MacroHealth Acquires Foundational Pharmacy Strategies to Transform Pharmacy Benefit Management

MacroHealth, a healthcare technology company offering an intelligent healthcare marketplace, has acquired Foundational Pharmacy Strategies (FPS) to expand its platform capabilities into pharmacy benefit management. The acquisition positions MacroHealth to address the rapidly growing prescription drug market, which reached $450 billion in US retail spending in 2023, representing an 11.4% increase from the previous year according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The strategic acquisition enables MacroHealth to extend its Intelligent Health Market-as-a-Service (IHMaaS) platform beyond medical benefits optimization to include comprehensive pharmacy cost management solutions. This expansion allows benefit advisors, consultants, health plans, and employers to optimize both medical and pharmacy benefits through a single marketplace platform.

"We think purchasers of pharmacy solutions should expect more," said Virgil Bretz, the co-founder and CEO of MacroHealth. "This acquisition is a major step in creating a more transparent marketplace, replacing the opaque process of comparing and choosing pharmacy benefit management solutions."

MacroHealth's existing platform has demonstrated significant value for its health plan clients, achieving an average 16% reduction in healthcare spend through medical cost optimization and provider network strategies. The company aims to deliver similar savings in pharmacy benefits, addressing one of the fastest-growing components of healthcare costs.

Foundational Pharmacy Strategies, founded in 2023, brings specialized expertise in managing pharmacy drug spend and developing cost-effective solutions for benefit advisors and employer groups. The company's predictive analytics capabilities and focus on transparency align with MacroHealth's mission to modernize healthcare purchasing through data-driven marketplace solutions.

"With our country facing unsustainable pharmacy costs, it's time for a new era of end-to-end transparency," said Christine Johnston, the co-founder and president of Foundational Pharmacy Strategies. "Joining forces with MacroHealth dramatically expands our reach and amplifies our ability to deliver cost-effective pharmacy management solutions to a wider network of payers and their members. Together, we are poised to make a significant impact to lower drug costs and improve the overall healthcare experience."

The combined capabilities will empower healthcare purchasers to optimize their pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) and carrier partnerships while ensuring members receive necessary prescriptions with improved experiences and cost savings. The acquisition directly addresses the challenge of comparing and selecting pharmacy benefit management solutions, which has traditionally been an opaque process lacking transparency.

Through the integration, FPS will scale its efforts to make pharmacy benefits more affordable while continuing to advance its predictive analytics platform. The enhanced marketplace will enable health plans, employers, and benefit advisors to identify optimization opportunities across both pharmacy and medical spend, transforming insights into actionable marketplace connections.

MacroHealth's IHMaaS platform leverages data science and industry-standard interoperability to connect payers with their healthcare ecosystem partners. The addition of pharmacy benefit optimization represents a natural extension of the company's mission to measurably improve healthcare access, cost, and quality through marketplace innovation. With this acquisition, MacroHealth strengthens its position as a comprehensive solution for healthcare cost optimization across all benefit categories.

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