Supporting patient journeys, fostering patient satisfaction, and improving patient outcomes is paramount for anyone involved with healthcare and life sciences. 

Both long-term strategies and day-to-day operations revolve around achieving this purpose of helping each patient. CRM platforms, however, rarely provide the native functionality to support this.

There’s a substantial misalignment when it comes to healthcare CRMs—specifically for companies developing and commercializing specialty medicines, which now comprise 93% of new drug approvals. The higher prices, specialized handling, oftentimes complex administration, and increased patient monitoring that specialty medicines require necessitate different approaches and resources.

Developed for generalized business purposes, the customer relationship management (CRM) software that life sciences companies, particularly Access and Patient Services teams, have traditionally had to rely on doesn’t meet today’s needs.

While legacy CRM platforms facilitate the traditional sales and marketing responsibilities, they fail to provide visibility, control, and coordination across the end-to-end specialty patient journey. Instead, life sciences organizations require a purpose-built, HIPAA-compliant, and patient-focused CRM that is specifically designed to synthesize patient information and support the journey from diagnosis to access to adherence. 

Fortunately, life sciences companies committed to improving patient outcomes and delivering a personalized, omnichannel experience now have a solution: Courier Health.

What Is a Patient-Focused CRM?

The emergence of patient-focused CRMs are best defined and understood in the context of the legacy platforms preceding them. 

Legacy CRM Platforms

Traditional CRM platforms enable organizations to synthesize customer data across numerous systems and resources in their technology environment. The platform then leverages that data to facilitate: 

• Sales and marketing interactions
• Customer analysis and forecasting
• Content management

This collection of functionalities provides organizations with better means to attract, support, and retain customers, and it has revolutionized many industries.

However, the development and purpose of traditional CRM platforms primarily orient them toward general business applications. In most cases, “healthcare” CRM software is a general-purpose solution that requires complex, clunky, and manual workarounds and custom code to try to meet the needs and use cases of life sciences and patient-centric applications. 

For example, in the case of healthcare, simply viewing or electronically exchanging sensitive patient data (in the same way businesses do for generic customers) risks exposing PHI and violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In healthcare and life sciences, robust access controls, data obfuscation, and data permissions are required. In most cases, legacy options involve excessive custom scripting and bolted-on functionality to orchestrate the end-to-end patient journey while maintaining security and compliance.

Legacy CRM Challenges

When it comes to the rise of internal Patient Access and Support teams, legacy CRMs aren’t designed for the realities of their day-to-day role. As a result, these teams are left jumping between multiple systems and spreadsheets to understand what’s happening with patients at any point in time. 

Gaining a comprehensive view of the patient journey requires lots of information and data, including:

• Patient demographics
• Patient consent
• Medical records and medical history
• Provider information
• Prescription information
• Clinical documentation required for prescription approval
• Prescription denial appeals processes
• Monitoring and managing side and adverse effects

The inability of legacy CRM systems to connect and synthesize these data sets negatively impacts patient journeys and overall outcomes. On average, 60% to 70% of patients who are prescribed a specialty medicine either never start or discontinue within the first few months. 

Significant business impacts and valuable data collection opportunities aside, this level of patient attrition is simply unacceptable and incompatible with the healthcare industry's goal of providing quality care and improving health outcomes.

Patient-Focused CRMs

Unlike legacy platforms, the Courier Health Platform is purpose-built to provide all the data synthesis and functionality required by biopharma Access, Support Services, Commercial Analytics, and Patient Marketing teams. 

Our patient-focused CRM’s functionality can be broken down into three categories:

• Core CRM functionality: The most basic CRM capabilities revolve around aggregating customer data and facilitating contact management. In a solution purpose-built for life sciences this includes:
  • Robust patient and provider management
  • Gathering and maintaining opt-in and consent preferences to compliantly handle HIPAA-covered data, general data privacy, and contact preferences 
  • Natively supporting email, text, phone, and fax
• Automated workflows: The right CRM must be able to visualize, automate, and measure standard operating procedures (SOPs) and business rules with a big caveat—these are complex, non-linear patient and provider journeys. The right solution will take your patient SOPs (e.g., new intake process or renewal of authorization workflow) and automate them within the platform. This includes proactively notifying users according to customized business logic and providing next best action recommendations. 
• Reporting and analytics: Extensive data aggregation, analysis, and reporting provide insights that help refine, optimize, and innovate programs and processes while ensuring that no patients are overlooked.

