Putting the ‘Patient’ Back in Patient Services

pa·tient

/ˈpāSH(ə)nt/

Noun: a person receiving or registered to receive medical treatment.

Similar: sick person, case, sufferer, victim, invalid convalescent

Patient support services, patient access and support, patient access, affordability services, and patient access services are all familiar terms our industry uses to describe access, adherence, and affordability services a manufacturer elects to offer patients prescribed their marketed medications. These services are designed to help and support patients throughout their medication journey; to make life easier for them, answer questions for them, help them overcome obstacles to access, educate and empower them, and provide them with ongoing support. Yet, Oxford simply describes a patient as a person receiving or registered to receive medical treatment.

So, what are the ideal services to be leveraged when designing programs for the patient? As we saw in the definition, there are several patient perspectives to consider.

Do we define the patient's circumstance as a victim, a sufferer, a person with disabilities, or convalescent? When determining call cadence (the number of attempts to reach a patient in a set number of days) do we consider the impact on the patient? Are we reaching out too often or not often enough? Are the letters and calls in a language the patient understands? If the patient truly is sick or suffering, are we assuming there is a caregiver to answer the calls and read the letters? Are we more concerned with how many times we try to reach the patient to tell them about all the wonderful things we have to offer?

Putting the patient back in patient services means we do more, go deeper, and truly wrap customized offerings around the patient's needs. What do they need? How can we help them? What is important to them?

If the manufacturer wants to educate patients, they need to consider:

• Does the patient want to talk, can they talk?
• Are you thinking about what the patient is experiencing before you start designing the support program?
• What type of support is likely to make the biggest impact on your patient?
• Have you asked the patient?

At UBC, we know that we are more likely to obtain missing enrollment information if we reach the patient within the first 72 hours after their prescriber submits their enrollment form. Contact in those first 3 days is critical. But we also need to ask the patient how they want to be contacted. Do they want phone calls? Would they prefer a text message? Is it easier for them to upload their insurance card by sending an image or accessing a portal? Is there a time of day that they prefer to receive outreach? Would they like you to contact their caregiver instead?

Personally, I find myself unsubscribing from many companies' emails and text messages because I get too many, the content is not relevant, or I don't know how I got on their list. Do your patients want to be called every week for a check-in? Is it needed for their therapy? Do they have the time to answer your questions and engage in a meaningful manner?

UBC will partner with you to design a program that keeps your patients at the center of everything we do. We have multiple offerings that are built around the various needs of the patient.

• Nursing services like adherence counseling, caregiver support, or in-home visits
• Case Management services to provide a single point-of-contact for your patients and all their needs around medication access and affordability
• Texting services for alternative ways to reach patients and straightforward ways for patients to upload missing information
• Branded Phone Lines to increase the contact rate with your patients
• Social Determinants of Health scorecard to ensure you are offering the right services to the right population of your patients

Hub programs provide that extra something for your patients. We can design a patient-centric suite of services to help them successfully start therapy and ongoing support to help them stay committed to their prescribed therapy. UBC wants to collaborate with you to design programs that keep the patient front and center in all we do.

To learn more about how UBC's patient access team can help you design the optimal patient support program get in touch with us HERE.

ABOUT UBC: UBC designs purpose -built patient support programs to meet the needs of patients type and indication. By focusing on experienced team members on patients' needs, we can increase speed to therapy and improve the number of patients that start and stay on therapy.

Cathy Patten, Senior Director, Patient Access

Cathy Patten is a Senior Director of Patient Access Services for UBC with over 25 years of operational experience in Pharmacy Benefit Management, Specialty Pharmacy, and Hub Services providing support to patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers via phone, email, and chat channels. She is a result-driven, quality-focused, service-forward professional that has successfully deployed and managed remote workforces and multi-site operations for new start-ups and transitioned programs

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