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HUB SERVICES EVOLVE AS

INDUSTRY TRANSFORMS
To improve overall experience, manufacturers look to boost
engagement with providers and patients

By Joann Whitcher
 HUB SERVICES EVOLVE AS INDUSTRY TRANSFORMS

Enrollment and intake

Seamless hub services programs are in
demand for both providers and patients.
Before describing alternative channels
for healthcare providers, Dulitz told
attendees that TrialCard “looked across
30 programs that we’re running on the
hub side. About 75% to 80% of all hub
enrollments are still coming in via the
legacy fax channel.”
One key alternative channel is the
healthcare provider portal, which allows
providers to self-service for enrollment.
“Looking at where the industry is mov-
ing, the goal is how we can get better
embedded within the healthcare provider
workflow,” said Dulitz. “There’s a lot of
buzz about e-prescribing, EMR, prac-
tice management system integration,
and there’s been some progress made
in this area.”
Knobel urged hub providers, payers,
and pharma to move the patient to mobile
“as soon as possible. If you’re trying to
get the patient enrolled, if the specialty
pharmacy is trying to reach the patient,
mobile versus email is going to be the
best shot. If you have the opportunity to
collect one piece of data from the patient,

H
it should be their mobile number so you
can text them updates.”
ealthcare is in the thick of evolutionary “There’s a lot of data that can be
change, from the massive disruption collected from the mobile phone that
and consolidation in traditional out- doesn’t exist anywhere else,” he added,
reach channels to the emergence of noting that required consent needs to
Silicon Valley and the empowered be obtained to collect and act on any
consumer fostering a change in expectations among all information captured. “Using this data,
stakeholders. Add to this a focus on specialty products you can be more timed in your messages,
in novel therapeutic areas and pharma’s lack of access you can be more appropriate, and you
Scott Dulitz can catch the patient at the right time.”
to HCPs – and the result is a fundamental shift in the SVP of enterprise
healthcare environment. Technology is only one part of the
strategy and corporate
TrialCard’s exclusive panel at the recent CBI HUB development equation for reaching HCPs. In fact,
and SPP Model Optimization Conference in San Diego TrialCard Kaboos acknowledged, “we do it with
feet on the street more so than with
focused on the advancements hub service providers have made in the areas of
technology. We recently launched a
enrollment and intake, access and affordability, and adherence and engagement.
field reimbursement team and a patient
Joining moderator Richard Whittington, AVP of pharma products and services
access group, and because they’re a
for TrialCard, were Scott Dulitz, senior VP of enterprise strategy and corporate
non-promotional team, they’re viewed
development for TrialCard; Kevin Kaboos, manager, reimbursement, HUB, and
differently by HCP offices. They have
patient support strategist services in the biopharma industry; Alice Ganzar, senior direct interaction with the SP partners;
consultant with Protean; and Yishai Knobel, cofounder and CEO of HelpAround.

