Specialty Pharmacy data reporting

[Anonymous]

Anybody having issues trusting the accuracy of the data being reported from Specialty Pharmacies?

 

[Anonymous]

any company buying data gets what it pays for. if someone reports, then they report - bottom line. If you're not getting what you're hoping to see, then it's a matter of either how your company is slicing and dicing the data or simply that they aren't paying for the full data set. ask you company to buck up. that's how it works.

 

[Anonymous]

I think some companies buy their data from a party, once removed from the Specialty Pharmacy, like IMS for example. Wonder if it's even possible to discover the "data packaging methodologies" used when accountability is blocked by the use of a giant intermediary like this. It just seems that buying direct from an SP is increasingly difficult as the number of them increases. Any thoughts on how an SP chooses to deliver data when complete accuracy is NOT $ paid for...

 

[Anonymous]

Anybody know? Thoughts? Ideas?

 

[Anonymous]

Anybody know? Thoughts? Ideas?

Ever think this is the type of information one would Professionally acquire? quid pro quo

 

[Anonymous]

#2 here. Yes, I am referring to reporting to IMS. As an SP, we have been contracted by IMS to report our data to them. In turn, IMS sells that data to drug manufacturers to whatever degree those companies buy the data packages. So, if they buy, say, Data Package #1 vs. Data Package #9, the level of detail will probably vary - that's my understanding of it anyway. Kind of like making a decision about which school picture package to buy - do you want a bunch of wallets you'll never hand out or just a couple of 8x10s and 5x7s for the grandparents? Which slices of the data your company finds of value may not necessarily be the slices of data that you as a rep in the field may find helpful. So, our take on the SP side is that we report, but if you as a drug rep are not getting what you want or need then you need to take that up with your own company. Also don't forget that there are a good number of offices, both large and small, who don't participate at all in data reporting to services like IMS. So, there are at least a couple of variables. Would love to hear from someone with better perspective on this.

 

[Anonymous]

IMS or WK (now Symphony) buy and package the data for Pharma. Some Pharma/biotech sell direct to SP's most cases however, SP acquire product from wholesaler. Biggest issue straight away is a Pharma company that buys only Symphony data, not IMS- and in a certain geography there is a SP that gets a huge amount of business from some big providers and they only report to IMS, not Symphony. If that's the case, better beg your company to either buy both or swap to IMS. Symphony was crying about a monopoly that IMS had, yet at same time was having issues - telling SP's they couldn't handle their additional business ans took them an incredibly long time. Even then, when an SP just starts to report to either, there is a period of time typically a month and a half, when the data stream is sent to IMS/Symphony but all the bugs are getting ironed out etc before it's officially accepted and then reported to Pharma. One of the requirements is a minimum number of scripts sent in that time period- so if a tiny pharmacy, might not even have enough business to get accepted.

Other issue obv is the standard.. MD swears they are Rxing your product, ask the SP rep, perhaps md is just telling you what you want to hear. Some provide insight to Pharma reps, others don't bc providers ask them not to, some just don't want to give out info on the doc and have the doc get pissed when the rep runs back and tells the provider that they are not actually writing their product per the SP rep.

Even if a certain SP gets "all" of the business from a certain office, depending on the disease state and that SP's contracts, they can actually only fill anywhere from @35-70% of what they receive.

There are also many, small SP's, or start up pharmacies that call themselves SP's or dabble a bit, that simply do not report at all.

Ask office what SP's they send to. Then contact the local rep and ask if their pharmacy reports, to whom they report, and how often- some weekly, some monthly, some just once a quarter.

 

[Anonymous]

Even if a certain SP gets "all" of the business from a certain office, depending on the disease state and that SP's contracts, they can actually only fill anywhere from @35-70% of what they receive.

All good points about the possible breakdowns in reporting - especially this one about fill rate. SP may get all of the referrals from an office, and their SP may report. But if their SP company (pharmacy #1) is out of network for 50% of the patients, meaning they end up having to pass 50% of the referrals along to pharmacy #2 that CAN service those patients, then pharmacy#1 will have no data to report on those 50% of patients. If pharmacy#2 (or #3, #4, etc.) doesn't report, then that data is lost.

 

[Anonymous]

#1 here:
Thank you all. Very helpful intel.

 

[Anonymous]

Clarification Question:
#2...using your example, how might data package number 1 actually be packaged. (Like an example...) verse a "high end" package 9. I would assume the "high end" data package would have every detail at a provider level...but what about the "cheap plan". How is that done?

 

[Anonymous]

Cheap would be;
-just zip code level data with no corresponding specific provider data
-provider level but just an aggregate # of all meds in a specific class

Vs:
Breakdown of every specific product by individual provider