The FINANCIAL — A new Accenture survey of 2,000 patients in the United States taking long-term, short-term or lifestyle medications found that the vast majority (76 percent) believe pharmaceutical companies should provide services that complement the products they provide, according to Accenture.
The survey – Why Pharma Companies Can’t Ignore Patient Services – also uncovered significant gaps in the services that patients want and those that they are currently receiving. Those that do receive patient services – from participation in rewards programs to receipt of product information and financial assistance – value them greatly and are eager to use them. Yet the survey also indicates that for many customers these programs are not available.
While 63 percent of the patients surveyed say they want to participate in customer rewards programs, only 10 percent say they have been offered the opportunity to do so. According to the survey, other services that patients most expect or want but are not receiving are:
Financial assistance: 51 percent of patients want it, but only 10 percent receive it.
Measuring and tracking alerts, such as monitoring of blood glucose levels: 35 percent of patients want it, but only 20 percent receive it
Product information: 53 percent of patients want it, and 48 percent say they receive such information.
Patients polled across all three groups indicated the most important services are:
Product information: 73 percent
Financial assistance: 64 percentReward programs: 60 percent
Physician referrals: 55 percent
Nurse support via phone: 45 percent
A comparison of the top-five services that pharmaceutical companies provide today and the satisfaction levels among survey participants taking long-term, short-term or lifestyle medications are as follows:
Product information: 80 percent satisfaction
Measurement tracking and alerts: 79 percent satisfaction
Adherence support: 77 percent satisfaction
Physician referrals: 76 percent satisfaction
Adherence support: 77 percent satisfaction
Rewards programs: 73 percent satisfaction
The survey also shows that nearly 64 percent of patients taking long-term, short-term or lifestyle medications would be willing to provide information on their health to pharmaceutical companies if that would enable them to receive free information or services. When it comes to receiving information, survey participants indicated that their communications preferences from pharmaceutical companies are:
Email: 69 percent
Printed materials: 66 percent
Website: 48 percent
Mobile apps: 44 percent
Social media: 38 percent
Live support: 35 percent
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