The right patient-focused CRM enables life sciences organizations to start and keep qualified patients on their prescribed treatments—with greater outcomes, a personalized touch, and without risking HIPAA compliance violations.

Ultimately, the Courier Health CRM platform prioritizes patient outcomes and is designed with real-world patient journeys and user needs in mind. 

The Evolving Role of CRMs in Specialty Pharma 

With the rise of internal Field Access and Patient Services teams, the need for purpose-built, patient-focused technology has never been more clear. For example, field reimbursement managers (FRMs), who are tasked with resolving barriers to care, like reimbursement, application denials, and appeals, must access, review, and analyze extensive patient data. This requires an integrated platform that connects disparate data sets and enables centralized patient and provider management.

As more life science organizations aim to provide patients with the same high-touch, personalized experiences they’ve grown accustomed to from companies in other industries, they need intelligent software capable of mapping and understanding patient journeys, automating daily tasks and workflows, and proactively surfacing issues that are preventing patients from starting or staying on therapy.

Key Features of a Patient-Focused CRM

As biopharma commercial models continue to evolve, manufacturers are evaluating their current systems to see how they address the concepts explored below. In today’s competitive landscape, these features are table stakes to delivering a differentiated patient experience. 

Centralized Data for Comprehensive Patient Data Management

The proliferation of healthcare-related data in recent years outpaces all other sectors, posting 36% compound annual growth (CAGR) from 2018 to 2025 (estimated). All other industries combined produce 25% less data on average.

The immense amount of data enables incredible possibilities. But, too often, that data remains spread out among different internal systems or healthcare entities, unable to be used and leveraged for actionable insights.

Centralizing this data is the first step towards truly understanding unique patient journeys and then enabling smoother experiences that improve access and adherence. This is where the right patient-focused CRM can come in, providing a single source of truth for data across the end-to-end patient journey. 

A “single source of truth” refers to centralizing and aggregating accurate, current data and making it available to all other integrated systems. Generally, this requires configuring technology platforms to regularly synchronize information (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly) by transferring data to a centralized repository and exporting it back to other systems.

When teams rely on a “single source of truth,” they all work off the same information, unlocking unparalleled, real-time visibility into what’s happening. This is critical to knowing how best to support patients and providers across diverse patient populations and the countless steps and stakeholders involved in the care journey. Coupled with workflow automation and data insights, organizations can begin to minimize the hurdles and administrative complications contributing to preventable care and treatment barriers.

For example, is a patient missing information in their records that prevents applications or reimbursement claims from being processed? Do prescribers receive the correct information regarding ongoing treatment progress to renew prior authorization requests? Does the specialty pharmacy or HUB have accurate prescription information on file?

Without sharing the synchronized data across all healthcare professionals, teams, and relevant entities, there are inevitably errors and missed issues that may delay or deny someone from accessing treatment. 

Personalized Patient Communications

Personalizing patient journeys is crucial in today’s world, and tailored engagement and communications based on patients' and caregivers' histories and preferences directly correlate with better outcomes. To effectively personalize, you need to clearly understand each patient's journey. 

A purpose-built, patient-focused CRM system is essential for managing and optimizing these personalized interactions. It handles patient and caregiver opt-in and consent forms and supports the creation and execution of rich, personalized journeys at scale. 

Such a CRM can deliver the right message at the right time through preferred channels, ensuring that communications are relevant and effective. Additionally, it provides valuable data and feedback through rich content analytics, allowing you to continuously refine and optimize your strategies for improved engagement.

Enhanced Data Security and Compliance

In CRM systems, accessing and leveraging customer data is routine. But when that data involves sensitive personal health information, which is protected by HIPAA, it is crucial that the CRM tool maintains best-in-class security and compliance. 

Patient-focused CRM solutions that are designed specifically for life sciences, like Courier Health, are built from the ground up with security at the forefront. 

