Manufacturers evaluating a hub transition tend to fixate on the costs of switching. But the bigger, less visible cost comes from staying on a traditional, multi-vendor hub that is unable to keep pace on data, visibility, speed or patient experience.
While many traditional hub providers now claim to provide ‘integrated support’, the reality is that newly-launched solutions are often still coordinating separate vendors or business units and lack proven results. In contrast, Gifthealth has successfully guided more than 7 million patients through its platform, and offers a true single-partner contract and operating structure.
To stay competitive in a moving market, manufacturers need to carefully weigh the costs of switching hubs versus the ongoing costs of sticking with the status quo and understand how to successfully operationalize a hub transition that will ensure real-time data visibility and patient support from the start.
Switching Versus the Status Quo
Manufacturers often focus on the potential costs of hub transition, disruption, reimplementation and the risk of a bumpy handoff. However, this fails to consider the risk of staying on traditional, fragmented multi-vendor models while the market moves ahead, or that many of these risks can be offset with a well-executed hub transition.
Sticking with the status quo might initially seem like a better option, especially when existing partners claim to be embracing direct-to-patient, integrated models. But the reality is that traditional hubs lead to handoffs and fragmented systems, slowing approvals and increasing the risk of patient drop off. Bolt-on approaches or workarounds fail to address these issues and the disparate uncoordinated outreach and fragmented data which erodes patient and prescriber confidence, slows intervention and prevents outreach optimization.
The commercial cost of this fragmentation is real. Traditional models lower ROI and damage brand loyalty. In contrast, proven, truly unified patient access hubs create a frictionless, branded experience which helps patients start therapy faster and stay on therapy longer. Gifthealth has a 57-hour benchmark from intake to resolution compared to a two-week industry average, resulting in 50% less abandonment.
Operationalizing a Hub Transition
To successfully operationalize a hub transition, manufacturers need to ask for evidence and specifics from prospective partners, not just buzzwords. This should focus on three main components.
The first is a single-data feed across the prescription lifecycle from order to refill. This allows manufacturers to measure performance more effectively, identify risks earlier and make smarter, faster decisions to improve pull through. When planning a hub transition, manufacturers should carefully interrogate claims around integration. Is the solution offering a true, single-partner contract? Or is this just a rebranded traditional hub which is still pulling together data from multiple separate business units?
The second component is real-time data visibility from day one. This relies on proven, tech-forward and compliance-governed solutions, not just modern language. Integrated hubs should sit alongside existing infrastructure and allow manufacturers to immediately unlock the benefits of real-time data.
The final component is a migration path that does not interrupt patient support. Patient trust can be hard to gain and easy to lose, so the only change patients should be aware of is improvement. It can help to look at a partner’s record on patient satisfaction. Have satisfaction rates dropped or improved immediately after implementation? Gifthealth has a patient satisfaction rate of 91% compared to 77% industry wide and helps every patient achieve their desired outcomes from first fill.
The Risk of Inertia
At first glance, switching hub providers can seem like a risky exercise. But the real risk in a hub transition is inertia, staying on a fragmented, multi-vendor model while the market moves, not the switch itself. Manufacturers who recognize this and move to proven, integrated models will be positioned to deliver a faster, more transparent prescription journey, for their brands and for their patients.
Want to go deeper? Read how Gifthealth is redefining what DTP execution looks like in practice, and listen to Chief Commercial Officer Jeremy Richardson make the case for why the question is no longer whether to pursue DTP, but how to unlock its full potential — on the Fierce Pharma podcast.
The editorial staff had no role in this post's creation.