Why this Women’s Health Rx Pursued a Telemedicine Channel

After receiving an FDA approval, this women’s health brand launched with an indication to treat hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in women. Before engaging Phil, the brand concluded that launching a telemedicine access channel on their website presented a significant opportunity to meet evolving consumer preferences. Their market research led them to conclude that their target patient population, middle aged women, strongly desired a seamless, discrete access channel that fit neatly into their lives. 

On the surface, telemedicine paired with the option for home prescription delivery appeared to be the perfect fit, yet they knew that success would only follow if they found the right partners to help them execute. In this evolving post Covid-19 digital healthcare era, their savvy team knew that this was an opportunity that they couldn’t afford to miss.

As the brand laid the groundwork to launch a digital access channel to complement their retail strategy, they understood the following had to be true to ensure telemedicine success:

1. The telemedicine experience needed to be transparent, convenient, affordable, and integrated. They learned that the telemedicine channel would generate e-commerce-like expectations amongst patients. Thus, it was critical that the experience they offered mirror what consumers encounter in other more digitally transformed industries or they could lose brand loyalty.

2. To deliver a truly integrated experience, the brand needed to identify both telemedicine and digital hub solutions that could easily and compliantly share patient health and prescription data. These partners would need to integrate seamlessly into brand assets and share information along the prescription access journey to quickly facilitate speed to therapy.

3. The telemedicine channel needed the infrastructure to drive brand coverage to enable sustainable growth. Thus, they needed to structure the channel to ensure that the right processes were in place to respond to payer requirements and convert their hard earned formulary placement to a high percentage of covered dispenses.

Partnering with PhilRx for a “Turn Key” Digital Hub Partner

While the brand team understood that opening the telemedicine channel presented a strong opportunity, they were initially unsure of where to turn for the right partners. As they set out to evaluate solutions that could address their strategic priorities, they found it challenging to decipher between available vendors on the market that appeared to offer similar capabilities.

Critically, their team concluded that delivering a modern patient access experience was table stakes, yet not sufficient to address growing gross-to- net challenges. Thus, in addition to ensuring that their telemedicine solution could deliver a positive care experience, they prioritized finding a digital hub partner uniquely positioned to maximize their % of covered dispenses at the pharmacy by improving prior authorization submission rates and maximizing the % of plans their patients had access to when dispensing the product.

After an extensive search, the team ultimately decided to partner with Phil because of our proven results, flexibility to configure our platform to meet their needs as they evolved, and unique gross-to-net maximizing capabilities.

The teams partnered to implement a responsive solution for this innovative women’s health product and together the organizations sought to:

• Market the channel on the brand’s patient website to deliver a consistent patient experience throughout the access journey

• Integrate via API to share patient data between the telemedicine provider & digital hub partner to expediently complete all required benefits investigations and prior authorizations

• Structure program design to enable seamless access to therapy by delivering differentiated dispense programs to respond to varying patient insurance statuses (copay, Bridge, PAP)

• Provide patients with the option for home delivery or local pickup

Building a Strong Telemedicine Channel 

Phil collaborated with commercial teams to implement a responsive solution in a matter of weeks:

1. Direct Integration in Brand Assets When visiting the brand website patients would see the option to start a virtual visit to get the prescription today.

2. Multiple Options to Access Care Patients would engage disease state specific care providers in the most convenient format state regulations allowed - synchronous or asynchronous.

3. Digital Patient Enrollment After receiving a new prescription, patients received a text message to seamlessly enroll in the PhilRx Patient Platform on their mobile phone.

4. Telemedicine PA Portal Phil developed a PA portal for prescribers layered on top of CoverMyMeds to allow HCPs easily manage payer requirements and submit prior authorizations.

5. National Dispense Network Patients benefited from a Phil’s network of partner pharmacies with 98% coverage ensuring all patients could benefit from covered home delivery.

6. End to End Visibility in Rx Journey The brand team received full visibility into the Rx journey to glean insights on how to optimize their program.

Driving Telemedicine & Commercial Success with PhilRx

Covered Dispenses via the PhilRx Channel Have Paced Formulary Wins Over Time