The Secret to Payer Access? Communication is Key
An exclusive video from our flagship event, Barcelona 2012 explains there is more to a relationship with payers than sales pitches...
Payer Access. It’s a hot topic, one which has been discussed all over the interwebs for several years now. And now it seems that the payers have opened up to provide you with a shocking revelation. The key to payer access? Communication!
Surprise, surprise.
It’s hardly revolutionary. “Communication is key” has been used in every industry so frequently it’s become something of a cliché uttered in every boardroom worldwide, however it appears that regardless of the familiarity of the concept, it would seem that good communication is still something which is often forgotten.
Speaking during a panel at Barcelona 2012, Omar Ali of the Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust, expressed his frustration at the lack of consultation payers are often afforded
“You’re not taking the payers on the journey at the moment. You launch a molecule; you thrash around with KOLs, professors of disease. You have lots of launch meetings that have nothing to do with the payer strategy and at the end somebody, somewhere who’s probably not qualified or appropriate will come and see me with a cost model that bares very little relevance to either my national or strategic health economy. And so, really, the payers have not been taken on the journey at all.”
It’s so obvious it’s painful, right? The key to engaging payers and to obtaining payer access - open up to them, consult with them and take them “on the journey” as Mr Ali happily points out.
“So my advice is you need to start taking the payers on that journey. From the launch, even from the pre-launch, work with the payers. It can be done; you do it with every other customer. At the moment I think the fear of the unknown or maybe just the history has meant you’re just ignoring us. And the problem is… in the past we had some money, GDP was increasing and everyone could just give you your double digit figures with champagne on top. That’s fine. Look at the world we have today: look at what’s happened to the Euro; we’re keeping it afloat. Some countries are sinking.”
“The payers’ importance has risen very quickly to the top of healthcare funding. 10 years ago I was just somebody’s interesting calculation; now I’m at the top of the food chain. If the payer does not pull the chequebook out, none of your drugs will be used. You’ve got to start talking with us and collaborating from the beginning.”
I don’t think the message could be much clearer than that.