At a time when the use of drugs and medicine are increasingly being used to beneficially treat Americans in our health care system, one recent statistic for both patients and physicians is troubling: “the number of physicians willing to see drug representatives fell nearly 20 percent.”
According to ZS Associates, obtaining access to busy physicians grew more difficult for pharmaceutical representatives as “the number of prescribers refusing to see most reps increased by half and the number of management-planned sales calls that were nearly impossible to complete topped 8 million.” The article summarized some of the findings of the latest AccessMonitor™, a report from ZS Associates that examines how often physicians and other prescribers will meet with sales representatives from pharmaceutical manufacturers.
The study was significant because it monitored the sales rep-related interactions of more than 500,000 physicians, nurse practitioners and other pharmaceutical prescribers nationwide. The report also tracks both the planned and completed sales calls of more than 41,000 pharmaceutical representatives, which is about half of all reps in the U.S. The spring 2010 report of AccessMonitor™ measured three categories of physicians:
– “rep-accessible” prescribers who meet with at least 70 percent of the sales representatives who called on them;
– “rep-inaccessible” prescribers who meet with fewer than 30 percent of the reps who called on them; and
– “rep-neutral” prescribers who meet with 31 percent to 69 percent of the pharmaceutical salesmen who call on them
In the recently released survey, AccessMonitor™ found that:
– 58 percent of prescribers in 2009 were “rep-accessible,” which was down 18 percent from the spring 2007 study that showed 71 percent;
– 33 percent of physicians were “rep-neutral”;
– The number of “rep-inaccessible” prescribers increased to 9 percent from 6 percent;
– More than 20 percent of prescribers considered "rep-accessible" in late 2009 fell to a "rep-neutral" rating in the spring of 2010;
– 11 percent of prescribers rated "rep-neutral" shifted to "rep-inaccessible" during the same period; and
– 94 percent of primary care providers and 83 percent of specialists did not see even the best representatives more than twice each month.
Based on these findings, AccessMonitor™ concluded that more than 8 million management-planned sales calls — at a cost to drug companies of more than $1 billion per year — are nearly impossible. They attributed this difficulty to company sales plans that require representatives to call on prescribers who either refuse to see any drug representatives or refuse to accept frequent sales calls from the rep.
As a result, the report recommended that sales management should modify the call plan “to connect best with each individual physician.” The change in plan, known as “differential resourcing, matches sales resources to local conditions and is more flexible than conventional, “one-size-fits-all” selling models.” This new kind of efficiency can reduce sales force expenditures and unproductive time without compromising physician relations or sales. In fact, the reduced sales-force related cost can save companies collectively more than $500 million each year. ZS Associates also asserted that implementing these strategies nationally could save another $2 billion annually — all while giving individual representatives much-needed flexibility."
Physicians know what drug representatives are and do for a living, it’s no surprise. The fact that some are beginning to turn away information that physicians are trained to evaluate (both scientifically and ethically) seems unnecessary. If doctors do not have the time to see drug representatives for a few minutes, they probably do not have the time to read peer-reviewed studies either. So where do they get their information about medicine they are prescribing their patients then?
With physician’s schedules only getting busier, focusing on more accessible doctors is important because it increases the chances of physicians using information from drug representatives to benefit their patients. Although the number of physicians who refuse to see any reps is increasing, and the number of physicians who will see most reps is declining, doctors still need resources and data to review in their clinical practice in order to make the most informed decisions.
By shifting resources to doctors who are willing to listen, patients will benefit twofold: they will have better access to ask questions and learn more about drugs from their doctors, and they will benefit from the savings associated with the new plan because that money will be used for further research and development of new treatments.