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 HUB SERVICES EVOLVE AS INDUSTRY TRANSFORMS
they work with local pharmacies that have
access to our product.
“Our field reps can get access to places
where the sales rep cannot because it’s a
different message that is delivered,” he said.
Access and affordability
Historically, inquiries related to the access
and affordability of a specific product
have made up the lion’s share of hub
activity. While phone calls and faxes are
still prevalent between hubs, prescribers,
and payers, there is advancement in some
of the eService technology around eBVs,
ePAs, and eRxs. There is also increased
demand to further embed affordability
solutions into the prescribers’ workflow,
and to offer flexibility in terms of payment
and reimbursement channels.
TrialCard found that 63% of initial
inquiries into the hub were specific to
patient affordability, Dulitz revealed.
“If you’re a manufacturer considering
introducing electronic benefit verification
capabilities into your program, there
are two key performance indicators that
should be looked at,” he said. “The first
KPI is around automation rates, and this
is going to help you understand what
the type of coverage a particular service
provider has that’s offering these capabil-
ities,” he said. “The second KPI that you
should look at is accuracy rates – what is
the accuracy of the response that’s coming
back with these transactions?”
For manufacturers focused on increas-
ing speed to therapy, it’s important to
look at the holistic experience and see
what can be automated, said Ganzar. “In
certain disease states with competitive
drugs that have similar outcomes and
are therapeutically equivalent, that’s
very important,” she said. “You have to
look at the process and how it ties into
your physician population, your patient
population, and then what technologi-
cal requirements you have from a hub
standpoint to incorporate all these and
to make it flow.”
Mobile co-pay assistance is a huge
opportunity, said Knobel. But the offer-
ing has to be built into the flow of how
the patient interacts with other services
— whether it’s chatting with a nurse or
being notified about the co-pay assistance
status. “The advantage for the patient
is the experience,” he said. “They have
a much better experience than manual
forms. The opportunity for the manu-
facturers is that they can act based on
utilization data.”
Kaboos’ brand, which is in the middle
of its first commercial launch, overhauled
its business model, decentralizing its hub
and moving all of the reimbursement work
over to the SP channel.
“Having co-pay assistance at the hub
level when the SPs are doing the reim-
bursement support doesn’t work,” Kaboos
said, so the company engaged TrialCard
to change its approach.
“Now, it’s actually our SP partners
that go online and register the patient for
co-pay assistance after they verified it’s
a commercial patient that’s eligible,” he
shared. “The pharmacy gets the co-pay
BIN and PCN number and applies it to
the claim. They ship the product to the
patient. The patient doesn’t have to do
a thing in that process.”
Enhancing the patient’s interaction
with the brand comes down to minimiz-
ing the number of hand-offs as much as
possible, said Dulitz., creating more of
an optimal experience for the patient.
“As you involve more and more service
providers, those hand-offs get complicated
and there are additional points of failure
that could potentially cause a patient to
slip between the cracks,” noted Dulitz.
Adherence and engagement
Historically, 80% or more of the re-
sourcing and spend in manufacturer
hub support programs has been devoted
to enrollment and helping patients with
concerns about accessibility and afford-
ability concerns. “But we are seeing a lot
of momentum now on the manufacturer
side to engage with patients, and ensure
that once patients are initiated on therapy
that they remain adherent,” said Dulitz.
TrialCard’s manufacturer clients are
increasingly assessing patients using
validated scales, then using those results
to develop targeted, personalized inter-
ventions for patients.
For example, a soccer mom in her early
30s from Ames, Iowa, is going to need
a very different level of engagement and
support versus an elderly person living
in inner-city Chicago who’s on Medicare
and may not have any local social support.
When the required consents are ob-
tained, co-pay cards can also uncover
levels of adherence. “If the info is collected
in real time, then you’ll know whether or
not the patient is using the co-pay card,”
said Knobel. “There’s a lot of information
that can be passively collected and then
boiled into something actionable.”
Hub programs have historically adopt-
ed a one-size-fits-all approach to engaging
with patients. With the advancement of
AI/ML technology, along with predictive
analytics, manufacturers are now able to
integrate more targeted engagement and
adherence solutions.
“THE GOAL
IS HOW WE CAN
GET BETTER
EMBEDDED WITHIN
THE HEALTHCARE
PROVIDER
WORKFLOW”
— Scott Dulitz, TrialCard
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MODERN

TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED

PARTNERS

MODERN PATIENT ACCESS AND ENGAGEMENT SOLUTIONS

Compliance | Unique Expertise | Insight | Analysis

Technology Awareness &

Enabled
Unique and unparalleled insights into
the patient journey from diagnosis
to first use to persistency
Education
•Program and product awareness
•Pre-commercial market shaping
•Product and disease education
•Field sales support

Access & Engagement &

Affordability Adherence
•Reimbursement support services •Clinical services
•Financial assistance •Multichannel engagement and adherence
•QuickStart and bridge solutions •Patient attitudinal and behavioral
segmentation
•Specialty Pharmacy triage and
Rx management •Patient feedback and patient-reported
outcomes  

For More Information:

Scott Dulitz
SVP, Corporate Strategy & Strategic Business Development Follow us on: www.trialcard.com
E: scott.dulitz@trialcard.com
P: 919-415-3232 2250 Perimeter Park Dr. Suite 300, Morrisville, NC 27560