19th Annual Prescription Drug Management Survey
Triple Crown, Customer Service, and A.I.
HSA recently wrapped up its 19th annual Prescription Drug Management in Workers’ Compensation Survey. The survey will be dropping later this week on our website.
One of the most significant findings from this year’s survey is the continued dominance of MyMatrixx in the PBM world. For the 4th survey in a row, MyMatrixx took the top spot – scoring about 15% higher than the survey average for all PBMs.
Furthermore, MyMatrixx was the highest rated by current clients’ AND viewed as the best in the industry by PBM’s non-clients.
Customer service remains the bedrock of a successful payer/PBM relationship. Respondent scores for their PBM’s customer service closely correlated with the respondent’s score for overall PBM performance. When surveyed on the attributes most important to a successful PBM relationship, customer service was in a league of its own – handily beating clinical management and cost-related attributes.
While new technology, fancy dashboards, and savings play a part in a payer/PBM partnership, it is old-fashioned customer service that ultimately makes or breaks the deal. Payers, first and foremost, are looking for reliable access to a knowledgeable person who can answer their questions in a timely fashion. The next layer of high-quality customer service is being proactive and acting as a partner to address pain points rather than manufacturing “solutions” to problems clients don’t have.
And finally - the hot item in all areas of business – A.I.
Respondents tend to agree that there will be a role for A.I. in worker’s comp pharmacy but there is no clear consensus on what that role will be. Ideas range from 100% A.I. driven and adjudicated to very limited roles where A.I. is just tackling the mundane aspects of the current workflow.
The most commonly anticipated role was a multifaceted approach that allowed A.I. to handle several rudimentary tasks to free employees up while also being selectively leveraged in early trend identification and potentially harmful drug interaction notices.
Respondents also provided interesting - and conflicting - commentary around how they view A.I. as helpful or harmful to hiring much-needed quality employees.
Additionally, the survey yielded fascinating insight into the role of A.I. in customer service… beyond just annoying chatbots.
What does this mean for you??
PBMs need to invest time, thought, and money in customer service and multidimensional A.I. strategy or risk losing clients.