Soleo enjoys data-driven success

MCKINNEY, Texas - Soleo Health has carved a niche for itself as a provider of both specialty pharmacy and home infusion services to fill a void in the market created by consolidation, says CEO Drew Walk.

The home infusion space, in particular, has seen several large deals, including the sale of Coram to CVS in 2013.

“We felt some things were missing from a service component that are extremely important for these complex therapies,” he said. “Home infusion is a very local market—you have to be very responsive to the needs of local clinics and, especially, hospitals and physicians. You also have to provide some level of scale and continuity for managed care, so you can demonstrate the value of that service.”

Soleo Health now has more than 200 managed care contracts with access to more than 250 million members, with 18 branch pharmacies and licensure in 49 states.

To boost its value in the market, Soleo has launched NutriSole, a specialty parenteral nutrition therapy program, and SoleMetrics, a proprietary program that provides detailed outcomes data by therapy, disease state, drug, health system and payer.

“Anybody who is in health care has to recognize the importance of data,” Walk said. “Hospitalization, financial outcomes, interventions that prevent ER visits—that's critical. We can show our clients, these are the number of interventions we provided for you this quarter.”

Over the next three to five years, Soleo is looking to expand its core therapies and geographic footprint, says Walk. While the provider might consider a few small-tuck in acquisitions, he feels continuing to grow organically is the way to go.

“We are not looking to do large consolidation—it's not easy to integrate into an existing platform,” he said. “Our goal is to build a unique company. We have a very strong long-term plan that we feel good about.”