Pharmaceutical market access vice presidents, executive directors, market access marketing, and brand leads:
We are witnessing groundbreaking change in the organized provider (large community practices and health systems) business model—from pursuit of mergers and acquisitions to growth strategies intensely focused on operational excellence, differentiation through high-satisfaction patient/member experience and innovation through new capabilities. Mergers have stabilized, and the focus has shifted to urgently executing the new business model built on:
A reliance on evidence-based medicine, value-based care, and population health with pursuit of standardized practice to achieve this
Intense focus on cutting costs while increasing requests for price concessions and access to limited distribution specialty drugs
Electronic health record (EHR) integration driving drug formulary access and guideline compliance
Narrowing drug suppliers and access for their personnel
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a disruptive force that has negatively impacted both demand for services and revenue as demonstrated by disrupted payer mixes although in some hospitals the impact will not be felt until the end of 2021 when certain CARES Act provisions end.
Telehealth Use Stabilizes at 38 times Higher than Pre-pandemic
Another lasting impact, according to Sykes Polling, is that 88% of those polled want to continue using telehealth services for non-urgent consultations after COVID-19 has passed. According to new data from McKinsey, on the provider side, 58% of physicians continue to view virtual care more favorably than before the pandemic. Net net, as of Q2 2021, telehealth use overall has stabilized at levels 38 times higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from 13% to 17% of visits across all specialties.
In sum, the pandemic has catalyzed providers to urgently re-engage with patients, recapture revenue and continue to build out their telehealth infrastructure and capabilities to help patients receive on-demand support and care. This is being met with high patient acceptance and expectations for personalized engagement, education, and reimbursement support offering convenience, quality, transparency, and low cost.
This all being said, providers are closely watching reimbursement rates and some claim that if fee-for-service telehealth reimbursement drops below 15% of in-person reimbursement, they may stop offering telehealth.
A counterpoint can easily be made that providers who stop offering telehealth are likely to lose patients to their growing list of digital competitors. Should this happen, many providers may reconsider their stance.
Telehealth is a Rate Critical for Value-Based Care
Another consideration is that some providers are realizing that supporting patient engagement through telehealth is significantly expanding their competencies in delivering population health and value-based care. Robust telehealth capabilities are an imperative to take on risk and deliver value-based care.
Impact of Provider Operational Sophistication—Telehealth Is Rampant and Immature
As a market access or brand leader, your organized provider priorities are driven by speeding accurate diagnosis, identifying appropriate patients, and delivering evidence-based care to produce brand results. The pandemic, however, has negatively impacted access of customer-facing personnel to key provider decision makers.
Have you assessed your target customers' growing operational sophistication including value-based care initiatives and telehealth? How does their evolution impact your brand access strategies and your ability to create credible provider customer collaborations? Can you help them improve to good or great?
Even with reduced access of your field team, Aventria can help you successfully create deeper customer collaborations in this area of high provider need through our proven and proprietary technology solution.
Presenting Aventria Health Group’s Outcome Guided Engagement® (OGE®) Telehealth Solution
Outcome Guided Engagements® provide evidence-based patient and provider educational tools at the point of care within the clinical workflow during a telehealth call. The OGE® platform of either branded or unbranded tools is easily integrated into EHR systems and virtual telehealth resource sets. Our platform doesn’t solve for telehealth; rather, it uses telehealth to support providers in their efforts to successfully engage patients and create a high-impact satisfaction experience along the patient journey.
To learn more about Aventria’s OGE® Telehealth Solution and how we can help you deploy with confidence this proven technology platform that may strengthen your collaborations with organized providers, please reach out to:
Dave Dierk, Co-President, 30-year sales and marketing thought leader in pharmaceutical diagnostics, biomedical, long-term care, managed care, employer, and pharmacy communications, at dave.dierk@aventriahealth.com.
Paul G. Pochtar, RPh, 25+ years of experience in leading the successful commercialization of both primary care and specialty pharmaceuticals throughout their life cycle, including several landmark oncology products and other specialty therapeutics, at ppochtar@pinnaclehc.com.
Making a difference in patient care by helping patients, providers, and payers collaborate on shared priorities