Lash Group moves specialty-pharmaceutical services from ‘high touch’ to ‘smart touch’

Lash Group, the AmerisourceBergen business unit that is one of the leaders in providing outsourced hub services for patients, has announced a new IT platform, to be used internally by its patient-services teams, but also to collaborate with and provide data insights to pharma manufacturers that hire Lash to handle the many services needed when a specialty pharmaceutical has been prescribed to a patient.

Traditionally, these hub services are handled one by one, starting with the benefits verification process for patient drug coverage; prior authorization documents required by payers; and moving into call center support—or in-home visits—by nurse educators and others. Manufacturer clients seek to monitor such performance indicators as adherence rates, speed to therapy and, ultimately, outcomes data for meeting either regulatory requirements (such as post-approval trials) or the terms of value-based contracts.

Lash says that it has combined a bevy of IT partners together with internal IT development, to create the Fusion platform. Key benefits for manufacturer clients:

• Accelerating speed to therapy: Higher workflow efficiency comes from automating decision-making processes and streamlining administrative tasks. The platform leverages AI technology for benefit verification and multi-channel communication capabilities to remove common barriers to therapy.
• Improving Patient and Provider Engagement: Patient and provider experience are important factors to the success of a product—the quality and level of service they receive impacts brand loyalty and trust. The computer-telephony integration (CTI) within Fusion is said to create a simpler, more intuitive set of interactions, allowing patients and providers to access the right information faster and receive a more personalized experience.
• Generating Actionable Insights: Proving the value of a patient support program to both internal and external audiences is critical. Fusion is said to generate real-time reports and dashboards, targeted analytics available through mobile devices, competitive intelligence, and a more holistic view of the patient experience at a moment’s notice.

In a white paper on “data-driven patient services” published on Lash Group’s website recently, Shishir Desai, senior director, client analytics, cited some positive results from Fusion technology: discovering that a dropoff in prescription fulfillment after the benefits verification process had been completed; the cause was not lack of patient interest, but poor followup by prescribers. By changing care-coordination practices, the dropoff was partially corrected. Other benefits of Fuion, according to Desai, include linking call center activities smoothly with overall case management.

“By combining Lash Group’s high-tech, smart-touch service model with dozens of proven tools and the company's deep expertise across life sciences, we’re producing a seamless, end-to-end experience for manufacturers, providers and most importantly, patients,” summed up Dale Danilewitz, AmerisourceBergen CIO, in a statement.