Securing State Medicaid Preferred Status Takes a Sales Region to #1

Issue:
Our client, a large international pharmaceutical company, recently lost their position for their flagship product on a state Medicaid formulary, dropping their market share from about 50% to just over 20%. The respective sales region’s ranking dropped into ninth out of 13 regions.

Analysis:
After first discussing and assessing the situation with Field Sales management team and senior Sales leadership, we then arranged a meeting with members from all departments who could offer insight into the situation (Managed Care, Contracting, Medical, and Sales).

Insight:
This was a situation in which each responsible department did not perform their duties to the best of their abilities. As a result, the customer chose another product.

Action Steps:
Each department created a plan to return the product to its former formulary position, and named a specific point person to be accountable to the full team for its results.

Results:

• • The state noted that within two months of our plan initiation, non-formulary product prescriptions and market share started to grow – a strong indication of the physicians’ desire to have this product available again for their patients.
  • Because of this unprecedented growth, they allowed us to reinitiate contract discussions.
  • The state recognized the physicians’ desire to have this product available for a greater percentage of patients than the competitive product, and elevated our status from “equal” to “exclusive”.
  • As a result, the Regional sales goal attainment reached 160%, elevating the region from ninth to 1st place in the national standings in just 13 months.