Health Systems Embrace New Strategies to Navigate Disruptions

Pharmacy Forecast Highlights Financial, Technological, and Climate Challenges

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Health systems are weighing new strategies as they confront rapidly mounting challenges, including rising uncompensated care and risks related to cybersecurity and climate change, according to a report released today at the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition.

The 2026 ASHP/ASHP Foundation Pharmacy Forecast, built on the collective insight of nearly 300 pharmacy leaders, anticipates major shifts in the 340B Drug Pricing Program and prescription benefit management and increasing exposure to cyber- and climate-related disruptions.

The annual Pharmacy Forecast, which surfaces trends over the next five years, offers strategic recommendations to help health systems adapt through a nimble planning process.

"Pharmacy leaders are uniquely positioned to bring solutions to their organizations as we prepare for disruptions that will define the healthcare system of the future," said ASHP CEO Paul W. Abramowitz, PharmD, ScD (Hon), FASHP. "This year's Pharmacy Forecast helps translate emerging opportunities into actionable strategies to safeguard patients, stabilize finances, and strengthen health systems."

The report examines financial pressures, noting that growing scrutiny of traditional pharmacy benefit managers and changing reimbursement models are reshaping how health systems manage costs and deliver care. Surveyed leaders expect many health systems to explore creating their own pharmacy benefit managers or partnering with organizations that provide more transparency. More than half indicated health systems will adjust where and how infusion services are delivered, as Medicare and 340B policies contribute to likely rises in uncompensated care.

The Pharmacy Forecast also points to cybersecurity risks that could impact medication access. Two-thirds of participants responded that a cyberattack could disrupt drug delivery nationwide. The report authors urge collaboration among health systems, manufacturers, and federal agencies to improve cybersecurity, transparency, and redundancy across the supply chain.

Like cyber threats, climate-related events pose growing risks to continuity of care. Nearly three-quarters of experts anticipate weather-driven disruptions to hospitals and supply chains, signaling urgency to build more resilient health-system infrastructure. A companion AJHP editorial underscores the growing health and operational impacts of climate change and urges pharmacy leaders to take an active role in building more sustainable, climate-resilient health systems.

"This year's Pharmacy Forecast highlights just how quickly the ground is shifting for hospitals and health systems," said Joseph DiPiro, PharmD, FCCP, FAAAS, professor emeritus, School of Pharmacy, Virginia Commonwealth University, and editor of the Pharmacy Forecast. "The report helps pharmacy leaders turn emerging risks across areas of policy, finance, technology, supply chain, and the environment into opportunities for improvement and resilience."

Other recommendations for healthcare leaders:

• Strengthen financial resilience through scenario planning. Pharmacy leaders should develop models that anticipate shifts in drug reimbursement, 340B policy, and payment reform, allowing for quicker adaptation to revenue changes.
• Build supply chain resilience. Pharmacy leaders are urged to move beyond cost-only decision-making and pursue partnerships and system-wide strategies that strengthen domestic production and improve supply chain transparency.
• Advance digital transformation and AI readiness. Health systems should prepare the pharmacy workforce to embrace new technology to serve as the bridge between digital health and the patient experience.
• Support therapeutic advances and sustain prevention programs. Leaders must plan for the clinical, financial, and operational implications of new therapies like theranostics and GLP-1s, while also protecting vaccine uptake and access for vulnerable populations.
• Integrate sustainability into core planning. Health systems should measure and reduce emissions, minimize reliance on disposables, and treat resilience and decarbonization as strategic imperatives, not optional projects.
• Transform safety strategies. Leaders are encouraged to shift from reactive responses to proactive safety practices, adopt predictive surveillance, and incorporate human-factors engineering.

"Many of the report's insights also align directly with recent ASHP summits on artificial intelligence and advanced therapeutics, including the newly established ASHP Center for Next-Generation Therapeutics," Abramowitz added.

The Pharmacy Forecast is published online ahead of print and will appear in the Jan. 15, 2026, print issue of AJHP. The report was supported by a donation from Omnicell Inc. to the David A. Zilz Leaders for the Future Fund of the ASHP Foundation.

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SOURCE ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists)