Exploring unique career paths and developing an entrepreneurial mindset to prepare for the future of the pharmacy profession has been a hallmark of a Drake pharmacy education for many years. Mike Case Haub, PH’02, caught that spirit and has joined several other Drake pharmacy graduates who have pursued non-traditional career pathways. Case Haub started CHC Health (formerly known as Case Haub Consulting) in 2014 and currently employs over 400 pharmacists around the country. Based in West Des Moines, IA, the company uses a virtualized business model while still offering services where pharmacists provide care within physician clinics. Virtual services that CHC Health provides include: medication therapy management (MTM), annual wellness visits, chronic care management, patient monitoring, transitions of care, medication reconciliation, pharmacogenomics, specialty pharmacy hub-and-spoke model, prior authorization support, medication synchronization, monitoring of medication dispensing devices in patient’s homes (clinical trials or adherence programs), and other generalized patient engagement campaigns.
CHC Health has received several awards including a Top Population Health Management Solutions Provider Award in 2020 by MD Tech Review and a Best of West Des Moines Award in the Health Care Solutions category in 2019. CHC Health was also named one of America’s Best Startup Employers in 2020 by Forbes.
Before starting his entrepreneurial journey, Case Haub worked in numerous types of pharmacy practice and gained significant experience operationalizing clinical pharmacist services. As the Director of Network Performance at OutcomesMTM, a Cardinal Health company, Case Haub’s primary focus was on how to operationalize the services as he interfaced with senior leadership within pharmacy organizations, health plans, and health technology companies.
Then in 2014, Case Haub created his consulting company to work with entities who wanted help getting these certain types of business models created or improve on what they had in place. He had seen a lot of success but sometimes the recommendations were not implemented to their full capacity. Ultimately, Case Haub decided that instead of “pulling” others along he would just create his own network of pharmacists and then work directly with key stakeholders to show them what motivated pharmacists can do if the barriers were removed through improved infrastructure and management.
“I’ve always tried to push the boundaries of what pharmacists should be doing to be able to practice at the top of their license,” said Case Haub. “I decided there was a real need in the industry to help operationalize pharmacist services outside of or alongside of the traditional medication distribution model.”
Since CHC Health is already primarily virtualized, the COVID-19 pandemic has not dramatically impacted its operations. One of the few adjustments the company made during this time was the transition of the onsite rotational experiences of student pharmacists to virtual experiences. CHC Health has also been working closely with a number of entities/employers with mitigation strategy services to help ensure that employees can get back to work safely amidst the pandemic. The company’s pharmacist services regarding monitoring and education are a significant portion of that strategy.
“I believe that COVID-19 has made the healthcare industry finally realize the value of telehealth and virtualized healthcare and the changes in regulations and payment models associated with telehealth,” said Case Haub.
Case Haub gives credit to Drake University for preparing him for his career and entrepreneurial journey. Besides his didactic and experiential course requirements, Case Haub immersed himself in CPHS and Drake student organizations, research, and community internships that helped shape him as a pharmacist. He was involved in Phi Delta Chi, American Pharmacists Association – Academy of Student Pharmacists, Wesley Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, and Amnesty International. Case Haub also held a leadership position as the class representative for the CPHS Dean’s Student Advisory Committee. While a student, he completed organic chemistry research during his first year of undergraduate studies and held internships at Hy-Vee Pharmacy, Iowa Methodist Hospital, Iowa Medicaid Consultec, and Penn Medical Pharmacy.
“I believe that Drake always fostered in me a sense of entrepreneurship,” said Case Haub. “As we were the inaugural entry-level PharmD class, I also feel like Drake pushed us to exceed since this was a new program and they were trying new and innovative ways to prepare us for what the future of pharmacy would hopefully look like.”
That entrepreneurial spirit continues to be fostered today among Drake students through the curriculum and the DELTA Rx Institute (Drake Entrepreneurial Leadership Tools for Advancement). Case Haub sits on the advisory board for the DELTA Rx Institute and regularly serves as a judge for the DELTA Rx Next Top Entrepreneur Competition, as well as a mentor for students interested in pursuing non-traditional career pathways.
“Instilling an entrepreneurial spirit is more important now than it ever has before,” said Renae Chesnut, dean of the college. “Graduates like Mike Case Haub who take what they learn as students and use it to advance practice are proof that the college is achieving its mission of ‘preparing today’s learners to be tomorrow’s health care leaders.’