Healthcare

IHS Healthcare Consulting offers a wide spectrum of tailored solutions for government, corporate and association clients engaged in the global pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Whether you need custom market forecasts, go-to-market strategies, scenario planning or a cost-benefit analysis of a risk-sharing proposition, we will meet your needs. 

Clients gain essential support of their strategic objectives in these key areas:

• Market planning, access and scenario analysis
• Healthcare reimbursement and pricing strategies
• Regulatory impact
• Burden of disease
• Budget impact modeling
• Early economic modeling
• Cost effectiveness analysis
• Policy impact on patient health, cost and access to care
• Disease prevalence and demand for health care
• Medical expenditures
• Health workforce analysis

IHS Healthcare Consulting enables you to:

• Understand the implications of industry and public policy changes on demand for healthcare products, services and expenditures
• Identify market warning signs and key healthcare industry drivers
• Support decision-making with predictive modeling and scenario analysis
• Plan and budget accurately by anticipating future spending patterns
• Set appropriate reimbursement rates by location and facility type
• Plan changes to employee benefits 
• Formulate input price indexes that reflect specific health facility cost pressures within a region or state
• Lower your costs

Learn more about our services, or contact us for an exploratory meeting.

IHS consultants deliver the following services that can help you:

Health Economic and Outcomes Research – Demonstrate the potential of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology products, medical devices and care delivery patterns on patient health outcomes, medical costs, productivity and quality of life.

See Case Studies #1 and #2

Market Planning and Scenario Analysis –Improve sales and revenue forecasting processes by evaluating how economic factors, competition and policy changes impact potential category and product sales

See Case Studies #3, #4, and #5

Healthcare Reimbursement – Forecast costs and expenditures to identify and quantify key drivers of cost changes to develop efficient, evidence-based estimates for reimbursement and prospective payment.

See Case Study #6

Regulatory Impact – Quantify the impact of proposed regulatory changes on product sales, company performance and investment profitability, including acquisitions.

Pricing Strategies – Develop an optimal price for new drugs and formulate market entry strategies.

Predicting Modeling and Forecasting – Quantify the health and economic implications of changing demographics, care delivery patterns, economic factors and public policy on supply of and demand for healthcare products and services.

See Case Study #7

Market Access and Analysis – Receive daily, weekly and monthly analyses of:

• Key health technology developments
• Reimbursement decisions
• Regulation in specified regions or therapeutic areas  
• Scenarios for analyses of geographic or therapeutic segments delivered in reports, data sets or online tools
• Comprehensive insights into comparative reimbursement strategies

Customized Single-client Reports – Get single-client, customized reports focusing on business improvement and opportunity maximization strategies

Customized Multi-client Studies (PDF) – Our practice writes multi-client, syndicated market research reports using qualitative and quantitative surveys, market access scenarios and market analysis.

See Case Study #3

Case Study #1: Burden of Disease

Challenge: Government agencies, pharmaceutical and medical device companies and non-profit organizations use estimates of disease burden to prioritize spending for research and intervention and to increase awareness of the disease.

Solution: IHS Global Insight disease burden models combine information from analysis of medical claims, hospital discharge records and national surveys with information from published sources. Using these models, our consultants calculate the increase in medical costs associated with having a chronic condition, the decrease in productivity to estimate the indirect costs of disease and the implications on mortality and quality of life.

Results: Estimates of disease burden produced by members of our team have been published in journals such as Health Affairs, American Journal of Managed Care, Population Health Management and the American Journal of Health Promotion. Chronic conditions analyzed include diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity and various cancers. See Health Economic and Outcomes Research.

Case Study #2: Disease Prevalence and Demand for Healthcare

Challenge: Pharmaceutical and medical device companies, hospital systems and health plans use information on trends in disease prevalence, demand for healthcare products and services and medical expenditures for market planning and prioritizing research activities.

Solution: IHS Global Insight Healthcare Demand Microsimulation Model (HDMM) uses a health profile for a stratified random sample of the population to estimate current and project future prevalence of chronic diseases. Based on trends in demographics, disease risk factors and the healthcare operating environment (e.g., use of preventive care) the HDMM projects future disease prevalence, demand for disease-related healthcare services and products and disease-related medical expenditures.

Results: Our consultants use IHS Global Insight forecasting models to estimate future disease prevalence and associated healthcare use and medical expenditures by therapeutic area, geographic region and population group, such as demographic or socio-economic characteristics. See Health Economic and Outcomes Research.

Case Study #3: Market Planning, Access and Scenario Analysis

Challenge: A group of pharmaceutical clients turned to IHS Consulting for a cost-benefit analysis of the use of risk-sharing agreements for negotiating the cost of launching new drugs.

