Pandemic Impact On Patient Support Programs
By Tyler Hassman, CEO
March 23, 2022
PSPs play a significant role in ensuring that patients have the best possible experience during their journey – especially in specialty therapeutic areas where treatments tend to be more expensive. The pandemic has made it more challenging for patients to access support and services for their medical conditions. This has put additional pressure on company-sponsored PSPs to further enhance their offerings to help patients in the best way possible.
PSPs have become increasingly important for patients since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result now have an even more significant influence on physicians’ treatment selection process. For the most part, physicians acknowledge that PSP providers have adjusted well to the new reality brought forth by COVID-19. About a third even think that PSP providers have improved their performance since the onset of the pandemic.
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Physicians are not very familiar with the range of services offered by different PSPs. As long as a core offering of services that are relevant to their therapeutic area is met, they will generally be satisfied. Other than reimbursement services, physicians are not highly likely to recall what specific services are provided by given PSPs. Once prompted with a list of 20+ possible PSP services, the average physician only associates about 5 with any given PSP – even the most widely known PSPs. Most physicians think that the current range of services offered by PSPs is satisfactory or exceeds their needs.
Although PSPs have undoubtedly worked to enhance their programs since the onset of the pandemic, a majority of physicians are not aware of what these specific changes may have been. That being said, among those who do, improved financial assistance/ sampling, access to virtual care and support with vaccination scheduling are most often mentioned. Overall perceptions of PSPs compared to before the pandemic have generally improved – especially in terms of responsiveness and the expertise of individuals working on PSPs. The main unmet needs at this time remain the range of service hours and the availability of nurses over the phone.
Key takeaways
- Explore the extent to which new services have been added by company-sponsored PSPs since the onset of the pandemic.
- Establish which support services have become particularly important in the past 2 years.
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