Your site deserves to be paid faster. We can help.
Our refined budget processes and payment models offer a new lens of transparency and speed for sites, helping to improve site relationships for sponsors
The enterprise of delivering life-changing medicines to patients involves a complex ecosystem, and in many ways, three key players reside at the core: drug sponsors, the contract research organizations (CROs) that support them and the clinical research sites directly engaging with patients in the trial.
Many research sites’ overall sustainability relies heavily upon payments from sponsors and CROs. To get more sites involved and stay involved in clinical research, we must ensure that their pain points (such as payment delays and lack of transparency) are solved for. Sites that know they will be paid in full and on time are more likely to remain committed to a trial. Otherwise, there will not be enough sites (and patients) participating for the ecosystem to conduct this vital research to bring life-changing medicines to people.
If these issues resonate with your site, read on for our analysis of these pain points and the solutions we have implemented to address them.
An industry impaired by outdated processes and models
Recent surveys highlight significant financial and operational challenges faced by clinical research sites. A substantial 36% of sites have reported a decrease in operating capital from the previous year, and nearly a quarter of sites had 31-40% of their invoices overdue by 90 days. Investigator payments often take six to 12 months to be processed.1 This leaves most sites with less than three months of operating cash.
Many of today’s large life science organizations still maintain inefficient processes built on outdated and complex technology, as well as a lack of holistic process visibility for teams. Additionally, in our conversations with sites, we have learned that the design of many current site budgets does not adequately account for the increased administrative burdens associated with patient screening and initial visits – including consent, protocol explanation, investigational product and study logistics, patient use of technology and complex trial design methodologies.
To address these issues, there is a critical need for timely payments, transparent and robust budgets that account for hidden costs, platforms to reduce site-patient burden and streamline study setup and delivery, and data to justify budgets to sponsors.
Restoring efficiency and accuracy in budget and payment models
We recognize the weight of this industry need, and we are committed to streamlining site payments to ensure they are fast and accurate and have minimal administrative burden. We’re accomplishing this by leveraging transparent communication pathways and efficient processes and optimizing technologies.
Through our experts
Our dedicated site payments oversight directors serve as single points of contact to address payment issues and drive improvements, ensuring budget and contract negotiations align with downstream payments. This contributes to stronger customer alignment that helps identify best practices and proactively address risks, while leadership ensures that budgets support payments.
Through our updated models
Starting in 2023, we implemented an enhanced pay-by-visit (PBV) model that includes:
- Negotiating by procedure for transparency
- Incorporating optional procedures at expected rates while maintaining fair market value
- Paying sites for patient safety management
We have also successfully developed and deployed site invoice training materials including a “cheat sheet,” which has reduced administrative burdens, mistakes in invoices and the need for repeated reviews and re-issuing.
Through our agile processes
These collective processes, including proactive discussions with sponsors on budget parameters, have simplified reconciliation for sites by reducing or removing invoices in the workstream and increasing the number of procedures paid at a single visit level.
Improving timing and performance without compromising quality
As a result of implementing change for more than 100 pilot study budgets, we have witnessed:
- Decreased number of invoice mistakes, which require credits, corrections, repeated reviews and/or re-issuing
- Most payments issued in fewer than 30 days, approximately 64% faster than standard budgets, with all payments made in less than 90 days
- Reduced site administrative burden by 90%, by reducing invoicing requirements
- More efficient data transfers from site electronic data captures (EDCs) to our payment systems
- 5x faster contract negotiations (median 22 days) with a simplified budget structure
- Greater visibility on work completed by sites, resulting in more accurate requests for invoices that are aligned with site expectations. This also means clearer guidance to sites on EDC entry requirements.
The impact on sites and their patients
The investments we have made into our site payments infrastructure are actively improving operational efficiencies in several ways:
- Enhanced cash flow and faster site payments reduce financial strain and build trust, while minimized administrative burdens allow sites to focus on their core research and patient care activities.
- Transparency in costs ensures that sites understand their expenses will be adequately covered by the budget.
- Reducing the number of payment lines and invoices simplifies financial processes and aligns with EDC automation for payment validation, further streamlining operations.
These measures are important because they create a more supportive and efficient environment for clinical research sites. By addressing financial and administrative challenges, we can help sites operate more smoothly and contribute to more effective and timely clinical trials. Additional benefits may include boosting site morale, strengthening the relationships between sponsors/CROs and sites, and achieving better outcomes. This, in turn, benefits the overall health care landscape by accelerating the development and delivery of new treatments and therapies for patients.