Co-Pay Cards and Loyalty Programs – MM&M Article

My latest article for Medical Marketing & Media is published in the May issue and online: Loyalty Programs: Attitudes to Co-Pay Cards.

As with my previous story, I took three sets of survey data, gathered from patients, physicians and payers. This time, they’d been asked about the programs that pharma companies set up to offer patients discounts and other incentives.

I expected that insurance companies, doctors and patients would all have very different opinions on the cards – and they did. I was surprised, though, that when asked how to improve them, they all said much the same thing.

It’s not about discounts – even for patients. It’s about better services from pharma companies.

We’ve been talking about “beyond the pill” for quite some time now. These data show that it’s not just an industry catchphrase. It really is what patients want, what doctors think would be useful, and what insurance companies would be pleased to see.

The fact that they’re all still asking for it, though, shows that there’s still plenty to do.