The 2020 HUB, SPP, eServices Conference was no less informative in its COVID-19 friendly digital format.
And of all the conferences this season, this one touches on more areas where technology and connectivity can make significant impact on the patient experience. Here are our top takeaways from the conference.
Top takeaways:
1. It is possible to overcome the obstacles standing between specialty patients and their needed therapy. And technology will play an increasing role in the future.
In “Create a Positive Patient Engagement Model to Enhance Patient Outcomes,” Alan Balch, PhD, CEO of the Patient Advocate Foundation, cited patient statistics that further cement our conviction that getting the right help to the right patient at the right time is critical:
- 20 contacts per case, over 10 days to help a patient.
- About 40% report being “usually to always overwhelmed by the time and effort it takes to get to treatment.”
Our Take: Transportation is just one complicating factor preventing patients from easily accessing treatment. With COVID and the rise in technology-enabled solutions, we can overcome transportation challenges while streamlining that 20-contact-per-case effort. Simply put, there is a technical solution to this analog problem.
Recommended Recordings:
– Create a Positive Patient Engagement Model to Enhance Patient Outcomes
– Building an End-to-End Model Through Integration — The New Key to Innovation
2. Integration is the key to innovation and improved adoption.
“Manual processes still plague the hub world to this day. As an example, when we talk HUB enrollment, over 90% are still submitted via fax…” – Kyle Grimslid
Kyle highlights numerous ways in which technology could (should, and will) overcome obstacles standing in the way of “the ultimate goal of getting this patient on and keeping him on appropriate and often life-changing therapy.”
Our Take: Patients need therapy, and now more than ever, integration and access—when, where and how they need it—are the keys to their success. It really is all about providing the right support when we know it is appropriate for the patient at just the right moment.
Recommended Recordings:
– Building an End-to-End Model Through Integration — The New Key to Innovation
3. Electronic prior authorizations should be the default.
2020 may be an election year and a pandemic year, but increasingly, this is the year of the electronic prior-auth. It’s a complex issue, but patient needs are winning the day as all parties work together to achieve prior-authorization solutions the patients need. Again, to echo previous presentations, when they need it, where they need it, and how they need it. It’s all about the patient.
“There are even more parties involved in Specialty Medications beyond the pharmacy, PBM and prescriber. We can add health plans who may be processing their own claims for medical benefits, pharmaceutical companies and the hubs they contract with to run their support programs, and finally, data intermediaries, who can assist with guiding the process along – plus HUB data aggregators that measure the process after all has been completed.”
“This is leaving a number of gaps where the process reverts to the fax machine.”
– Brian Bamberger
Our Take: We are 100% invested in creating system-agnostic solutions that bridge data gaps to better serve specialty patients. It’s all about making life easier for brands by making life easier for patients. And prior-auth is one pivotal piece in this puzzle.
Recommended Recordings:
– A Look at Technological Advancements Accelerating and Enhancing Patient Access
4. 2020 is forcing brands to reassess technical solutions to evolving patient needs.
2020, the year of hindsight… As brands preparing to launch in spring and summer faced into the COVID-storm of complexities, tech solutions were no longer a luxury, but a patient necessity. And a launch necessity. And not just the minimal engagement features like collecting signatures.
Our Take: This is not something we take lightly. While 2020 may be forcing the issue for many brands and patients, we’ve been hard at work creating solutions before the problems reached pandemic proportions. To say that HelpAround is here for this would—in a year already fraught with understatements—be the understatement of the year.
Recommended Recordings:
– Integrating Tech + Talent into Patient Solutions Design to Deliver Better Patient and Provider Experiences
Conclusion
Pharma is being pushed, pulled and prodded into the digital world, led by patient needs in the wake of nationwide stay-at-home orders. This transition to digital (from complex issues like prior-auth to seemingly simple conundrums like how-to-get-signatures) is the tune we’re all dancing to. And the more we can collaborate in the complex dance, the better specialty patients will be served. And again, to re-re-reiterate, the needs of the patient are the needs of the brand.
Making specialty drug therapy easy means giving patients:
- What they want—easy access, flexibility and transparency
- When they want it—at the time that’s most convenient for them
- Where they want it—via desktop, mobile, mobile web, SMS and/or in-person
This conference season, even the conference-circuit is being forced to adapt and adopt creative technical solutions to very human problems. How do we connect? How do we learn from each other? How do we move forward?
Just as we all experience through remote working and virtual conferences, technology-enabled solutions will continue to grow in importance in the specialty patient journey. And HelpAround will be there – making pharma’s life easier by making patients’ lives easier.