Prime Therapeutics Names Katie Payne Chief External Affairs Officer — and Signals a New Playbook for Trust, Transparency, and Affordability

Pharmacy benefit managers are operating under the brightest spotlight they’ve seen in years. Employers want measurable value. Legislators demand transparency. Patients expect affordability without friction. Against that backdrop, Prime Therapeutics’ appointment of public affairs veteran Katie Payne as chief external affairs officer is more than a personnel move—it’s a structural signal about how policy, advocacy, and communications now have to work together to earn trust.

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In this newly created role, Payne will integrate public affairs, state and federal government affairs, policy insights, and corporate and client communications—aligning how Prime engages policymakers, partners, and the people who rely on its services. With prior leadership at the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) and experience across corporate communications, government relations, and issues/crisis management, she brings a portfolio tailored for a policy-intense, high-scrutiny environment.

“With a proven mastery of public affairs, health policy and communications, Katie will amplify what makes Prime’s model different and help us broaden our relationships with health care stakeholders as we continue to drive affordability and pharmacy access for the tens of millions of Americans we serve.” — Mostafa Kamal, President & CEO, Prime Therapeutics

Below, we unpack what this means for leadership teams navigating similar crosswinds—and how to translate the move into a practical operating model inside your organization.

1) Why this appointment matters: External affairs is becoming an operating system

The old model treated external affairs as a reactive function: monitor policy, respond to inquiries, issue statements, repeat. The new reality requires proactive integration across four vectors:

• Policy intelligence to anticipate regulatory shifts and price-transparency requirements

  
  

• Government relations to build durable, bipartisan relationships rooted in data and member impact

  
  

• Corporate & client communications to translate complexity into plain language for employers, providers, and members

  
  

• Issues & crisis readiness to align facts, spokespeople, and channels before a headline breaks

  
  

Prime’s move consolidates these levers under a single executive accountable for coherence. That structure shortens the distance between insight and action, ensures leadership hears a unified external signal, and reduces the risk of discordant messages across policymaker, media, and client channels.

“I’m thrilled to help Prime tell its unique story—and look forward to being part of Prime’s critical work of setting a new standard for transparency and trust in the pharmacy benefit space, while advancing affordability and access for millions of people.” — Katie Payne

2) The trust dividend: When policy and narrative move together

Trust isn’t a press release; it’s a pattern. Organizations earn it when policy positions, product decisions, and public narratives point in the same direction. Unifying external affairs helps leaders:

• Make trade-offs explicit. When affordability and access are stated priorities, external affairs can pressure-test decisions against those promises and explain the “why” clearly to stakeholders.

  
  

• Close the loop with evidence. Policy claims backed by outcomes—total cost of care, medication adherence, time-to-therapy—turn assertions into proof points.

  
  

• Normalize transparency. With a single owner for policy, advocacy, and communications, disclosures about pricing logic, network decisions, or utilization management can be structured, routine, and comprehensible.

  
  

From The Human Impact Blueprint™ perspective, this is alignment work: connect the human outcomes (members’ ability to afford and adhere to therapies) to the organizational choices (benefit design, contracting, specialty strategy) and the story you tell (why this path advances health, equity, and value).

3) A practical playbook for leaders (PBMs and beyond)

If you’re a CEO, CHRO, CCO, or Head of Public Affairs facing similar complexity, here’s a four-move sequence to stand up an integrated model:

A. Map the stakeholder system and set one narrativeIdentify your top 8–10 stakeholder groups (employers, members, health plans, regulators, providers, advocacy orgs, media, investors). Establish a single, plain-language narrative that anchors affordability, access, and transparency—then tailor the proof points by audience.

B. Build a shared intel layerCreate a rolling policy radar that blends legislative calendars, regulatory rulemaking, and market signals (pricing rules, biosimilar launches, benefit mandates). Pair it with member impact dashboards: out-of-pocket costs, prior-auth turnaround, therapy initiation. Intelligence only matters if it’s connected to human outcomes.

C. Align governance and responseStand up an External Affairs Council chaired by the chief external affairs officer with Legal, Medical/Clinical, Client Management, and Operations at the table. Pre-assign decision rights, spokespeople, and approval pathways. Measure speed-to-clarity during issues—how fast can you produce a factual, empathetic statement supported by data?

D. Instrument the trust metricsGo beyond media impressions. Track credibility signals: policymaker briefings requested, bipartisan co-sponsorships, employer NPS tied to communications clarity, member comprehension (Flesch-Kincaid), and resolution times in escalations. Trust is observable when your story holds up under scrutiny across audiences.

4) Pitfalls to avoid—and how to mitigate them

• Token integration. Reorgs without shared data, shared goals, or shared incentives revert to silos. Mitigation: set 3–5 cross-functional KPIs (e.g., affordability outcomes explained to stakeholders within 48 hours of a policy change).

  
  

• Over-indexing on compliance language. Risk-averse statements that confuse members erode confidence. Mitigation: adopt a plain-language standard and usability test your FAQs and employer memos with real users.

  
  

• Reactive posture. Waiting for hearings or headlines forces you into defense. Mitigation: publish a transparency cadence (e.g., quarterly affordability brief, methodology explainers, specialty pipeline outlook) and brief policymakers before news breaks.

  
  

• Data-less messaging. Assertions without evidence don’t survive. Mitigation: pair every claim with a verifiable datapoint and a source you’re willing to publish.

  
  

Call to Insight

If you say transparency and affordability are your north stars, organize your leadership structure so policy, advocacy, and communications move as one—and let the metrics prove it.

Final Reflection

Prime Therapeutics’ elevation of a unified external affairs leader is a timely blueprint: it treats trust not as a campaign, but as an operating discipline. In a complex, high-salience category like pharmacy benefits, the organizations that will be believed are those that can show their work—and explain it clearly to every stakeholder who matters.

About AdvoCast

AdvoCast is a strategic communications consultancy anchored by the Human Impact Blueprint™—our framework for embedding authentic human connection into organizational communication and culture. We help leaders align narrative, policy, and experience so trust becomes measurable. For collaboration inquiries or to learn more about how HIB can support your organization, contact our team.