Benchmarks of the Resources Needed for Pharmaceutical Managed Care Operations in the U.S.

For the pharmaceutical industry, marketplace success is tied to how successful organizations are in dealing with Managed Care. As the influence of Managed Care has grown, so too have the activities that biopharma companies carry out as part of interacting with the managed care sector. To help biopharma managed care groups more effectively conduct the many activities related to Managed Care interactions, Best Practices, LLC conducted a study to provide important benchmarks on the optimal size of U.S. Managed Care groups.

Specifically, this benchmark study provides managed care leaders with important benchmarks on the optimal size of U.S. Managed Care groups linked to activities performed to allow managed care leaders to assess their efficiency level relative to peers.

Staffing data (FTE), outsourcing, budget and efficiency metrics were gathered for the following activities performed by Managed Care groups:

• Account Management
• Customer Marketing Strategy (sets contract strategy, liaison to brand teams)
• Contract Management (back office support)
• Customer Market Research (specific to managed care customers)
• Customer Program Management (e.g., disease management or value-added programs)
• Pharmacy Relations
• Public payer Pricing (Implementation of rebates/chargebacks for Medicare/Medicaid/DoD/VA)

Leaders of the managed care function at biopharma companies use this study to assess their efficiency levels by comparing their staffing benchmarks with those of peer organizations.

Industries Profiled:
Consumer Products; Diagnostic; Pharmaceutical; Biotech; Health Care; Chemical; Medical Device; Manufacturing


Companies Profiled:
Bayer Healthcare; Pfizer; Shire; GlaxoSmithKline - Respiratory; GlaxoSmithKline; Millennium; Smith & Nephew; Forest Laboratories; Alcon; Acorda Therapeutics; Amylin; Purdue

Study Snapshot

The benchmark class includes 12 participants from the companies across pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries. Their roles ranged from senior leaders to managers of managed markets.

Key topics include:

• Structure, Revenue and Brand Oversight
• Staffing Profiles for U.S. Managed Care
• Budget Allocation By Activity for U.S. Managed Care
• Efficiency Ratios

Sample Key Findings

All U.S. Managed Care Headcount is internal staff: Members of the benchmark class do not actively outsource their Managed Care activities. Almost all the activities are performed internally at the benchmark companies.

• Account Management & Contract Management have the highest average headcounts: The average FTE deployed for Account Management and Contract Management activities shows the important role in overall Managed Care business in the United States. Account management is the most critical activity in U.S. Managed Care.

If you purchase Best Practice Database document(s), you will have 30 days from the date of purchase to apply some or all of the cost of the document(s) toward the cost of a Full Access Individual, Pharma, Group or University Membership. Write us at DatabaseTeam@bestpracticesllc.com or call David Guinn at 919-767-9179 if you have any questions.