They offer robust data visibility controls so that only authorized users can see or handle personal health information (PHI) based on their role and permissions. Unlike legacy systems, these modern CRMs also seamlessly enforce consent preferences within their workflows. 

This approach significantly reduces the risk of compliance violations, which can lead to hefty fines, ranging from $137 per violation to $250,000, and even potential jail time for criminal breaches. By prioritizing data security and compliance, CRMs purpose-built for life sciences can help protect both patient information and your organization’s reputation.

Analytics and Reporting

When it comes to analytics and reporting, operating from that single source of truth enables greater visibility and control than ever before. With data synchronized across internal teams and external stakeholders, program leadership can more easily assess:

• Number of patients at each stage of a given treatment
• Patient engagement rates across stages or workflows
• Bottlenecks along the patient journey
• Trends across teams, HCPs, treatments, etc.

Combining this data foundation with advanced analytics, for example, also enables these teams to better predict—and mitigate—issues before they escalate. For example, looking at reports may reveal that a certain provider is struggling with low first-time prior authorization approval rates. With this visibility, access and reimbursement professionals can think more strategically, planning a visit or call with the HCP office to educate them on the process. 

Unlike legacy systems, which often require time-consuming data exports and manual dashboard pulls across multiple tools, a patient-focused CRM platform is built to deliver proactive insights and comprehensive reporting seamlessly. This design simplifies data management and empowers a data-driven patient experience that enhances overall outcomes. 

Benefits of Implementing a Patient-Focused CRM

A patient-focused CRM isn’t just a tool but a transformative solution. By integrating data management, personalized communications, automated workflows, and advanced analytics, the right patient-focused CRM enhances both the patient experience and organizational performance. 

Here’s a closer look at how this innovative approach benefits patient engagement, data management, and operational efficiency.

Improved Patient Engagement and Satisfaction

Effective patient engagement is at the core of any successful program strategy. A patient-focused CRM significantly enhances this aspect by:

• Personalized communication: Tailoring interactions based on individual patient and caregiver preferences, thus ensuring that patients receive timely and relevant information via their preferred channel.
• Enhanced adherence: Facilitating regular, personalized engagement to help patients stay on their treatment plans, which improves the likelihood of achieving desired health outcomes.
• Simplified experience: Automating follow-ups and respecting communication preferences lead to a smoother, more consistent patient experience throughout their care journey.

Enhanced Data Management and Accessibility

A patient-focused CRM revolutionizes data management and accessibility by:

• Comprehensive view: Offering a unified view of the entire patient journey allows program leadership and users to work from the same set of real-time information.
• Reduced data gaps: Addressing the confusion and delays associated with fragmented data across multiple systems, such as tracking prior authorization statuses and appointment scheduling.
• Informed interventions: Providing quick access to accurate data enables timely interventions and reduces the risk of delays that could negatively impact patient care.

Increased Operational Efficiency and Decision-Making

Building on the foundation of better data management, a patient-focused CRM also drives operational efficiency and enhances decision-making by:

• Streamlined processes: Automating workflows and centralizing data to reduce administrative complexity and manual burden, thus allowing teams to concentrate more on higher-level tasks and patient care.
• Actionable insights: Delivering advanced analytics and reporting that provide detailed insights into patient interactions and outcomes, highlighting areas for process improvement.
• Continuous improvement: Supporting a more agile, iterative approach that enables teams to refine internal processes and enhance patient/provider workflows based on what works and what doesn’t.

Why a Patient-Focused CRM Is the Only Choice

Legacy CRMs simply don’t provide the native functionality and compliance controls that life sciences companies need to deliver an enhanced patient experience. 

While patients and providers may be “customers” that you foster relationships with, the nature of those relationships is fundamentally different than in other industries. Patient and provider relationships demand more because lives are at stake. So shouldn’t you demand more from your CRM?

Given the mission of healthcare and life sciences as a whole, improving patient engagement and satisfaction is the most critical benefit of a patient-focused CRM. Engaged patients are more likely to start and stay on therapy, leading to better health outcomes. This simple equation underscores how enhancing the patient experience not only benefits patients but also drives success for the business.

Patients deserve better journeys, and Field Access and Patient Services teams deserve better technology systems. At Courier Health, we’re committed to delivering both. Reach out today to learn more.