AI Revolution: Breaking Pharmacy Chains with Harry Travis, BS Pharm, MBA, and Ira Klein, MD, MBA, FACP

There are countless opportunities hidden in the data-driven tasks pharmacists do every day, and AI is ready to unlock them. But what happens when automation dramatically increases productivity in pharmacy, and how do regulations, workforce, and patient care evolve in tandem?

In this latest episode of AVBCC's Value-Based Voices, join Ira Klein , MD, MBA, FACP, VP Medical Affairs, Payer Relations, Tempus Labs, and AI innovator Harry Travis, BS Pharm, MBA, President, The Travis Group, LLC, as they explore how AI could revolutionize pharmacy practice by speeding up prior authorizations, freeing pharmacists from administrative burdens, and expanding their roles in patient care. You’ll discover how AI can automate endless data questions, streamline workflows, and help pharmacists work at the top of their license—shifting from manual tasks to meaningful, patient-centered interactions.

We'll break down:

- Why pharmacy is a perfect testbed for AI’s potential to enhance precision and efficiency

 - The regulatory landscape across states and the role of federal organizations in creating a unified framework

 - How AI can enable pharmacists to deliver advanced clinical services like prescribing and primary care

 - The implications for the pharmacy workforce, workforce reallocation, and upskilling necessary for these shifts

 - The ripple effects across payers, PBMs, and healthcare systems seeking faster, smarter decision-making

This isn’t just about technology, it's about reimagining healthcare delivery and empowering professionals to provide better patient outcomes. Health professionals and healthcare leaders: if you’re ready to harness AI to transform pharmacy practice, avoid workforce disruption, and improve access, this episode is essential listening.

Resources

National Association of Boards of Pharmacy - https://nabp.pharmacy/

AI in Healthcare - McKinsey Report - https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/ai-in-healthcare

Pharmacy Practice Regulations by State - https://www.pharmacy.ca.gov/licensees/boards.shtml

Guest links

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hjtravis/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ira-klein-83a0a0a/

Contact Value-Based Voices

- Follow AVBCC on LinkedIn  

- View our podcast lineup 

- Contact us at info@avbcc.org

Thanks for listening! 

Transcript

**Ira Klein (00:00.332)**  
Welcome to *Value-Based Voices*, a podcast from the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care. Each episode dives into the shifting terrain of cancer care in the United States, exploring what value means in today's clinical, policy, and patient-centered environments. Our mission is to spark informed dialogue, promote transparency, and equip every stakeholder—from providers to payers to patients—with the insight they need to navigate cancer care with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

**Ira Klein (00:38.35)**  
So let's get to it. My name is Dr. Ira Klein, and I'll be your host for today's episode. With me is Harry Travis—pharmacist, entrepreneur, general innovator in the world of AI and other—and we'll be talking about AI and its relationship to the practice of pharmacy and pharmacy benefit. So welcome, Harry. Thank you for joining us.

**Harry Travis (01:05.355)**  
Hello Ira, it is great to be here.

**Ira Klein (01:07.618)**  
Well, we've got a big topic to cover, and it's a topic that has both frustration, hope, and uncertainty. When we talk about the cost of healthcare today, much of that dialogue has been about the cost of drugs and the ability to have access to drugs. And then when we talk about things that are happening as macro trends, we think about the AI revolution. But it seems like a silent revolution in healthcare because we haven't seen real tangible progress other than a few inklings.

So when we think about the relationship of artificial intelligence to the pharmacy benefit and the practice of pharmacy, I almost don't know where to begin. But tell me what you think is a good place to begin if we take this from the perspective that the system is broken and we want to make the system better. Where would we start?

**Harry Travis (02:08.075)**  
You're right. There are a lot of both positives and negatives. I think we all agree we're at the precipice, a turning point, of a lot of things happening, and we hope a lot of them are going to be good. Let's start from the perspective of a patient getting a prescription filled.

There are 7 billion prescriptions dispensed in the United States according to IQVIA. If you normalize all the prescriptions to a 30‑day supply, all of them—no matter how simple or complex—go through an eight- or ten-step process of intake, benefit verification, prior authorization, DUR, patient follow-up, and financial exploration around copay assistance.

**Ira Klein (02:27.83)**  
I've been in that shoe.

**Ira Klein (03:10.067)**  
And that includes even if I want a generic statin.

**Harry Travis (03:13.506)**  
That's right. And if you want a generic statin, it may go through that process in a nanosecond. If you want Keytruda, on the other hand, it could take a long time. But every step in that process, if you boil it down in engineering terms, is a set of questions that need to be answered to move to the next step. Do I have the patient’s demographic information? Do I have their health insurance information? Once that’s answered, you move on.

**Ira Klein (03:56.162)**  
Yeah, well to our listeners who may not have seen the imposing 15‑page prior auth form for some of these cancer drugs, that's a big task.

**Harry Travis (04:06.146)**  
Right. My point with respect to AI is that every one of those questions has an answer somewhere. The practice of pharmacy—without minimizing it, and I am a pharmacist—is very deterministic and very data driven. When you see a pharmacist in a drugstore standing at a screen, they are not composing anything. They are looking for data somewhere else. And AI is going to help us do that.

