Patient Assistance Programs (PAPs) and Patient Support Programs (PSPs) are in the news. The programs are under increased scrutiny for violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, HIPAA, and False Claims Act. Recent settlements and Corporate Integrity Agreements highlight the need for vigilant and more effective training for these programs.
With that in mind, we recently sat down with Nicole Serena, Senior Consultant for Waldron & Associates and 25-year industry professional, to discuss her suggestions for how to approach PAP and PSP training to better reduce the risks and the red flags associated with the programs.
A Focus on Customer-Facing Staff
Serena began by highlighting the need to extend training beyond those working directly in the programs to other employees who require a fundamental awareness of how they work, why they are important, and the associated risks. Everyone involved, particularly the sales representatives, MSLs, and nurse educators who interact with healthcare professionals need to be aware of the programs and understand that value.
Serena points out that when a company is launching a specialty or biological product, healthcare professionals will often ask if the company has an assistance program for the product. “Depending on the company and what kind of roles are involved when launching a product,” she says, “sales representatives, MSLs, and nurse educators are all part of the team introducing the program to a clinic and discussing how it supports the patients. They all need to be trained on what they can say, and they need to know they can’t give any incentive for patients to be enrolled.”
According to Serena, when representatives don’t have the proper training and they don’t understand their company’s assistance and support programs, their interactions with HCPs hold the potential for increased risk. “Since they are the first people to hear about problems customers have with a PAP or PSP, representatives need to be careful how they react to that information,” she says, “and since they are responsible for managing the relationship with the HCP, they need to be careful about not over promising.”
In addition, the training shouldn’t assume that employees understand the programs just because they have worked in the pharmaceutical industry. “An employee’s previous position may have been with a division of the company that dealt with a general medicine product, like a high blood pressure pill or antibiotic, which would not involve a PAP or PSP,” says Serena, “so when he or she gets moved into a specialty product role, that background training is critical.”
Extend Training Beyond the Field Force
Vendors are sometimes overlooked for training, particularly when they claim to have their own PAP and PSP training in place. Even if that is the case, rolling out the company training to the vendor’s staff helps ensures consistency in messaging and accountability of trainee rosters. In other words, the vendors need to be trained using the same training the inside employees receive.
According to Serena, “vendor work forces have quite a large turnover in the staff working on the programs, so it can be difficult for them to have enough resources to track training.” The pharmaceutical company needs to take responsibility for that, roll out the company’s own training to the vendors, and track it on company systems.
Since marketing departments are often responsible for funding the programs and developing program materials, marketing staff should be included on the training roster. “All marketing staff need a base level of training,” says Serena, “and those tasked with working in partnership with the in-program team need a deeper level of training.”
In addition, since Medical Information is tasked with answering HCP questions that come in by phone, an awareness on how the programs work is critical for them as well. Add the Finance Department employees to the training list as well. They need to understand the reason for the program, its value to the company, and the justification for why it shouldn’t be eliminated when budgets need to be cut. Finally, don’t overlook the need for PAP and PSP training for the Compliance Department. Compliance is often staffed with professionals from other disciplines across the company and their awareness and familiarity with the programs may be limited.
Although this post delves into the broad scope of employee groups who should be trained on PAPs and PSPs, the list should not be considered complete by any means. Every company’s approach to the programs is different and the structure, frequency, and roster lists for program training will vary.
The stakes are high though and careful planning is needed to help ensure a higher level of compliance across the company. As Serena so succinctly puts it, “everyone in the industry talks about the importance of being patient centric. These programs speak to the value of that focus and the company’s reputation and that must be taken into consideration when planning the training.”
Thanks for reading!
Sean Murphy
PharmaCertify by NXLevel Solutions