Connecting Providers and Technology: Improving the Patient Journey Through Actionable Insights

Today’s guest post comes from Ben Stormer, Vice President of Specialty Product Development and Strategy at CoverMyMeds and Regina Murphy, Vice President of Product Strategy, Access and Adherence at RxCrossroads by McKesson.

Ben and Regina describe AMP: Access for More Patients™, a new technology-based hub service solution from CoverMyMeds and RxCrossroads by McKesson. To learn more about AMP, visit go.covermymeds.com/specialty.

Read on for Ben’s and Regina’s insights.

Connecting Providers and Technology: Improving the Patient Journey Through Actionable Insights
By Ben Stormer, Vice President, Specialty Product Development and Strategy, CoverMyMeds and
Regina Murphy, MBA, Vice President, Product Strategy, Access & Adherence, RxCrossroads by McKesson

For the past few decades, the IT infrastructure of our health care system has been slowly and, at times, painfully upgraded to support connectivity and better patient care. We are now at a point where health records are managed electronically, and critical information can be exchanged among industry stakeholders in real-time. Patients now, more than ever, expect their health care to be delivered with comparable speed and efficiency to other more commoditized industries.

While some areas of health care keep pace with the steady march towards technological progress, other areas lag far behind. For a prime example of antiquated health care, look no further than care coordination for patients prescribed specialty medications. To begin a complex therapy, patients and providers must jump through more hoops than they’re typically used to for traditional, retail medications. Check out our recent white paper to learn how these challenges are impacting patients with autoimmune conditions.

THE NEED FOR A TECH-REVOLUTION IN PATIENT SUPPORT SERVICES

Biopharma-sponsored hub programs were developed to ease the burden of starting specialty therapies for patients and providers. The problem is that most patients are not even aware that these support services exist. Additionally, traditional hubs follow manual workflows to coordinate patient care, which involves phone calls, faxes and other less efficient communication channels. Critical information needed to start patients on therapy is scattered across multiple health care stakeholders, leaving case workers scrambling to track it down and contributing to a fragmented patient access experience.

As more specialty medications enter the market and more patients seek to start therapy, traditional hubs simply can’t keep up. The need for a tech-revolution for patient support services is clear.

A NEW TECH-ENABLED APPROACH TO PATIENT SUPPORT

By integrating patient support services with industry-leading health care technology, CoverMyMeds and RxCrossroads by McKesson have developed AMP: Access for More Patients™. This first-of its-kind technology-driven platform transforms the traditional hub model for patient support services.

Enabled by a network of over 700,000 providers and industry-leading electronic capabilities, AMP is opening the door for all patients to experience streamlined access and support for specialty medications. Performance of AMP was recently demonstrated in a two-month pilot study where nearly 1,250 patients were able to get their medications an average of 27 percent faster than the industry standard.

CONNECTIVITY LIKE NEVER BEFORE

AMP connects each health care stakeholder through a common web portal that functions as the central electronic control center for patient care coordination. More specifically, AMP powers a specialty dashboard that providers can easily toggle to within the existing CoverMyMeds web portal. Providers’ familiarity with and regular use of CoverMyMeds for online completion of electronic prior authorization requests can help facilitate viral adoption of this new platform.

Coupled with omni-channel enrollment options for providers, including automatic enrollment during e-prescribing, online enrollment through the specialty dashboard or traditional fax-based enrollment, AMP is helping to ensure that all patients can receive the support they need for their complex therapies. By equipping providers with point-of-prescribing enrollment, more patients can now experience immediate AMP support – which is especially impactful for those patients prescribed specialty medications without mandatory hub requirements.

Like never before, AMP is electronically connecting each health care stakeholder to give real-time visibility into the patient journey. From the point of prescribing through the start of therapy and beyond (i.e., on-going care and adherence), patient cases can be easily tracked and monitored by providers and case managers–helping to ensure that care is coordinated in a timely manner for positive outcomes.

AMP’s connectivity and visibility were put to the test in the recent pilot study and were found to accelerate completion of reimbursement activities like benefits investigation, benefits verification and prior authorization to 11 days on average – a significant improvement compared to the weeks these steps usually take to complete.

A standardized, electronic workflow helps ensure automation and efficiency for the majority of patient cases. However, when dealing with complex specialty medications, exceptions to the common path are expected. Such exceptions trigger the attention of AMP case managers that can quickly intervene to help resolve any outstanding issues to help patients begin and stay on therapy.

For providers, AMP offers a chance to avoid much of the back-and-forth they are used to with specialty medications, while helping to start patients on therapy more quickly than in the past. Total transparency and instant access to the most up-to-date information also empowers providers to answer patients’ questions about the status of their prescriptions – creating perceptions of resourcefulness, organization and professionalism that can help set patients at ease.

For patients, AMP is improving access and support for the therapies they need to live healthy lives, whether through referrals for financial assistance, rapid completion of administrative requirements or on-going adherence support.

AMP is accelerating the evolution of hub programs for specialty medications. Through AMP, visibility into each stage of the patient journey is clearer than ever – providing stakeholders with actionable insights they need to help improve time-to-therapy for patients. To learn more about how AMP is propelling patient care for complex therapies into the future, visit visit go.covermymeds.com/specialty and download the AMP pilot study.

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