NAI PUBLISHED IN PM360 ON SELLING TO MANAGED CARE

While ‘physician-as-customer’ has historically been a key to success for pharmaceutical marketers, the shift in power to insurers calls for re-thinking of this approach. In her article Managed Care as Customer, published April 2009 in PM360, author Rita E. Numerof, Ph.D., President offers up advice for developing a strong managed care marketing process.

Many healthcare organizations have developed managed markets account teams over the years, however they’ve only recently acknowledged the difference between managed care and traditional commercial approaches that focused on physicians. Given the success of the old model and increased regulatory scrutiny, it’s easy to see why the old approach has been so dominant. Selling to payers, however, requires new strategy and skill sets suited to a complex sale. Dr. Numerof asks some hard-hitting questions that zero in on the ability of marketing organizations to effectively handle managed care accounts and stay within regulatory limits.