Online Patient Support Excellence: Using Brand Website Services for Reimbursement and Training

STUDY OVERVIEW

Patients with chronic conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis are frequent users of the healthcare system. Thus it is vital for this patient group to understand how to navigate the managed care labyrinth. To help patients understand how the reimbursement system works and effective ways to navigate it, leading pharmaceutical organizations use brand websites to facilitate online patient support for reimbursement and access issues. Additionally, some patient groups need treatment training or guidance for conditions involving the use of injections at home.

Best Practices, LLC conducted this study to showcase different online approaches and tools that leading organizations utilize to provide online patient support for insurance issues. Additionally, the study reveals multiple online training tutorials used by benchmark brands in helping patients regarding administration of injections and medicines at home.

KEY TOPICS

• Online Patient Support Area: Offered for Gaining Access and Reimbursement
• Using Reimbursement Specialists
• Online Patient Support Area Training for Injection Therapies
  

• Brand websites providing insurance question support and payer information
• Brand websites offering specific guidance, support, or information for patients requiring prior authorization from their insurance plans
• Brand websites offering specific guidance, support, or information for patients enrolled in Medicare D
• Brand websites containing a glossary of key insurance terms
• Brand websites providing an opportunity for consultation with a healthcare professional
• Patient support services include a home training visit from a nurse
  

• Sixty percent of benchmark brand website provide insurance question support and payer information: Reimbursement challenges and other access strictures may deter or prevent patients from receiving the right medicine. Well-crafted insurance and payer information sections illuminate a path forward for patients, including prospective ones using brand websites to make a “quick-and-dirty” cost or feasibility calculation between similar products.
• Some Brands Also Provide a Home Training Visit from a Nurse: Though brand websites stress the importance of receiving in-office training from a physician, many patients might still not feel comfortable injecting themselves. Since some products require daily injection, a home visit from a healthcare professional is a potentially critical means of enabling a patient to feel comfortable with treatment.

The benchmark framework probed 10 chronic care product websites to glean online approaches and tools for patient support regarding reimbursement and access issues. Additionally, online tools and approaches were reviewed for helping train patients who require injection treatments. Benchmark products examined include: Boniva, Cimzia, Enbrel, Forteo, Fosamax, Humira, Reclast, Remicade, Rituxan, and Simponi.

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


Companies Profiled:
Abbott; Amgen; Centocor Ortho Biotech Inc.; Eli Lilly; Genentech; Johnson & Johnson; Merck; Novartis; Roche; UCB Pharma

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