With attention to the spiraling costs of healthcare in the United States, many healthcare organizations are trying to find ways to deliver more value. This is particularly true for pharmaceutical companies working an industry with a great deal of competition.
A recent survey conducted by Quintiles has found that pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders in the healthcare marketplace would be well advised to align in order to achieve the so-called “Triple Aim” of improving population outcomes and the quality of care while at the same time lowering costs. In order to provide value, however, it’s important that these stakeholders first agree on what constitutes value when assessing a treatment option.
A Quintiles’ research report called, “Value is the Target,” was compiled based on independent surveys of more than 300 healthcare executives in the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The report found that there is a disconnect between how stakeholders define value themselves and how their peers think they define value.
“For decades, healthcare stakeholders have had to rely on their own processes, skills and intellectual property to deliver stand-alone solutions,” said John Doyle, Dr.P.H. and senior vice president and managing director for consulting at Quintiles. “The new, post-reform health care environment is driving biopharma toward the triple aim of improving population outcomes, enhancing the quality of care and driving down cost. This will require working collaboratively.”
This is critical in nations in which the government has a large say in how healthcare dollars are spent. Increasingly, found the report, payers and providers are expressing skepticism of the data the biopharmaceutical industry is providing to substantiate their claims of value. This disconnect could disrupt their ability to market products in today’s healthcare environment, particularly since regulators and payers are perceived as having the greatest influence over how value will be defined going forward.
“Organizations that can define, demonstrate and communicate the value of innovation will have a competitive advantage over their peers,” added Dr. Doyle. “However, until stakeholders can agree on a system-wide, population-level definition of value, building collaborative cross-industry partnerships will remain a challenge.”
The goal, says Quintiles, is to agree on how to move forward with a more value-driven approach. The full report may be found here.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
