Jared Tate: Two Ways My Residency Prepared Me for the Future

By Jared Tate, PharmD

The AMCP Foundation welcomed two pharmacist residents, Jared Tate, PharmD, and Emily Tsiao, PharmD, for a one-month rotation during May 2019. The rotation is a component of the Postgraduate Year One (PGY1) Managed Care Pharmacy Residency at Premera Blue Cross in Seattle.

Our last newsletter featured Emily’s advice for pharmacists starting their residencies. In Part II of II of Resident Perspectives, Jared shares observations and lessons learned during his residency, which he completed at the end of June.

My managed care residency experience at Premera Blue Cross wasn't exactly what I expected, but it turned out to be everything I had hoped it would be. As I reflect on the past year, I wanted to comment on the two most important ways my residency has prepared me for the future: experience and perspective.

• First, Experience: As a PharmD student, I felt I developed an above-average managed care knowledgebase. I helped create an AMCP student chapter, participated in multiple P&T competitions, and attended AMCP meetings as often as I could. As graduation approached, I explored several full-time, entry-level managed care positions, but felt I needed more exposure and connections in the managed care space before diving in, which led me down the residency path. In my residency interviews, I confidently spoke of my managed care experience and tactfully dropped all the buzz words I knew. What I didn’t expect was that when I started my residency, I would spend the first three months just trying to understand the differences between our formularies, lines of business, who our vendors were and what they did, etc.
• Second, Perspective: There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen and a lot of opinions in the health care. I saw an image of two lights shining on adjacent sides of a cylinder, throwing its shadow on two adjoining walls behind it. The shadow on one wall is a circle, while the shadow on the other wall is a square. The point is that perspective matters. Is prior authorization an appropriate cost saving tool or does it impede patient care? Do drug rebates lower net price for everyone or increase cost to the sickest patients? In reality, it’s both. And you need both perspectives to get it right.

“The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know”, and isn’t that the truth. Like many of you, I’ve been shocked and frustrated by the intricacies and inefficiencies. I feel my residency has been invaluable in preparing me to face a challenging and uncertain future.

Jared Tate, whose PharmD is from the University of Arizona, completed his residency project on “Payer Management of Hemophilia.” Dr. Tate is now a Clinical Pharmacist at Premera Blue Cross in Seattle.

Are you interested in completing a PGY1 residency in managed care pharmacy? Learn more about this program at AMCP Nexus Residency Showcase!