MARKET ACCESS – By Susan Baltrus
Enabling patient access is a collective effort
Market access isn’t the concern of only a select few; it’s a shared responsibility that extends across all field roles. Enabling patient access to therapy requires a collective effort from several roles within the pharmaceutical organization.
In this article, we’ll explore the types of market access training needed for each field role and discuss how this diversity of expertise can be harnessed to elevate product performance.
Sales Representatives
As the first and main point of contact with healthcare professionals, sales representatives play a critical role in positioning products within the market access landscape. Sales representatives need to be equipped to handle front-line questions about coverage, provide basic information about access and overcome access objections. In addition, they need to anticipate the access concerns that are most likely to be raised during each sales call.
Sales representatives who lack the confidence to engage in market access discussions with customers miss valuable opportunities to uncover and address perceived prescribing barriers. Training sales representatives to be comfortable and fluent with market access topics, and to actively seek out concerns, enables them to systematically approach each concern with relevant and accurate information, so they can pivot back to the clinical sell.
The pre-call planning process should always include a market access element, including profiling the provider’s most prevalent payers, becoming familiar with the access advantages and disadvantages associated with each one and being prepared to provide relevant information to customers in precise sound bites that resonate rather than overwhelm.
Market access training for sales representatives should arm them with the knowledge, communication skills and confidence to uncover and address access hurdles. This training could involve activities to engage sales representatives in the market access journey as well as verbalization practice in game formats to build their confidence in discussing market access topics. It may also involve analyzing internal market access reports and building precall plans that anticipate market access concerns and opportunities. (Figure 1)
Additional guidance can be provided to district managers to support field coaching interactions that include discussion questions and scenarios for reinforcing, applying and extending market access learning.
Field Reimbursement Managers
Field reimbursement managers assist customers with specific market access challenges that are diverse and complex. They need the deepest level of market access training so they can develop the expertise to educate customers and troubleshoot challenges related to coverage denials, coding and other technical issues.
The most successful field reimbursement managers are strong communicators who “teach their customers to fish” so customers can address market access issues on their own.
Field reimbursement managers must be equipped with the skills to assess each customer’s level of market access proficiency so they can meet customers where they are. They must be able to ask good questions to get to the heart of access issues. They must also be problem-solvers and critical thinkers. They must prioritize requests strategically and collaborate effectively with other members of the field team. And of course, they must have deep technical knowledge of medical policy, coding, prior authorization submissions, hub support and appeals.
Training for field reimbursement managers should include a mix of soft skills and technical skills. They can’t be “taught” every possible challenge they’ll encounter, so they need a broad base of knowledge and the ability to think critically to solve problems. This training can take the form of complex case studies in which the learners dig deep into coding and prior authorization challenges.
Games in which field reimbursement managers practice navigating and using marketing resources in customer scenarios are also effective. In addition, new field reimbursement managers can benefit from a structured mentor program in which experienced colleagues use a detailed checklist to walk through their approaches for working with customers and colleagues to handle common challenges.
One live training format that works especially well for this audience is an ask-the expert session in which field reimbursement managers conduct small group discussions with actual customers, such as practice administrators and office managers, so they get a deeper understanding of their customer’s world. (Figure 2)
Key Account Managers
Key account managers deal with market access challenges that affect complex accounts at a systemic level. Their responsibility goes beyond addressing patient-specific issues; it involves uncovering recurring challenges that can impair a patient’s access to prescribed therapy, identifying customers who can address these issues and motivating them to act.
They must also be able to convey the value of their drug to a health system using tools such as cost calculators and value proposition decks. Training for key account managers should build knowledge and skills that enable them to spot barriers and opportunities, think strategically to connect the dots and cultivate advocates.
A live training format that works well for key account managers is an immersion exercise in which each participant plays the role of a different customer on a team or committee at a fictitious health system. The team is tasked with making organization-level decisions to improve the health system’s performance.
Each participant receives a detailed profile for their assigned role, and all team members review a dossier that describes the challenges faced by the case study organization. Walking in the shoes of their customers to hammer out solutions helps key account managers see their customers’ world through their eyes, and then they can step back into their own shoes to think strategically about how they’d work with that account.
Key account managers also benefit from training that helps them develop a deep understanding of concepts that are corollary to market access, including electronic health records (EHRs), clinical pathways and real-world evidence. This training must go beyond defining these elements; it must provide hands-on activities that enable key account managers to speak their customers’ language and conduct meaningful conversations with customers about these topics. (Figure 3)
Account directors who engage with payers need a holistic understanding of payer value drivers, as well as a deep understanding of the mechanics of payer agreements and the ability to negotiate favorable contracts within the organization’s boundaries. Because account directors are typically very experienced and knowledgeable, their training must go beyond the basics.
New account directors benefit from a structured mentor program in which tenured account directors use a specific checklist to introduce them to the customer landscape. Experienced account directors benefit from practice using tools such as value proposition decks and cost calculators, and seeing how their peers use these tools.
Account directors benefit from discussing complex case studies and sharing best practices. Additionally, they learn a tremendous amount from interacting with actual customers in a training environment, which can take the form of a virtual presentation from a payer, a live panel discussion and practice conversations. Finally, mock pharmacy and therapeutics committee meetings help account directors see how their product may be viewed by these decision-makers. (Figure 4)
Creating Market Access Synergies
Market access advantages can be leveraged and disadvantages can be minimized only when an entire field team is proficient in their respective swim lanes. By developing the expertise of sales representatives, field reimbursement managers, key account managers and account directors, organizations can create market access synergies that truly make a difference and elevate product performance.(Figure 5)
Conclusion
Market access training isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s about recognizing that every role has unique needs and makes a unique contribution in this complex landscape.
By tailoring training to the specific needs of each role, organizations can harness the collective power of their teams to achieve market access success and help ensure that patients have access to the therapies they need.
Susan Baltrus is the CEO of Engage Rx Learning. Email Susan at sbaltrus@engagerxlearning.com or connect through linkedin.com/in/susan-baltrus-6910542.
