Value Analysis and Outcome Planning

Medical Device Marketing Consulting

Which technologies will be purchased and used by healthcare facilities? Which will be embraced by physicians? Which will be supported by payers?

Today, in order to gain acceptance, medical device technologies must demonstrate their “value” to the marketplace. How “value” is determined, proven, and communicated is the core of healthcare business economics – and it impacts key decisions regarding your product’s clinical and market development. At RPI we utilize our healthcare business consulting expertise to help you in medical device marketing by:

  • Setting the Right Price
  • Conducting the Right Studies
  • Sending the Right Message

Set the Right Price

Obviously, establishing your product’s price is an important decision. It requires careful planning, taking into account the R&D, manufacturing and production costs. Reimbursement, too, plays an important role. Your customers – payers or healthcare facilities – will use both clinical and economic information to compare your technology to established alternatives. How will your product measure up? Through customized, interactive pricing tools, our Health Economics team places your product within the appropriate cost-effectiveness framework – letting you pressure test the impact of pricing on your product’s value proposition.

Conduct the Right Studies

Will your pivotal clinical studies capture information required by payers? Did you know that FDA requirements for marketing approval are not the same as payer requirements for coverage? RPI can evaluate your draft clinical study protocols -- suggesting study design elements and even arranging meetings with Medicare and private payers – to ensure your pivotal FDA studies are also supportive of positive coverage policy development.

Send the Right Message

Hospital Sales Tool DemoAnother challenge for medical device manufacturers is communicating a product’s value proposition to its key customer segments. RPI is experienced in a full spectrum of health economics communication.

We’ll help you select the Right Message at the Right Time for the Right Audience:

  • Interactive payer presentations
  • Demonstrate cost-effectiveness of your product vs. “gold standard” treatments
  • User-friendly facility sales tools
  • Generate “on-the-spot” clinical-economic arguments using a facility’s own cost and clinical outcomes data
  • Peer-reviewed publications
  • Compile research and economic data, write draft articles, and assist with submission to appropriate trade and professional journals

Success Story 1

Situation:

A medical device manufacturer is designing its pivotal clinical study for an innovative treatment of a chronic, progressive disorder. Proof of the treatment’s cost-effectiveness will be crucial to a successful medical device reimbursement strategy

Reimbursement Principles’ Solution:
  • Performed a thorough analysis of the coding, coverage, and payment environment for the manufacturer’s treatment as well as competitive procedures
  • Performed a comprehensive examination of the medical and healthcare economics literature regarding current treatments of the chronic, progressive disorder
  • Recommended the addition of specific quality of life, functional status, and healthcare economics endpoints to the pivotal study data collection effort
  • Developed a preliminary interactive cost-effectiveness model to:
    • Evaluate potential value propositions
    • Inform preliminary pricing, manufacturing, and positioning considerations
    • Updated this model as additional pilot data become available
    • Incorporated pivotal study results into a formal, rigorous health economics assessment

Success Story 2

Situation:

A device used in critically ill inpatients is on the market and being presented to hospital purchasers. The product is more effective, but also “more expensive” than currently available devices. Hospitals are worried about up-front acquisition costs and are slow to adopt the new technology.

Reimbursement Principles’ Solution:
  • Developed an interactive hospital sales tool
  • Enabled facility entry of number of patients requiring treatment, costs associated with competitive products
  • Demonstrated reduction in downstream imaging and supply costs to show significant net savings to the hospital