Solution: IHS consultants compiled a report covering risk-sharing agreements in nine countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The study employed a qualitative approach, including over 50 interviews with players and key opinion leaders along with cross-country comparisons of regulatory and market trends for risk-sharing agreements.

Results: Clients received: 1) an electronic report detailing our research methodology and results; 2) a comparative analysis presentation; and 3) detailed country profiles for each survey. See Market Planning and Scenario Analysis and Customized Multi-Client Studies.

Case Study #4: Economic Impact Analysis

Challenge: A major pharmaceutical firm needed additional insight into the impact of the economic environment on historical sales in multiple therapeutic areas and the implications of continued economic instability on future sales.

Solution: IHS Consulting conducted econometric analyses using monthly data from over 360 metropolitan statistical areas. Determinants of prescription sales analyzed included estimates of the population with the chronic condition, economic environment (unemployment rate), level of marketing activities and important industry or healthcare system-wide events. 

Results: Outcomes produced include estimates of the relationship between pharmaceutical sales in key markets and trends in the economic or healthcare environment, estimates of the loss in sales volume associated with the economic downturn and projections of future sales by therapeutic market. See Market Planning and Scenario Analysis.

Case Study #5: Policy Impact on Patient Health, Cost and Access to Care

Challenge: Government agencies and other organizations often need to quantify the health and economic implications of proposed new policies, regulations and programs. Proposed policies are often targeted to a specific subset of the population (e.g., the uninsured), a particular healthcare delivery setting (e.g., ambulatory care), or a particular condition or health-related behavior (e.g., obesity). Understanding the implications of new policies is complicated by the healthcare system and the correlation between population demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health status and healthcare needs.

Solution: IHS Global Insight health care microsimulation models use a health profile for a stratified random sample of the population to model demand for healthcare products and services and related medical costs. Each person's health profile contains information on demographics, socio-economic characteristics, disease prevalence, health risk factors, insurance type and health care use. These microsimulation models are designed to model the health, access to care, and economic implications of changes in healthcare policy and the healthcare operating system.

Results: Using these models, our consultants produce estimates of the size of the population affected by a proposed healthcare policy and the implications for use of healthcare services and associated medical costs.

Case Study #6: Budget Impact Modeling

Challenge: As part of regulatory activities, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issues periodic projections of input price indexes designed to track the cost of providing medical services. These indexes serve as guidelines for Medicare reimbursement rates and are also used to assess the solvency of the Medicare system. IHS Consulting has worked closely with CMS since 1979 to develop, maintain and improve the indexes to support forecasting for the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System.

Solution: IHS Global Insight maintains an integrated system of national and regional macroeconomic, industry and cost forecasting models that capture complex price dynamics in markets for goods, services and workers. Using this information, IHS Consulting generated econometric forecasts for the detailed wage and price components of the inpatient prospective payment system index.

Results: IHS consultants prepare quarterly index forecasts for hospitals and skilled nursing facilities that include scenarios based on assumptions provided by Medicare Trustees and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Medicare Trustees use these forecasts in the development of their annual report on the status of the trust fund. The OMB also uses the prepared forecasts based on their economic assumptions in the development of budget estimates of Medicare Part B outlays through the year 2028. IHS also supports CMS by conducting customized analysis for special studies. For example, one such study examined industry wage differentials for therapists, with whom the CMS established salary equivalency guidelines for contract rehabilitation therapy services in skilled nursing and other facilities. See Healthcare Reimbursement.

Case Study #7: Health Workforce Analysis

Challenge: Insight into the implications of healthcare system redesign and trends in demographics, economic factors, technology and disease prevalence helps government agencies, professional associations, health plans and hospital systems plan for future needs to improve patient access to affordable, quality care.

Solution: The IHS Healthcare Demand Microsimulation Model (HDMM) uses a novel approach to quantify the demand for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other providers based on patient demographics, health profile, socioeconomic characteristics and insurance type. The HDMM uses a health profile for a stratified random sample of the population to forecast current and future demand for health care services and the derived demand for health care professionals under alternative scenarios or changes in healthcare policy and trends in demand determinants. The Health Workforce Capacity Model (HWCM) forecasts future supply of health professionals under alternative scenarios that take into account trends in new providers trained, work-life balance and hours worked, retirement patterns and occupation or specialty choice.

Results: Comparison of projections of supply and demand for health professionals under alternative scenarios helps inform the number of new professionals needed to replace retirees and projected growth in demand. Furthermore, the projections provide insight into the health workforce impact of alternative strategies to ensure an adequate supply of health professionals. See Predicting Modeling and Forecasting.