Shawn discusses how technology can be combined with human intervention to better help patients access, afford, and adhere to their therapies. He then describes how three patients benefited from support solutions.
For more information about how CoverMyMeds’ solutions can support the patient journey for your brand, visit their digital commercialization experience.
Read on for Shawn’s insights.
Technology that Supports Patients and Brands at Every Point of the Medication Access Journey
By Shawn Seamans, Chief Commercial Officer, CoverMyMeds
We know that especially for complex medications, an ideal combination of technology and human intervention can help patients achieve better outcomes. To learn how to customize a plan to help clear obstacles along the medication access journey for your brand, visit our digital commercialization experience.
Kristy has primary myelofibrosis, a chronic condition, meaning her medication access challenges aren’t just a one-time obstacle. While she has one option for treatment, she’s faced many access challenges since she started her specialty medication in 2013. Changes to drug formularies, health benefits and the medication itself can lead to barriers that delay access to her medication.
For patients like Kristy, technology-driven solutions can help navigate the often-complex specialty medication access journey, which can additionally benefit from expert human intervention. Solutions centralized in a single platform can keep all stakeholders informed and help reach patients where they are, reducing time to therapy by 34% in some cases.
Though not all medications require complex hub or specialty support, patients living with chronic conditions are often managing multiple prescriptions, that can each present access challenges. In fact, 1 in 4 patients experience delays in medications due to prior authorization (PA). Through increased support from our electronic PA technology, 93% more PA requests are approved by health plans, helping patients access their therapies faster.
Knowing other patients also face access challenges while experiencing chronic illness symptoms, Kristy keeps her health always in perspective.
“I can’t imagine jumping through all those hoops and going through appeals and denials on top of feeling ill,” she said.
IMPROVING AFFORDABILITY OPTIONS BY CUTTING THROUGH RED TAPE
Medication affordability challenges can put patients in the face of difficult decisions. In fact, last year, 51% of patients sacrificed their medications to pay for essential items like bills.
For patients like Patrick, overcoming affordability issues became a key part of learning to manage his condition. After losing most of his eyesight, he was forced to retire early. He later found out he had Type 2 diabetes, which led to macular edema. With his diabetes medication alone costing $850 out-of-pocket a month, Patrick’s next step was finding affordable ways to manage his health for these conditions. Insurance lowered that cost to $80, but he eventually found a biopharma coupon that brought his out-of-pocket cost down to $15.
While Patrick searched for and found affordability options on his own, strategic copay solutions can connect eligible patients with biopharma-sponsored programs such as copay and patient assistance programs.
Affordability solutions can help brands meet the needs of many patient populations. Programs can include technology support for automatic copay integration, patient enrollment, and some rejected prescriptions. Optimized with data, analytics and an extensive pharmacy network, affordability solutions through CoverMyMeds saved patients a collective $6 billion on their medications in the last year.
IMPROVING ADHERENCE WITH SOLUTIONS THAT OVERCOME BARRIERS
Many factors can affect medication adherence, as each patient’s experience and needs are unique. Dealing with adverse side effects from certain medications is one such factor in adherence, which is the case with Jeannine, a patient living with metastatic breast cancer.
After her initial diagnosis, Jeannine was reeling under the emotional stress from her diagnosis and side effects from her cancer treatment. The pains and aches caused by one of her medications became so bad at one point, she stopped taking the medication.
She’s far from alone in this: 1 in 5 cancer patients surveyed who said they didn't take their medications as prescribed blamed unpleasant side effects.
“I made the independent decision to stop,” she said. “If I didn’t feel good, I didn’t take it.”
While technology can send reminders and set up medication regimens, adherence is a barrier often best overcome through care team intervention. Ideal solutions connect patients with clinical educators with specialized therapeutic knowledge who can help them learn more about their treatment plan and offer hands-on support.
Patients receiving this kind of support have seen a 25% increase in adherence and 31 more days on therapy.
OUR SOLUTIONS HELP PATIENTS ACCESS, AFFORD AND ADHERE TO THE MEDICINE THEY NEED TO LIVE HEALTHIER LIVES
CoverMyMeds’ extensive suite of solutions allows brands to customize a plan to support patients at all points of their medication access journeys. By supporting brands through their individual challenges, we can help even more patients access the medicine they rely on to feel better.
For more information about how our solutions can support the patient journey for your brand, visit our digital commercialization experience.
Sponsored guest posts are bylined articles that are screened by Drug Channels to ensure a topical relevance to our exclusive audience. These posts do not necessarily reflect our opinions and should not be considered endorsements. To find out how you can publish a guest post on Drug Channels, please contact Paula Fein (paula@DrugChannels.net).
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