Geoffrey and Matthew examine the important role of patient services providers. They suggest several questions manufacturers can ask when evaluating a patient services partner’s technology infrastructure, pharmacy network design, data visibility, and operational capabilities.
Click here to learn more about BlinkRx’s patient services solution.
Read on for Geoffrey and Matthew’s insights.
BlinkRx Insights: The Questions Manufacturers Wish They Had Asked Before Selecting a Patient Services Partner
By Geoffrey Chaiken and Matthew Chaiken, Co-founders, BlinkRx
According to industry data, less than half of branded prescriptions are filled initially and under one third of patients remain adherent through their first year of treatment. Pharmacies often lose money on these prescriptions, limiting their incentive to stock products, support prior authorizations, or help patients access affordability programs.
Leading manufacturers recognize that the status quo is unsustainable. In response, they are turning to digital-first hubs and services that offer greater visibility and control over the prescription journey, enabling them to improve patient access and optimize brand performance.
Yet many manufacturers fail to ask the questions that ultimately determine whether a patient services solution can deliver meaningful outcomes, support long-term growth, and keep pace with an evolving market.
If you peruse the websites for leading solutions, they all essentially make the same claims. While the industry has coalesced around marketing the same value proposition, there is a big difference in actual capabilities, which buyers often find difficult to discern.
Over the past decade, we have grown BlinkRx to support more than fifty brands, and we have powered multiple blockbuster launches. Based on the needs of our many customers, we invested $750 million into our technology platform, built a specialized team of over 1,000 employees, and established the largest and most robustly integrated pharmacy network in the patient services industry.
Along the way, we have heard a consistent story from manufacturers that transitioned to BlinkRx from other patient services providers. They were sold a compelling vision by other companies: modern technology, streamlined operations, better patient engagement, and higher GTN. Yet the reality always fell far short of those promises.
In preparing to write this piece, we asked clients who switched to BlinkRx what they wished they had asked during their original vendor selection process. We have compiled here the top questions that would help identify who can really deliver and who can’t:
Can the platform identify and offer the lowest available patient price—cash or covered—across all payers within minutes of receiving the prescription?
Why this matters: Most patient services providers lack the digital infrastructure and pharmacy network required to determine patient-specific pricing in real time, across all payers, and at the scale demanded by leading brands. Without the appropriate depth and breadth of integrations, patient pricing takes hours and days not minutes and scaling is limited by the need for significant human involvement.
Does the platform provide payers with visibility into the true demand for my product to support market access?
Why this matters: Many solutions rely on benefits investigation tools that don’t accurately show demand for every prescription to payers. The most powerful solutions provide payers with real time transparency into prescription demand. Without that data payers can’t see the true demand for your product hampering long-term market-access.
Does the platform maintain control of the prescription from the first fill through every refill?
Why this matters: Many solutions optimize the initial prescription workflow, but then hand the patient off to a third party dispensing pharmacy, limiting visibility, control, and the ability to drive ongoing adherence.
How many pharmacies with payer coverage are in the dispensing network, and what is the nature of their payer contracts?
Why this matters: Many hubs concentrate volume with a small number of pharmacies because those pharmacies support digital integrations. Manufacturers should understand whether those integrations come at the expense of broad payer coverage and poor pharmacy reimbursement, which would incur significant hidden costs for them. The difference between 99.9% and 95% coverage is a +20% impact on brand profitability.
Does the solution provide real-time visibility into the operational status and profitability of every prescription?
Why this matters: Most patient services providers rely on a collection of third-party vendors that each manage a portion of the patient journey. As a result, data is often fragmented across systems, making it difficult to obtain accurate, real-time insight into program performance and economics. Without an integrated system built on a unified data model, accurate measurement is exceptionally challenging. As a result, the patient experience can’t improve over time, your partner can’t be held accountable, and your marketing organization can’t act on what’s happening in the field in real-time.
How many software developers and technologists does the company employ?
Why this matters: In patient services, long-term innovation requires a deep engineering bench.
In later pieces we’ll go into more detail about why building a streamlined branded prescription journey is so challenging. Further, we’ll outline some of the dozens of other areas that separate world-class solutions from duct-taped ones.
Ultimately, the entire pharma industry should have a shared goal: ensure every prescription written is filled at the lowest price for the patient and with sustainable economics for the life-science innovator. Right now, the system is failing miserably at this and every key player - from patients to manufacturers to providers and pharmacies - is suffering as a result. An alternative is possible - and imperative for American healthcare.
Click here to learn more about BlinkRx.
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