Getting patients on therapy still depends on people—clinicians, staff, patient support program managers, and hub services teams—working in systems that weren’t built for today’s complexity. These legacy systems typically don’t communicate well with each other, creating friction at every stage of the medication journey from prescribing to ongoing adherence.

Doctor visits typically last 15-20 minutes, sometimes less. During these brief encounters, providers must address patients’ concerns, review medical history, assess multiple chronic conditions, and manage documentation in the electronic health record (EHR) system. When specialty medications are added to the mix, there’s barely time to cover side effects, dosing instructions, or financial assistance options. In fact, the average provider spends 36 minutes on EHR tasks per patient visit, longer than the face-to-face time.³

Managing prior authorization (PA) is a major contributor to clinician workflow inefficiencies. This is particularly true for specialty medications. When prescribers lack real-time visibility into PA requirements, alternative formulary options, or affordability based on patient-specific coverage details, they may write prescriptions that trigger avoidable delays. By the time barriers surface, often days later, the critical window for first-fill success has already narrowed.

Beyond the clinic, patient support hub services are scaling up to meet demand, but the expansion itself signals strain. The hub services market now includes more than 90 vendors, with several doubling staff year-over-year to meet demand.⁴

This rapid scaling suggests more than simple market growth. It reflects an operational model struggling to maintain personalized support as specialty medication launches accelerate, and patient populations expand.

When capacity lags demand, response times lengthen, and patient motivation erodes.