MedSpan Musings — Tips for better market research

When conducting market research with the hospital pharmacy department, ensure that the right section is informing your actions.

While some hospital pharmacies limit their scope of practice to their individual hospital, others are responsible for the purchasing and management of drug therapies throughout the integrated delivery system.

• Pharmacy directors — Sets policy for operations, contracting, inventory management, and intra-delivery system distribution. The pharmacy director typical is a voting member of the P&T Committee, thereby influencing product selection.The pharmacy director tends to be the most knowledgeable among his or her staff regarding billing, coding and reimbursement for drug therapy. However, in our experience, the level of expertise in these areas varies between hospital pharmacy directors.

  Integrated delivery systems may have one pharmacy director for inpatient care and another for outpatient care. They report to a Vice President of Pharmacy. Standalone hospitals tend to have one pharmacy director.

• Clinical pharmacists — Are often stationed throughout the hospital. Share drug insights with other clinicians. Develop drug monographs for the P&T Committee. Each clinical pharmacist specializes in one or more disease categories (e.g., cardiovascular disease) or hospital patient care unit (e.g., emergency medicine).
• IV operations managers — Oversees compounding processes and clean rooms. IV operations managers are important respondents for studies involving IV therapies.
• Pharmacy buyers — Work directly with wholesalers and drug companies to execute the delivery system’s day-to-day buying practices.

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MedSpan Musings — Tips for better payer market research

MedSpan Musings — Tips for better payer market research  

The benefit covering a drug is not always obvious

When discussing benefit coverage of drugs with payers, remember that some health plans at first cover drugs under the medical benefit and then transfer those costs each month to the pharmacy benefit. Be sure to probe for this approach and its implications for drugs administered in physicians’ offices and alternate sites of care.

Gene therapy — The price is right?

The introduction of the first gene therapy presents challenges for payers. These costly therapies will require new approaches in terms of pricing benchmarks and reimbursement methodologies.

What’s in a (business) name? Gold.

Selecting a business name is important. As MedSpan Research and our client learned, it is worth the time and investment to carefully consider alternatives.

Home Healthcare + Star Ratings = Controversy

Like nursing homes, physician groups,dialysis centers and Medicare Advantage plans before them, CMS is now rating the quality of care delivered by home healthcare agencies (HHAs). While the program is controversial, it provides clear guidance to healthcare manufactures as to the sales and marketing messages and data that will resonate with their home healthcare customers.