What Does Next-Generation Copay Assistance Look Like?

Matt Turner, President of Patient Affordability, Paysign discusses the evolving financial threats to pharmaceutical manufacturers, such as accumulators, maximizers, and alternative funding programs. In a conversation with Pharmaceutical Executive, Turner emphasized the importance of next-generation copay assistance programs, which involve strategic partnerships across various ecosystem components.

A transcript of Turner’s conversation with Pharmaceutical Executive can be found below.

Pharmaceutical Executive: What does a next-generation copay assistance program look like, and what is holding more manufacturers back from making the leap?

Matthew Turner: I think next generation copay is about partnerships across the ecosystem. It's not just about a vendor that does everything. It's about finding the right vendor for every part of the ecosystem. So if you're going to have a messaging vendor, if you're going to have a marketing arm, if you're going to have a copay provider, if you're going to have a hub services team, a nursing education support group, you don't have to get that from one place.

I think next generation is going and finding the best of the best inside of the industry and bringing all of those tools together to create really a synergy around a patient using the best in class services. I think that's what's going to drive the innovation, and I think that's what drove the innovation in the past.

Before we had massive consolidation of the industry, you had smaller players where the pieces of business meant so much to them that they were innovating constantly. It drove innovation inside of the industry. I think that's what next generation copay is going to look like.

Everybody's afraid of change. It's just what happens, right? So, when you're looking at I'm going to transition my program, everybody's like, oh, are we going to capture all the patients? Is every patient going to be there for the next fill? Is it going to be a disruption, if you're in a highly competitive space?

They're wondering, is this going to cause a therapeutic switch? Are they going to go to a competitive brand? I think that's the number one thing that stops manufacturers from going to the next vendor. I think there are plenty of us out there in the space, whether it's a hub service provider, a patient affordability vendor like ourselves, that have thought this through and have amazing plans to make sure that you don't lose patience during any part of the process.