Healthcare tech improves patient access with Insightly

Cancer

It’s a word that strikes fear into all of us. And, rightfully so. According to the CDC, cancer is second only to heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States. Globally, the National Cancer Institute estimates that approximately 14 million new cancer diagnoses are made each year, a number expected to rise to 22 million within the next twenty years.

Despite these alarming statistics, there is some good news on the horizon. Thanks in large part to advancements in research and treatment, cancer death rates are decreasing and survivorship is on the rise. For example, in the United States, the cancer death rate has fallen 1.8% per year since 2004.

Annexus Health is determined to accelerate these positive trends by improving access to and the affordability of cancer care. The company’s assistPoint platform, the only one of its kind on the market, is revolutionizing how oncology providers serve patients. Specifically, assistPoint simplifies the complex process of matching patients with financial and nursing support programs offered by pharmaceutical companies and charitable foundations. Because cancer treatment can be very expensive and require significant amounts of paperwork, applying for financial aid has traditionally added to the patient’s stress. assistPoint alleviates the patient’s stress by automating the entire process for the healthcare provider.

More than 250 cancer centers actively use assistPoint, and the platform is showing no sign of slowing down. With more than 12,000 cancer physicians still to serve, the Annexus team believes that assistPoint has only begun to achieve its mission.

In this article, we’ll explore how Annexus Health is engaging more healthcare providers by using Insightly.

Kerry Bradley Co-Founder

Increased Awareness Necessitates Changemix

Interest in the assistPoint platform reached an all-time-high in early 2017, which led Annexus Health co-founder, Kerry Bradley, to re-evaluate the company’s internal processes.

Insightly is very important to our business, and choosing it as our CRM was a wise decision.

“assistPoint solves a number of problems for financial counselors at cancer centers. In particular, the solution streamlines an otherwise chaotic process by instantly analyzing patient information, identifying potential program matches, and simplifying the application process,” Bradley said. “There’s no question that we’ve witnessed a dramatic increase in awareness for the platform.”

With an uptick in leads, Bradley knew that Annexus Health needed a CRM.

“As demand for our product grew, the implementation of a CRM became inevitable,” Bradley said. “We decided to do some research and see what was out there.”

Annexus Health needed a CRM that offered a robust feature suite, out-of-the-box integrations, and scalability. It also wanted a system that would make it easy to add features (and additional user licenses) as the company grew.

“Based on our research, Insightly kept appearing at the top of the list,” Bradley said. “The pricing plans seemed reasonable, so we signed up for a free trial.”

Soon after starting the trial, it became apparent that Insightly was going to be a good fit for Annexus Health.

“I had never personally used a CRM before trying Insightly,” Bradley said. “Other systems seemed too complex for our needs. Insightly is very intuitive and modifiable to our needs.”

Insightly’s personalized customer support and in-depth help documentation were also important selling points for the Annexus Health team.

“The helpful training videos were certainly beneficial,” Bradley said. “It’s also nice to jump on the phone with an Insightly rep if we ever get stuck.”

Two Customer Groups in One System

After finalizing the decision to go with Insightly, attention turned toward the sales process.

“We have two very different customer groups,” Bradley said. “Our first group consists of cancer centers and physician groups. Our goal with that group is to get as many as possible using our software. The second customer group includes pharmaceutical companies in the life sciences community who support us financially.”

Although both customer groups are equally vital to the company’s success, Annexus Health’s initial approach was to focus on managing interactions with the first group.

“We’re working with hundreds of cancer center organizations, each of which has multiple points of contact along with countless other data points,” Bradley said. “Insightly helps us to build a more complete picture of each practice and is a repository of key insights. These include the number of physicians and their existing technological footprint.”

In Annexus Health’s instance of Insightly, the organization record plays a pivotal role.

“Each cancer center is represented in Insightly by an organization,” Bradley said. “Within each organization, we have many linked contact records. As the organization advances in its use of assistPoint, the number of linked contacts and interactions with each organization increases. Insightly helps us stay on top of the many interactions.”

Although the company’s initial use of Insightly has been focused on cancer centers and physician practices, Annexus Health will soon begin tracking life science engagement, too.

“The sales cycle with pharma partners is quite different,” Bradley said. “Our next goal is to create a dedicated pipeline for tracking that segment in Insightly.”

Integrations that Add Value

“It’s also nice that Insightly integrates to many of the tools we use each day,” Bradley said. “Google Docs, Microsoft OneDrive, and Power BI are some of the integrations we rely on.”

To gain additional insights into each customer’s experience, the Annexus Health team has also connected Insightly to its SupportBee account.

“When support requests are made by our cancer center clients, Insightly automatically logs a record of the ticket,” Bradley said. “This keeps everyone in the loop, and it helps us avoid data silos in our business. Insightly serves as our hub of up-to-date customer information.”

Scalability for the Future

Looking ahead, Annexus Health has big plans slated for the near term.

“There are thousands of cancer centers and physician practices left to serve,” Bradley said. “We’re committed to helping as many as possible through the assistPoint platform.”

The company is also looking to evolve the platform to serve adjacent oncology segments.

“We believe assistPoint may be useful for practices involved with oral chemotherapy,” Bradley said. “As we scope out additional use cases, we plan to utilize Insightly projects to keep things organized.”

To support such a growth-minded vision, Annexus Health is actively planning a series A fundraising initiative. Once funding has been obtained, the company will add approximately thirty additional team members and further expand the platform.

The Right CRM for Growing Companies

Clearly, the Annexus Health team has a bright future ahead. At Insightly, we’re honored to play a small role in bringing comfort to cancer patients across the country.

If you’re thinking about trying Insightly, but you’re still not sure if it’s the right fit, consider these closing words from Kerry Bradley at Annexus Health:

“Insightly is very important to our business, and choosing it as our CRM was a wise decision.”

Join Kerry Bradley and over 1 million other satisfied users today. Try Insightly for free.