It’s official, we’re mid-way through the year. And for the pharmacy benefit management world, that means it’s time for mid-year plan reviews. Like an annual review, the mid-year meeting is a valuable time to evaluate progress and results. What’s working and what’s not? What trends are you seeing that should be acted on quickly? What changes should the client consider for January 1?
Below, we share five best practices to help ensure you host a successful mid-year meeting.
1. Send your proposed agenda to the client a few weeks in advance. Ensure everyone is aligned on what will be discussed so there are no surprises during the meeting. If a consultant is involved, it’s always a good idea to share with the consultant before the client.
2. Review your client’s cost data and pharmacy benefits goals. Take a close look at your client’s data and determine what’s causing their costs to go up or down, why, and what your proposed recommendations are. We offer a tool that makes this easier than ever.
Whether you identify a new opportunity or revisit a recommendation you made previously, you want to show that you’re proposing smart, data-driven solutions that lower costs and improve member health outcomes.
To bring this best practice to life, we created a helpful, step-by-step example:
3. Create a polished presentation that supports the story you’re telling. When you’re building your presentation, you want to make sure you’re clearly highlighting plan performance to date along with your specific recommendations to improve. To save time, Xevant offers a unique tool that creates comprehensive plan reports in seconds.
Polished slides are a must, but as you’re presenting, always remember to voice over additional insight, analysis, and expertise. Don’t just read your slides word for word. This not only positions you as a trusted advisor, it will also ensure a more conversational, collaborative meeting.
4. Have every team member prepare and practice. As we covered in a previous blog, preparation is key. The work that you do ahead of your meeting is critical to ensure you’re bringing proven value to your client.
- Plan to hold at least two formal dry runs with all presenters and make sure everyone is clear on what they are presenting and how hand-offs and transitions will work.
- Prepare to discuss hot-button issues during your meeting. Make sure you can proactively address what the issue is, why it occurred, how you plan to fix it, and by when.
- Do some research on various industry publications to provide additional context for your client. For example, if you’re going to have an in-depth discussion about their drug trend, it would be smart to share supporting insight on drug trend from across the industry.
5. Easily monitor cost data and proactively identify opportunities to improve throughout the year. Rather than relying on annual or quarterly reporting, Xevant makes it possible to monitor plan performance in near real time. For example, our AlertLogic tool automatically monitors and reviews customized claims data, identifies areas of opportunity, and then sends you an alert so you can take swift action.
As you strive to balance cost containment, optimize benefit designs, and enhance health outcomes, an effective mid-year review is critical. With Xevant’s industry-leading automated reporting tools, it’s easier than ever to prepare for a successful meeting and continue helping your clients lower costs and improve health outcomes.
How can Xevant help you better prepare for your mid-year PBM plan review? Ask us.
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