Health Policy's Home Turf
Washington, DC, is home to Ogilvy PR's Health Policy Group and the senior level counselors who provide health policy communications expertise to the agency's healthcare clients. From specialty pharmaceutical companies to medical device manufacturers to industry associations, the Health Policy Group brings a unique blend of inside-the-Beltway insights and communications expertise to our clients. With international reach through Ogilvy PR's global network, we provide solutions to communicating and shaping health policy issues wherever they may arise.
Could Health Policy Get Any More Challenging?
Drug pricing, formulary placement, reimbursement, patent challenges, DTC/DTP promotion practices, ethics, media and Congressional scrutiny of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries and general skepticism are just some of the issues confronting healthcare and healthcare-related companies and their executives. These intersecting issues not only affect bottom line revenues but impact corporate and product brand equity in ways that continue to evolve over time.
Developing effective communications strategies around your top policy issues, understanding how the work of your product marketing teams and your government relations departments can ultimately be complimentary rather than fragmented and siloed is where we excel. We seek to engage our clients' product teams and policy people, understanding that the actions of one affect the outcomes for all.
The Power of Advocacy
Few understand the power of innovation and promise of new drug and device exploration better than the patients and the patient advocacy groups who directly benefit from life-altering and life-changing treatments. We seek to harness the power of advocacy, helping create stronger relationships and enhancing dialogue. For every client, small or large or in-between, the strength of our strategic partnerships builds the right team of experts to get heard. Every engagement gets a tailored, best-of-breed communications and policy team.
The Health Policy Group At Work
Wherever our clients are located, we work with them to map the best course for effective policy communications. For example, we've recently:
- Branded and developed a communications strategy for a national alliance of patients, patient advocates, physicians and members of the medical device industry, to introduce bipartisan legislation to ensure coverage for the screening of a life threatening condition.
- Helped create a new non-profit in California to improve the care of students with asthma and severe allergies in the school setting.
- Created a coalition of manufacturers, physicians and patient advocates to push for inclusion of a demonstration program in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.
- Handled litigation communications around state attorneys general pricing lawsuits against a pharmaceutical manufacturer.
- Prepared a medical device manufacturer for media and stakeholder criticisms around product recalls.
- Helped develop the agenda for, and coordinated all logistics around, a patient advocacy summit with top health policy leaders on behalf of a pharmaceutical client.
- Worked with a leading patient advocacy group to draft federal legislation signed into law in 2004 to incentivize states to protect children from life threatening illnesses in the school setting.
- Built strategic partnerships with patient and professional advocacy groups to educate about a painful condition that strikes 1 million Americans every year.
- Created a model plan for the US public affairs group of an international pharmaceutical company to prioritize its health policy issues and identify and prompt an actionable agenda.
The Health Policy Group offers:
- Legislative & regulatory affairs
- Third Party relationship development
- Coalition building & management
- Reimbursement communications
- Issue analysis & management
- Research and intelligence gathering
- Grassroots advocacy
- Congressional testimony preparation
- Media relations
