THIS SPONSORED PODCAST EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY CVS HEALTH.<br>In this sponsored episode, James Margiotta, Chief Growth Officer at CVS Caremark, joins Health Affairs Publishing&#x27;s Jessica Bylander to unpack the role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), their impact on prescription drug costs, and the value PBMs bring to the health care system.<br>James has nearly 35 years of experience driving innovation, operational excellence, and enterprise value across the healthcare system. In his current role, James leads the team responsible for partnering with clients to identify their unique needs and bringing forward strategic solutions to meet their objectives.<br>Throughout his career at CVS Health, James has scaled businesses across CVS Caremark, CVS Accountable Care, Minute Clinic, Aetna, and CVS Pharmacy — each with its own challenges, cultures, and market dynamics.<br>James and Jessica&#x27;s conversation explores how PBMs help employers, health plans, governments, and unions manage rising prescription drug costs while balancing affordability, transparency, and member experience. James explains CVS Caremark’s approach to controlling costs, dives into the growing demands for price transparency, and how artificial intelligence may transform pharmacy benefits and member navigation services.

Inside CVS Caremark: The Role of PBMs in Drug Costs & Access | SPONSORED

A Health Podyssey

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** A Health Podyssey

## Participants

- **Jessica Bylander** (Health Affairs Publishing)
- **James Marjota** (CVS Caremark (CVS Health))
- **James Marjota** (CVS Caremark)

## Transcript

Hello and welcome to a sponsored Health Affairs podcast episode brought to you today by CVS Health. I'm your host and a deputy editor and correspondent at Health Affairs Publishing, Jessica Bylander. Today on the program to discuss pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs, we have CVS Caremark Chief Growth Officer, James Marjota. Throughout his career at CVS Health, James has led and scaled businesses across CVS Accountable Care,

Minute Clinic, CVS Caremark, Aetna and CVS Pharmacy. Today he and I will discuss what value PBMs are bringing to the healthcare system. James, welcome to the program. Jessica, it's fantastic to be here and look forward to our time together today. So to start us off, there is a lot of debate about the role of PBMs and whether they can actually drive down prescription drug costs.

So how do you describe the value PBMs bring to the healthcare system and what makes CVS Caremark unique? Jessica, when we think about the value that PBMs bring to the healthcare system, we first need to think about who our customers are. And as we think about that, it's always centered around our customer. And their priority, first and foremost, is how do they manage cost?

Secondly, how do they ensure that there is an experience that their members have in accessing the system? How do they provide an affordable benefit? And how does that all come together in a way that helps them execute their strategy? And each customer is unique in terms of their approach, what they need to do.

And so when you think about the role that the PBMs play, it's really orienting our infrastructure capabilities expertise to help deliver on their commitments and execute their strategy better than anyone else. And so there's a number of approaches that we deploy in partnership with our customers to help manage the overall cost of pharmacy benefits for their particular members.

When I think about CVS Caremark and why are we unique, I would highlight several key aspects of that. First and foremost, we are very customer-centric and customer-oriented. We listen to our customers. We understand what's important to them, their priorities. And we align our organization, our capabilities in a way that helps deliver on their commitments and their objectives better than anyone else.

Secondly, when you think about those we serve and the infrastructure that's needed in order to engage with manufacturers, in order to create competition, in order to deliver the greatest value from a price perspective,

the size and scale of CVS Caremark is unmatched and, in a way, allows us to work together with the supply chain to optimize in a way that delivers value to our customers. Secondly, as we think about the role that we serve, it is how are we engaging with the members that we ser...

Inside CVS Caremark: The Role of PBMs in Drug Costs & Access | SPONSORED

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Inside CVS Caremark: The Role of PBMs in Drug Costs & Access | SPONSORED

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.