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Bob Craig, Pharm.D. |
Dr. Marshall, a 1978 College of Pharmacy graduate who at the time was executive director of the Nebraska Pharmacists Organization, asked the young Dr. Craig to help lead a statewide review of Medicaid prescription drug utilization.
For Dr. Craig, it was an opportunity to apply on a statewide scale the clinical pharmacy principles he learned at UNMC about managing cost and patient outcomes. Nebraska was just the third state in the nation to establish a systematic, retrospective drug utilization review program for its Medicaid populations. The program proved successful and the federal government later mandated such programs for every state.
“At the time we discovered that drug therapy, particularly in the case of the elderly, was frequently inappropriate,” Dr. Craig said. “Sadly it continues to be so.”
The experience working on the Medicaid review set the course of Dr. Craig’s career, leading up to his current position as an executive director for Medco Health Solutions.
The Colorado native reviewed Nebraska’s Medicaid pharmacy use until 1987 when he went to work for a pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company in Sacramento, Calif., where he consulted with private-sector health plan sponsors while developing point-of-sale provider networks, analytical reporting systems and other PBM infrastructure.
He was with the California company three years before being recruited to do similar work for PCS Health Systems in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he now resides with his wife, Robin.
In 2000, Dr. Craig began working for Medco Health Solutions — a pharmacy benefit management company that also operates the largest mail-order and specialty pharmacy network in the country, dispensing more than 85 million prescriptions annually including $5 billion in specialty pharmaceuticals.
As an executive director, Dr. Craig works on strategic benefits services, benefit design strategy and field support for the company, which serves about 60 million members nationwide.
Dr. Craig credits UNMC, and in particular College of Pharmacy Dean Clarence Ueda, Pharm.D., Ph.D., with instilling in him clinical pharmaceutical principles, which help ensure population health and proper outcomes. Dr. Craig said such ideals have been pertinent throughout his career.
“I came to UNMC because I knew leaders such as Dr. Ueda made the institution an early leader in clinical pharmacy education,” Dr. Craig said. “The faculty was outstanding, and what I learned at the college remains a cornerstone of the work I do.”