In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, patient services departments at pharmaceutical companies are often the unsung heroes of patient support. Traditionally, these departments have operated as glorified call centers, connecting patients with resources, answering inquiries, and managing a multitude of tasks associated with therapy initiation and adherence. However, the sheer scale and complexity of these operations come with inherent limitations—high operational costs, long response times, and varying levels of patient satisfaction.
Enter conversational AI: a game-changer for patient services. At its core, conversational AI leverages advanced digital agent technology to automate and optimize the work traditionally handled by hub agents. The implications? A leaner, more efficient operation and an unparalleled opportunity to transform the patient experience.
Automating the Core of Patient Services
Conversational AI can seamlessly take over many of the high-volume, repetitive tasks handled by patient services hubs, allowing human agents to focus on more complex and nuanced patient needs. Here are some of the critical use cases where AI is making a measurable impact:
- Program Education & FAQs: Patients often call for basic information about programs or therapies. AI-driven digital agents can deliver instant, consistent responses, ensuring that patients always have access to accurate information.
- Program Enrollment & Onboarding: Simplifying enrollment processes with AI reduces friction for patients and shortens the time to therapy initiation. Onboarding is enhanced with step-by-step guidance, ensuring patients feel supported from the start.
- Status Updates & Shipment Tracking: Whether it’s checking application statuses or tracking medication shipments, conversational AI provides patients with real-time updates without wait times.
- Specialty Pharmacy (SP) Referrals: Automating SP referral workflows ensures quicker connections between patients and the pharmacies they need, further accelerating access to therapy
By automating these touchpoints, conversational AI drives both top-line revenue growth and bottom-line cost efficiencies:
- Top-Line Revenue Growth: Faster onboarding and improved communication enhance first-fill rates and ensure patients stay on therapy longer, leading to better health outcomes and increased revenue.
- Bottom-Line Cost Reduction: Reduced call attempts, higher connection rates, and automation of routine processes slash operational costs while simultaneously improving the overall patient experience.
Beyond Replacement: Reimagining Patient Engagement
While replacing existing touchpoints with AI offers significant ROI, this perspective is short-sighted. The true potential of conversational AI lies not just in replacing what exists, but in redefining what’s possible.
Imagine a world where the cost to engage patients is no longer a limiting factor. Conversational AI creates opportunities to introduce new touchpoints, engaging patients more frequently and meaningfully at a fraction of the traditional cost. With this infinite scalability, pharma companies can ask a transformative question:
If you had unlimited resources to engage patients, how would you reimagine the patient experience?
The possibilities are endless:
- Proactive Engagement: Digital agents could check in with patients to ensure they understand their therapy regimen or remind them of upcoming milestones.
- Dynamic Personalization: AI can adapt its interactions based on individual patient needs, delivering hyper-personalized support that evolves over time.
- Continuous Monitoring: Conversational AI can collect valuable data during every interaction, enabling companies to identify trends and intervene earlier in cases of non-adherence or therapy dropout.
The Infinite Engagement Era
Patient services departments are no longer bound by the constraints of traditional models. Conversational AI opens the door to an infinite engagement strategy, where the cost of adding more touchpoints is negligible, and every patient interaction is an opportunity to create value.
Pharma companies that embrace this shift will not only optimize their operations but also redefine patient support. By leveraging conversational AI to automate what’s possible and imagine what’s not yet been done, they can transform patient services into a key driver of business success and better patient outcomes.
The future of patient services isn’t just more efficient—it’s limitless. The question is: Are you ready to reimagine it?
