FMV for health care providers and digital opinion leaders

Identifying FMV is critical

As part of your core business, you contract with third parties—including HCPs and other knowledgeable professionals—to compensate them for consulting activities to provide guidance, educating the physician and patient communities that span research and development, clinical, medical affairs, and sales and marketing.

Such arrangements that aren't priced at FMV may have the real or perceived risk of leading to inappropriate influence or inducement. Regulatory risks related to payments include allegations of kickbacks, bribery, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Increased attention to FMV by regulators is evidenced by recent regulatory actions (corporate integrity agreements, global transparency regulation, government investigations, etc.).

FMV for DOLs

DOLs, also known as social media influencers, are a subset group and can be patients, physicians, patient advocates, nurses, and others who are involved in delivering or receiving care. They have become a part of the health care system and are now significant voices providing educational and promotional support to the life sciences industry.

Interactions and engagements specific to social media differ from those of the traditional FMV model with HCPs. Nonetheless, the concept of FMV continues to apply. These interactions go beyond the hourly level of effort of a DOL whereby the FMV will depend on the social media platform, number of followers of the influencer, and relevance of the content, among other factors.

The use of DOLs by life sciences companies is relatively new and carries regulatory risk related to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), fair and balanced disclosures, Anti-Kickback Statute, and the Stark Law. Therefore, companies need to remain vigilant and ethical in their pursuit to expand their reach.

interactRx is a suite of FMV services that provides:

• Centralized on-demand access to your company's FMV rates in a secure web tool, allowing you to track HCP rate activity
• Workflows for routing and approval of tiering and exception requests
• Reporting analytics for fast and careful analysis of your FMV data

Built on the foundation of Deloitte & Touche LLP's demonstrated methodology and experience serving the life sciences industry within the research, commercial, and compliance functions, interactRx could be just what you need to effectively determine FMV for compensation of physicians, DOLs, and other knowledgeable professionals.