# Senior Manager, Copay and Affordability Programs

**Company**: US Business Patient Services Access
**Location**: Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
**Work arrangement**: onsite
**Experience**: senior
**Job type**: full-time
**Salary**: $114,000 to $171,000
**Category**: Operations
**Industry**: Healthcare

**Apply**: https://astrazeneca.eightfold.ai/careers/job/563877689842581
**Canonical**: https://yubhub.co/jobs/job_1263b3a1-354

## Description

This role is responsible for end-to-end strategy, operations, and compliance for copay assistance and electronic prior authorization (ePA) programs.

The Senior Manager, Copay and Affordability programs is the organisational copay and ePA subject matter expert (SME), managing vendor relationships and contracts, overseeing program performance and audits, and partnering across cross-functional teams to ensure patients can access therapy efficiently and compliantly.

Key responsibilities include:

- Leading day-to-day operations of the copay assistance program, ensuring seamless patient and HCP experience, operational reliability, and adherence to all applicable laws, regulations, and internal policies.

- Managing copay and ePA vendors, including contract lifecycle, SOWs, KPIs/SLAs, QBR cadences, and performance remediation plans; driving continuous improvement and innovation.

- Maintaining compliant program design and execution, partnering with Legal, Compliance, Privacy, and Audit; developing and enforcing SOPs, monitoring plans, and issue management with timely CAPAs as needed.

- Analysing utilisation, affordability, and access trends; proposing and implementing strategies to improve patient activation, persistence, and cost-effectiveness while mitigating risk.

- Planning and executing internal/external audits of copay and ePA programs; overseeing sampling, documentation, findings, corrective actions, and sustainability checks.

- Owning budget planning and management for copay and ePA, including forecasting, accruals, invoice review/approval, reconciliation, and vendor billing accuracy; tracking ROI and unit economics.

- Defining and monitoring dashboards and reports for KPIs (e.g., enrollment, claims, activation rates, time-to-therapy, approval rates, patient discontinuations due to affordability, fraud indicators); translating insights into actions.

- Acting as the copay and ePA SME; responding to inquiries from internal partners (Market Access, Commercial, Patient Services, Compliance, Finance, IT) and escalating/resolve as needed.

- Overseeing ePA vendor operations, payer connectivity, coverage rules, and performance; ensuring alignment with hub workflow, field teams, and patient journey.

- Providing backup support to the broader access team, including reimbursement hub operations, case management processes, and issue triage for patient support services.

- Identifying operational, financial, and compliance risks; leading mitigation strategies, contingency planning, and incident response for program interruptions or data issues.

- Maintaining program documentation, business rules, and change logs; delivering training and communications for field teams, hubs, and internal stakeholders.

The ideal candidate will have a Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences or relevant field and 7+ years in pharmaceutical patient support programs, market access, or specialty pharmacy/hub operations, including directly managing copay/ePA programs and vendors.

Key technical skills include:

- Deep knowledge of copay program design, claims processing, accumulator/maximizer dynamics, OIG guidance, and industry compliance expectations.

- Working knowledge of ePA workflows, payer connectivity, NCPDP standards, and integration with hubs/EMR/eRx platforms.

- Proficiency with program analytics (Excel/BI tools), KPI dashboards, and financial management (budgeting, forecasting, invoicing).

- Experience drafting and managing contracts, SOWs, SLAs, and governance structures.

Key competencies include:

- Compliance mindset with strong judgment and attention to detail.

- Vendor leadership and negotiation skills; ability to hold partners accountable.

- Problem solving and optimisation using data-driven insights.

- Stakeholder management and clear communication across cross-functional teams.

- Project management with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $114,000 to $171,000, however base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualised factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

In addition, our positions offer a short-term incentive bonus opportunity; eligibility to participate in our equity-based long-term incentive programme (salaried roles) or to receive a retirement contribution (hourly roles).

Benefits offered include a qualified retirement programme [401(k) plan]; paid vacation and holidays; paid leaves; and, health benefits including medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans.

Additional details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

If hired, employee will be in an ‘at-will position’ and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation programme) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

## Skills

### Required
- copay program design
- claims processing
- accumulator/maximizer dynamics
- OIG guidance
- industry compliance expectations
- ePA workflows
- payer connectivity
- NCPDP standards
- integration with hubs/EMR/eRx platforms
- program analytics
- KPI dashboards
- financial management
- contract drafting
- vendor management