BERWYN, Pa., Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AscellaHealth, a technology-first pharmacy management solutions provider, today announces the appointment of Asad Shoostry as chief technology officer, strengthening the company’s investment in technology as a core part of how it serves clients, scales its business and creates value across the healthcare ecosystem. Asad will lead the technology strategy behind AscellaHealth’s expanding digital platform portfolio, including AscellaOne™, digital GPO capabilities, enterprise data architecture and the technology foundation supporting its pharmacy, specialty and patient services businesses.
“Healthcare does not need another disconnected point solution – we have plenty of those,” says Asad. “What we need is a better way to connect pharmacy, medical and specialty data to the decisions that determine access, reimbursement and total cost. If we can make that information usable at the right point in the process, clients can act earlier, reduce friction and demonstrate real value to the member.”
His appointment comes as AscellaHealth moves toward a more connected platform model, bringing together data, workflow and services that have traditionally operated across separate systems. The strategy includes API-based integration, a governed healthcare data lake and Microsoft Fabric environment, shared analytics and a scalable architecture designed to support current services and future growth.
“The AscellaOne modular architecture allows clients to adopt the capabilities they need without replacing their existing technology environments,” explains Asad. “At the center of the AscellaOne strategy is a governed data architecture designed to bring information from multiple healthcare and operational sources into a common environment where it can be validated, connected and used for applications, analytics and AI. It brings together pharmacy network services, financial assistance, rebate management, patient support and other savings capabilities, while the broader platform will support additional services, including the company’s growing GPO and network businesses. This data architecture and digital platforms are designed to give healthcare organizations greater control over cost, access and member outcomes.”
Dea Belazi, chief executive officer, AscellaHealth, says the creation of the CTO role reflects how closely the company’s technology strategy is now tied to its business strategy: “As AscellaHealth grows, technology cannot simply support the business—it has to become part of how we create value for our clients,” says Belazi. “Asad brings a combination of healthcare experience, technology architecture and business leadership that will help us build the foundation to scale while giving clients greater visibility, flexibility and control.”
Asad brings more than two decades of technology and leadership experience across healthcare and other complex industries, including leadership experience with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente, Food & Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Toledo and is certified in PMP, TOGAF and ITIL. At AscellaHealth, his focus will span platform development, data strategy, architecture and delivery, with technology investments tied directly to business and client outcomes.
Asad emphasizes, “A modern technology stack is not the outcome. The outcome is whether we can help a client see where cost is occurring, understand what is driving it and act sooner. It is whether we can reduce administrative waste, improve access to therapy and show, with data, the value we created.”
Asad sees particular opportunity in connecting information that has historically been viewed independently, including pharmacy and medical claims, specialty treatment data, eligibility, pricing, reimbursement and patient-support activity.
“The paradigm changes when healthcare data stops being something we reconcile after the fact and becomes something we can use while decisions are still being made,” he concludes. “That creates an opportunity to improve the member experience, reduce unnecessary costs and create measurable value for our clients.”
Learn more about AscellaOne by visiting https://ascellahealth.com/ascellaone/.
About AscellaHealth
AscellaHealth is a healthcare and technology solutions company built to help pharmacy benefit payers reduce costs, strengthen efficiency and gain greater transparency and control over their pharmacy benefit spend. AscellaHealth combines deep industry expertise in specialty and medical benefit specialty management with integrated technology solutions, including AscellaOne, a first-of-its-kind pharmacy benefits enablement platform. Guided by its member-centric mission to bring clarity to complexity, value to care and ongoing support to every step of the individual’s healthcare journey, AscellaHealth gives payers greater flexibility to design, manage and optimize pharmacy benefits on their own terms. Visit www.ascellahealth.com/payer-solutions
About AscellaOne
AscellaOne™ by AscellaHealth is a technology-enabled pharmacy benefits platform designed to modernize how health plans, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and third-party administrators (TPAs) manage and optimize pharmacy benefits and services — while keeping the patient at the center of every decision. AscellaOne™ delivers a modular, interoperable ecosystem that unifies specialty pharmacy management, financial optimization and real-time data analytics into a single enterprise-level solution. The platform gives regional and community health plans access to the economics, transparency and clinical oversight traditionally reserved for large, vertically integrated PBMs — without the complexity or conflicts of legacy models. With aggregated purchasing power and access to 100% of specialty and retail pharmacy products, AscellaOne™ helps payer organizations reduce costs, strengthen clinical oversight and improve access and outcomes for their members.
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