Medtech leaders today face several headwinds that are threatening to erode price and profitability. In our previous blogs, we discussed the key drivers for price and profitability erosion and a number of tactics that can be employed to counteract the tide. Many of these tactics, such as achieving a deep understanding of contracting entities and relationships, creating segment-based discounting strategies and developing an analytics-driven contracting organization capability are dependent on one key factor: the availability of accurate and timely data to drive decisions. Quality data, however, can be elusive and requires multiple capabilities, the most fundamental of which is master data management (MDM). Without quality master data, overall data quality is untenable. Here’s how MDM helps fight pricing erosion:
- Better pricing decisions: The healthcare landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, making it difficult for most companies to maintain a precise view of healthcare organizations’ ownership and affiliation structure, which is critical to making the right pricing decisions. MDM solves this problem by letting companies integrate third-party data with internal data across applications and partner data (buying groups and distributor sales) to get a complete, accurate and up-to-date view of the data.
To increase accuracy, MDM solutions need to continuously integrate third-party syndicated master data. Syndicated data sources aren’t perfect, but combining internal and partner master data with syndicated master data in an MDM solution gives companies a better picture of the holistic healthcare ecosystem and where their customers fit in it. - Accurate payments: Amid organization acquisitions and divestitures and shifts between buying groups, companies risk paying entities the wrong price. MDM helps solve this problem by making sure organization structure and membership data are accurate. This not only helps ensure proper payment but can also increase compliance and reduce audit risks.
- Increased analytic capabilities: In a prior blog, we discussed leveraging data and analytics to continuously measure and optimize the success of your pricing and contracting strategy. However, advanced pricing analytics can require analyzing an enormous amount of disparate and disconnected internal and external data to gain insights that can really drive business value. While big data tools can manage the volume, to drive real value and effective pricing decisions, data needs to be clean and integrated. Integrating disparate, disconnected data is where MDM can deliver huge value for pricing and contracting.
MDM solutions, coupled with strong data governance processes, can help companies integrate the deluge of available internal and external data to support effective pre- and post-deal analytics and pricing insights to improve deal health. Providing this broad context of customer value and market trends makes MDM a real game changer.
Additionally, MDM aids in the fight against pricing erosion by automating customer data integration; providing advanced match algorithms and capabilities; providing access to all membership, distributor and internal profiles associated with a customer; reducing compliance risks through strong data lineage and audit trails; reducing processing times and resources necessary for membership data and improving customer data maintenance. Overall, MDM’s ability to help companies achieve their contracting and strategy goals is undeniable. How can you make it a part of your strategy?
