Why Patient Services Programs Fail: Field Force Empowerment and Patient Activation

Why Patient Support Programs Underperform, and What It Actually Takes to Fix Them. On this episode of The Patient Experience Podcast, Bob Miglani and Jason Grossman sit down with Rajeswari Narayan, a senior patient support leader with 12+ years at Merck, Novartis, Roche, Astellas, and Eli Lilly, to unpack why patient services programs underperform, and what it actually takes to fix them. Rajeswari has led PSP strategy across immunology, rare disease, dermatology, rheumatology, and gastroenterology at the highest levels of global pharma. In this episode, she brings real-world data and case studies to three problems that keep coming up across patient support, commercial strategy, and market access teams. The first is EMR integration. It is widely understood, but most companies are using it wrong. At launch, every available EMR must be activated, not a selective few. A phased approach feels like a cost-saving move, yet it kills momentum, limits prescriber access, and destroys ROI before a program ever gets traction. In Canada, a single EMR upload costs $90K CAD plus $20K in annual maintenance. Mid-size companies launching with selective EMRs to save money are essentially guessing at reach, and that is a risk no product launch can afford. The second is Quick Start programs, which remain controversial across the industry. Rajeswari shares how one pharma company removed PSP eligibility criteria entirely, accepted the financial risk, and saw a 20% increase in annual sales. The third is positioning. Patient support is being sold as a free product offering instead of a clinical enabler, and the gap between brand strategy and field execution is where patients fall through. Leaders in patient services, commercial strategy, and market access will walk away understanding where the breakdowns happen, and what empowered field teams and well-executed programs actually look like. patient support programs, PSP strategy, patient services, EMR integration, market access, pharma commercial strategy, Quick Start programs, prescriber access, patient access, product launch, new-to-brand, patient engagement, rare disease, immunology, dermatology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, The Patient Experience Podcast