There are literally dozens of entrepreneurial companies now focusing on every step in that prescription-filling process to automate it, enhance it, or optimize it.

**Ira Klein (04:57.976)**  
So you're saying from a process engineering perspective, it's a series of tasks that are data driven. So how do you train them?

**Harry Travis (05:06.286)**  
We're very much in a point-solution validation mode right now. There are lots of vendors coming to pharmacies and PBMs saying they have a solution for this step or that step. We have to take the time as a profession to validate that these algorithmic solutions can work at incredibly high degrees of effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability.

**Ira Klein (05:42.051)**  
Now if they do that and we prove them out, can I assume they're going to do it in almost real time?

**Harry Travis (05:50.478)**  
You can—on some of the tasks. The concept of a queue of work is where a human sits in front of a terminal working through a list. With AI, you don’t need one agent. You can have an infinite number of agents working simultaneously. You almost have to rethink workflow entirely as a result.

**Ira Klein (06:36.974)**  
So who does this? When you say rethink the workflow, I think reshuffle the workforce. You and I have known each other for many decades. I was a pharmacist before I was a physician. I stood in the back counting pills and answering phones. When we think about the workforce with AI, what's going to happen?

**Harry Travis (07:02.002)**  
Before we even get there, think about the leaders in pharmacy and PBMs today. It’s not like anyone has extra time to run all these projects.

**Ira Klein (07:18.744)**  
Free time and healthcare are not two terms that go together.

**Harry Travis (07:21.154)**  
Exactly. We see tools that look great, but validating them takes time, and operations still have to run. There’s a real constraint here. Over time, though, we’ll validate these tools and start to see productivity improvements.

**Ira Klein (07:51.866)**  
So some entities in the ecosystem are going to have to take a little risk and jump in.

**Harry Travis (08:12.736)**  
Absolutely. AI is ubiquitous. You can’t just nest it in one place, which adds complexity because legal, quality, medicine—everyone is dealing with AI projects at the same time.

**Ira Klein (09:03.424)**  
Right, businesses will figure it out.

**Harry Travis (09:05.93)**  
And eventually we’ll reach the point where we see real benefit.

**Ira Klein (09:12.823)**  
Who does this work? If people don’t fit into the new system, where do they go?

**Harry Travis (09:22.946)**  
Pharmacy is an interesting case study because it’s regulated at the state level. “Top of license” means different things in different states. AI presents one of the first real positive opportunities for pharmacy teams.

**Ira Klein (10:15.246)**  
Pharmacy teaches you that healthcare is a team sport.

**Harry Travis (10:32.47)**  
Absolutely. Walk into any drugstore and observe for five minutes. It’s a beehive of activity. That team is going to get significantly more productive, with far less screen time.

**Ira Klein (11:30.668)**  
COVID showed us how pharmacists could expand their role, like giving vaccines. It was meaningful—but now it’s one more thing on an already full plate.

**Harry Travis (12:06.222)**  
Exactly. AI may provide capacity relief. But state rules differ. Idaho allows full practice authority; Florida does not. Only about five states have adopted full practice authority.

**Ira Klein (13:46.382)**  
If AI expands efficiency, who oversees this? I don’t want 50 different AI standards.

**Harry Travis (14:12.864)**  
That’s being addressed by national boards like the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. No one wants a patchwork of AI regulation.

**Ira Klein (15:08.728)**  
Assuming that’s solved, what improvements will patients see?

**Harry Travis (15:50.734)**  
Patients should think to ask their pharmacist for help. That requires public education—and payment reform. Medicaid usually leads, followed by commercial payers, then CMS.

**Ira Klein (17:12.28)**  
Let’s talk about PBMs and insurers.

**Harry Travis (17:30.222)**  
Speed to an answer. AI can read unstructured data. Prior auth answers buried in 50‑page EMRs can now be found automatically.

**Ira Klein (18:29.934)**  
So no panic attacks over “easy” PA links.

**Harry Travis (18:42.498)**  
Exactly. It works both ways—for providers and payers.

**Ira Klein (19:12.088)**  
We’ve both seen rooms full of people staring at screens.

**Harry Travis (19:29.87)**  
Which brings us back to workforce impact. Organizations need to invest in upskilling and change management. Productivity gains are great, but the human impact matters.

**Ira Klein (20:33.102)**  
Any thoughts on where displaced workers go?

**Harry Travis (20:44.974)**  
History shows we adapt. It will be harder this time, but the goal is more time with patients and less paperwork across every profession.

**Ira Klein (21:41.208)**  
That sounds like a better future. This wraps up today’s episode of *Value-Based Voices*. Thank you, Harry Travis, and thank you to our listeners.

**Harry Travis (21:47.631)**  
Thank you.

**Ira Klein (22:09.43)**  
If you found today’s discussion thought‑provoking, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Stay tuned for more episodes spotlighting the voices shaping the future of oncology.