and patient services. This model drives benefits to all stakeholders in the value chain, from drug manufacturers to physician offices/clinics working to attain reimbursement for a patient’s therapy, ultimately to benefit patients. D2 is focused on taking the friction out of the delivery of specialty medications, enabling more accelerated patient access and a better understanding at all levels of how dramatically a patient’s life can be enhanced via a technology-supported experience.

Q. Will your company be expanding, bringing on any new solutions that we should be aware of?

We are constantly evaluating new solutions focused on reducing costs while accelerating access to medications. These solutions will continue to be focused on helping entities attain greater efficiency; and  enabling compliance to the ever-expanding rules, regulations and requirements within this highly regulated environment; and  facilitating affordability for uniqueand increasingly more expensive therapeutic options being approved by the FDA.  

Q. About the future, where do you see D2 Solutions a couple of years from now?

Our goal is to be recognized as a change agent --  one that is listening to industry stakeholders (our clients) and then using our perspective and expertise to create solutions. Again, D2 is unique in that we work across industry stakeholders, including manufacturers, pharmacies, hospitals, payers, providers, and patients. It is our perspective across this value chain that will continue to allow D2 to identify and then solve real market issues.  

Q. What is your final message to The Silicon Review readers; your current and future clients and partners?

D2’s unique advantage is our people who provide in-depth consulting and strategic insights every day. Many consultants can create a good theory, but D2 is about creating a solution and implementing that solution. D2’s consultants are pharmacists, nurses, and operations personnel—a team that sees problems not as theoretical issues, but as challenges to be solved. Uniquely positioned with real-world experience, our focus is to reduce the ‘Points of Friction’ to create the ‘Point of Progress’, driving efficiency, enabling compliance, and creating confidence in the areas of drug distribution, drug reimbursement, pharmacy services and patient solutions. Our efforts are designed to lead healthcare organizations forward, enabling via technology solutions, a process that brings lifesaving therapies and medical technologies to patients faster than anyone thought possible.

Dean P. Erhardt, BBA, MBA | President & CEO

Dean P. Erhardt offers over 30 years of strategic marketing and management experience across both the consumer product and pharmaceutical arenas. His experience has spanned several Fortune 500 organizations, including Express Scripts, Cardinal Health and U.S. Healthcare

Currently, Mr. Erhardt serves as the president and CEO of D2 Solutions. In this capacity, he leads the organization in working with a variety of industry stakeholders, including pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and eHealth companies, working with channel partners, including pharmacies, specialty pharmacies, specialty distribution, retail, and long-term care, hospital/IDNs, payers and PBMs. As the CEO of D2 Solutions, he has also worked on various international projects in Albania, Algeria, South Korea and Singapore.

Mr. Erhardt is leading D2 Solutions through a transformation from a traditional consulting organization to a technology-driven organization, delivering SaaS solutions to industry stakeholders that drive operational efficiency by reducing the need for human labor, enabling better regulatory compliance, and accelerating revenue capture.

Prior to his role at D2, Mr. Erhardt served as VP of Sales and Marketing for the Express Scripts Specialty Pharmacy Benefits Management Group. In this role, he worked with multiple managed care and payer organizations, developing formularies, reimbursement models and product support programs for specialty and biotech therapeutic categories. Prior to that position, Mr. Erhardt led Sales and Marketing for Express Scripts Specialty Distribution Services, working with over 30 pharmaceutical manufacturers in the areas of limited distribution programs, patient assistance programs, sampling, reimbursement support, and other product-specific support programs.

Mr. Erhardt has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Oklahoma and an MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management. He has also participated in numerous executive management training programs. Mr. Erhardt serves as a member of the board of trustees for Stages St Louis.

Get in touch: www.d2rx.com

“We developed our technology-based platforms, ComplySuite and UltraTouch, to solve needs uncovered during our many consulting projects, incorporating more efficient and comprehensive ways to improve healthcare delivery and attain higher patient satisfaction.”