Five challenges for drug companies and insurance companies to work together

In the market drug companies and insurance companies in the operation mode, because it is targeted at a certain category of sub-sector patients to buy drugs demand, so in product design, the characteristics of buying drugs are often preferred, the main drug discount and current use, and insurance protection as an add-on exists, even giftIn this operating mode, five challenges arisebecause these products are primarily targeted at people with a particular chronic disease, they limit the user base in themselvesEven if this group is large enough, it also faces several problemsThe first is whether to use health insurance, chronic disease medication for a long time, if you can not use the health insurance card but all cash out of pocket, will certainly reduce the willingness to buyAt present, a part of the market pharmaceutical companies plus insurance products will be designed into a class of insurance, the so-called premium is actually more similar to the stored value of drug cards, the purchase of a certain amount of premiums (drug cards), you can get a discount on drugsBut this is still in the case of cash out-of-pocket payments, can not use the health insurance cardAs health insurance continues to crack down on drug costs, some of the prices of drugs in hospitals (especially primary care institutions) have been obvious and retail channels upside down, this time even if the use of cash in the retail channels can be discounted, in the long run in the price does not have much price advantage, especially in the case of cash payment, the willingness to buy will not be too highsecond, this patient is more than a fancy to the value of complication protectionMost of the diseases on the market that are targeted by the introduction of these drug companies and insurance products start with diabetesDiabetes is a long course, and most people have control, long-term medication is necessary, but the control of complications can also be doneTherefore, in the face of both the purchase of medicine and protection, patients are more inclined to buy the current nature of medicine, rather than for the serious consideration of the proactive, has also previously analyzed, the patients who buy drugs and the real need for protection of the characteristics of the user itself is different, so the protection of patients who want to buy drugs, the attraction is not greatboth of these points have created a dilemma for sales of these productsinsurance companies and drug companies work together to target patients, while in traditional insurance products, the past is excluded from liabilityThat is to say, insurance companies themselves to a concentrated risk, how to control the risk is extremely importantAlthough the probability of chronic diseases such as diabetes eventually developing into severe illness can be calculated, and the probability of future complications can be predicted according to the patient's current condition, diabetes is a disease that is greatly affected by individual behavior, in addition to genetic factors, personal life and habits to a large extent the effectiveness of treatment, as well as the speed of disease developmentIf the patient has poor control over his or her behavior and habits while taking the drug, the rate of disease development is difficult to predictAs a result, insurance companies themselves face higher risks in this risk-intensive productHowever, the effectiveness of chronic disease management is a big problemJudging from the development of companies that offer chronic disease management tools on the market, user compliance is uncertain, and the effect is difficult to measure, and cannot be translated into the possibility of reducing risk, so it will be difficult for insurance companies to estimate the likelihood of future complications based on chronic disease managementthat is, whether such products are worth the effort for insurance companies is a question that must be considereddrug sales, chronic disease management, discount cards and other products in the sales characteristics of relying on marketing, marketing helps to enhance product awareness, access to more customers, but big marketing leads to huge expenditure, high customer costsAnd since each product is only targeted at one type of disease, each product has a significant ceilingFor insurance companies with a large user base, it is a question that must be considered whether to spend energy and marketing costs on channels for a wider population or on narrow crowd channelshas been analyzed before, drug sales and insurance coverage itself for different groups of people, different needs, and drug companies and insurance companies have completely different characteristics, and in some places even contradictTherefore, whether to consider selling more drugs, obtaining cash, or providing protection first is two completely different strategies, and because of the different interest points of pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies, the strategic direction is difficult to coordinatecomprehensive analysis can sum up the drug companies and insurance companies to launch products in a number of difficult points:drug companies and insurance companies in the interests of the essence of the opposite, patients in the purchase of drugs value consumer, current use, cost first, and really want to buy insurance protection users value broad spectrum, future, as comprehensive as possible
in the case of cash payments, the willingness to buy drugs will not be too high, especially in the context of health insurance continued to suppress drug prices, public hospitals With the retail end of the drug price will continue to upside downproducts for a class of patients, risk concentration, is not conducive to insurance companies to control the riskthe number of users can go up is a big difficulty, and in the promotion of such products in front of the cost, the increase in the number of users can not beat the cost
so, overall, drug companies and insurance companies to develop drug sales channels this model, whether for pharmaceutical companies themselves, or for insurance companies, to expand sales are difficult.