Evaluating the Pharmaceutical Industry Interface with Managed Care

OBJECTIVE: To study the role of pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs) in the managed care environment, the value of support services and other benefits provided by industry, and the types of information needed by managed care organizations. DESIGN: Mailed survey. SETTING: Not applicable. PARTICIPANTS: 500 members of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. INTERVENTIONS: Mail questionnaires with more than 100 items using a five-point Likert scale and open-ended questions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Means and standard deviations analyzed with Student's test for paired data; nominal variables analyzed with chi-square analysis; and ordinal data analyzed using the Mantel-Haenszel test for linear association. RESULTS: Overall, 170 of 500 questionnaires (34%) were completed and returned. Managed care pharmacists and industry executives agreed that drug sampling should be discontinued. In addition, they agreed on the order of importance of various support services, the types of research studies that are needed mo...