Few forces have the power to drive positive health outcomes like an engaged patient. Armed with the proper information and tools, they can become an equal partner in creating their healthcare treatment strategy, working with their healthcare providers to design a smooth, seamless healthcare journey.

During a recent webinar, Steve Madden, GM at MM+M, Haymarket Media, sat down with Audrey Krezmer, director of strategy and operations at GoodRx Health, and Divya Iyer, VP of strategy and business development at GoodRx, to discuss how to measurably improve patient engagement. 

GoodRx connects patients, providers, and pharma

GoodRx has “built an end-to-end ecosystem with both consumers and providers on the platform,” Iyer said, noting that over one-third of the U.S. population and 900,000 providers have visited the site. The company offers both top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel solutions to guide and support patients on their healthcare journeys.

“Curated content that’s patient friendly drives deep engagement and education for patients,” she said. GoodRx is a “one-stop shop for pharma marketers, where they can reach both patients and providers at different parts of their healthcare journeys.”

The goal of GoodRx Health is “to fit into a patient’s or consumer’s ‘life flow,’” Krezmer said. This means our solutions fit into a provider’s workflow and into a consumer’s day-to-day life. “Our goal is to make it easy for them to get the answers when they need them, where they need them,” she said.

Serving the demands of patients-as-payers

Over the last few decades, U.S. patients have taken on a greater share of the cost of their healthcare. “More than 50% of commercially insured lives are on a high deductible health plan (HDHP) and that’s growing rapidly,” Iyer said. The truth is patients “expect more from the healthcare system when they’re the payer,” including cost transparency and an Amazon-like shopping experience.

“GoodRx is a trusted platform where many patients go at that critical point when they’re looking to make a decision or to learn more about a condition or specific treatment,” she said.

While GoodRx has cultivated the brand equity to initially attract consumers, a key goal is to “get them to come back, retain them, and ensure that we’re continuing along the journey with them as they go through their own evolution in their care,” Krezmer said. GoodRx moves patients and providers from the initial visit and educational content to highly actionable tools, such as savings coupons, copay cards, articles about specific treatments, and more.

Trust is a powerful prescription for patients

GoodRx has assembled an editorial team of leading physicians, pharmacists, and financial experts to ensure “that the content that we’re putting out there is accurate and credible,” according to Krezmer.

So far, it’s working: GoodRx consistently has a net promoter score (NPS) of 90, no small feat in healthcare. That’s good news for pharma brands. Together, “we can lend our trust, our credibility, and our audience engagement and manufacturers can bring their expertise to their brands,” she explained. “It’s a win-win-win — a win for pharma, a win for GoodRx, and a win for our consumers, who we’re ultimately serving.”

Pharma brands can stand out by “leveraging the GoodRx brand and audience trust to reach and engage the most appropriate patients for their products,” Iyer said. It can also be used to drive patient access and adherence. “The entire suite of solutions that we’ve built helps brands not just amplify what they already have in the market but also create new solutions tailored to their specific brand challenges,” Iyer said.

“We also pay close and regular attention to the most popular content on the platform to better  understand where our audience may still have knowledge gaps,” Krezmer added. “For example, we have an article that explains how pharma copay assistance programs work, and it’s still one of our highest-pulling pieces of content. It’s important that GoodRx can answer patients’ questions — even basic ones — so they can move forward and take action,” Krezmer said.

To that end, GoodRx has launched doctor discussion guides to facilitate conversations and help patients maximize the value of their time with their doctors. “Whether they’re newly diagnosed, looking to switch medications or concerned about the costs, there’s a guide that’s readily available with questions that we would recommend asking during your appointment,” she explained.

Anticipating & enabling a customer’s next best action

Pharma brand teams partner with GoodRx to reach the audiences they want — motivated patients and providers — at the scale they need.. Post-pandemic it may be more difficult for sales reps to have face time with providers, and while digital reach may not be a replacement for that time, it can be part of “a surround-sound approach to amplify the efforts of the reps,” Krezmer said. By partnering with GoodRx through a newsletter or email or online solutions, “they can have their brand messaging aligned with the content that consumers and providers are already reading.”

The real power of the platform is its ability to inform, incite, and enable action. “These are extremely high-intent, highly engaged users in a contextually relevant setting,” Iyer added. ”GoodRx offers proven solutions that help move patients through their journey, from condition, diagnosis, and treatment education to tools to improve affordability and adherence. I’m not aware of another platform for patients and providers that can make that claim.”