Social distancing is a term we all learned – and practiced – during the pandemic. Medical distancing was also prevalent. Patients avoided routine office visits, trips to the emergency department and canceled or delayed many elective procedures.
In 2020, overall prescription volume dropped by as much as 12 percent, compared to 2019 baseline levels.1 As office visits dropped and patients stayed home, some suffering through undiagnosed conditions, new prescriptions plummeted by as much as 37 percent in 2020.2
The limitations of providing care during the pandemic also meant far fewer in-office visits from drug representatives. As a result, many physicians are still in the dark about newly available therapies or updates to current offerings.
Solutions integrating pharmaceutical data can bridge important communication gaps. These methodologies help providers break down treatment barriers and biopharma companies drive brand loyalty.
Igniting new biopharma business models
Pandemic-related process changes – coupled with new clinical solutions – are beginning to bring innovation for biopharma digital transformations. Biopharma is entering a new era of collaboration with the providers that bring its medications to the masses, and it starts with data availability and transparency.
Data is becoming the new currency in the life sciences industry, according to Deloitte.3 That’s good news for today’s patients who expect convenience and transparency so they can make informed healthcare decisions, especially about their prescription medications.
A recent patient survey revealed that after paying the lowest price, receiving medications as soon as possible and confirming insurance coverage were top concerns.4 The more integrated prescription data can be across the healthcare ecosystem, the greater the ability of providers to deliver on these promises.
By engaging with data from biopharma, payer and providers in one platform, care teams can better understand their patients’ drug coverage and requirements for prior authorizations and denials. Providers can then more quickly help patients overcome treatment-access barriers and start and stay on track with prescribed therapies.
What’s more, solutions sometimes include connections to teams of experts who help patients and providers understand and navigate the existing barriers to access. They act on their behalf as local advocates to overcome payer objections and speed up authorizations and medication delivery.
The tech in which biopharma should consider investing
Just as telehealth improves clinical workflows, access and adherence solutions make prescribing more efficient – and effective. Biopharma companies can deliver brand-specific information within a provider’s workflow, saving the care team time spent digging for updated drug information or searching for new therapies.
Healthcare provider (HCP) portals can give clinicians easy, automated access to common requests historically facilitated through in-person meetings – meetings that often take physicians away from their patients.
As the healthcare ecosystem continues to feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, accessing medication information is becoming more important than ever. Adopting innovative healthcare solutions that improve patient access to prescriptions and streamline processes for providers, pharmacists and payers could be the health crisis’ biggest silver lining.
The name of the game going forward? Transparency and data liquidity, not just between providers and pharmaceutical companies, but among the many stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem.
To learn more about how information technology is improving collaboration throughout the healthcare ecosystem, download Medication Access Report: Healthcare Technology from CoverMyMeds.
References
Source: Read Full Article