Industry leadership is never about extolling the virtues of your product or service. Much of it happens when executives take strong positions, backed up by strong data, on topics of national relevance. This is true across all industries and is particularly so in healthcare.
Healthcare Leader Curant Health Develops A Stance
The development and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the largest healthcare story in the past decade. With it comes a seismic shift in how doctors get paid. The days of fee-for-service (or payment based on volume) are quickly coming to an end in favor of value-based pay (payment based on patient outcomes). One of the most recent developments in national healthcare policy tangent to the ACA and the shift to value-based care is the repeal of the “Sustainable Growth Rate,” (SGR) which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in April.
We knew that any position on the ACA or SGR had to be supported by bulletproof data in order to result in a public relations win. I found it in two recently published studies Curant Health conducted. Fairly extrapolating the data showed Medicare savings in the billions of dollars.
A Data-Driven Position Can Mean High Value Media Discussions
I asked Patrick Dunham, Curant Health’s CEO, “Can medication management pay for the SGR repeal? If so, how?” And having already identified the right person with the audience and outlet to really move the meter, we got right to it.
Leading healthcare media jumped on this — that’s what happens with industry leading insights like Curant Health’s.
As Patrick told Chris Cheney with HealthLeaders Media, “The value placed on preventative care needs to increase. By value, we mean outcomes divided by costs. Metrics and payment models for improving outcomes (increasing the numerator in that equation) should include greater reimbursement for services like medication management that drive higher levels of adherence,” Dunham told me recently.
“Our healthcare system exists in an environment with a 50-year-old model and stakeholders who don’t want to see change. While too many of the stakeholders are continuing to fight over the bottom line of their balance sheets and the bottom line of the value equation (cost), we will continue working with our colleagues like Sharon Dudley-Brown at Johns Hopkins and to prove that collaborative care, inclusive of enhanced medication therapy management, has a major positive effect on the top line of the value equation, outcomes, to the benefit of all stakeholders.”
Timely Data + A Strong Stance + Media Relations = Big Public Relations Wins
Drawing on the right story with solid data and a solid understanding of who Curant Health is and what they do, we created a position on the SGR repeal (timely) and the shift to value-based care (timely for years) that landed in Forbes. And Healthleaders Media. And FierceHealthcare. And beyond.
At Write2Market, we consistently encourage our clients to take strong positions on industry topics that are timely and likely to remain so for months, if not years. This positioning generates ongoing opportunities to become valued subject matter experts and provide insight to journalists and analysts that keeps your company in the spotlight. You can do it, too. Creating an industry leading position is well with the grasp of innovative companies. Give us a call to learn how.
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