Personal contributions by healthcare professionals Balancing neutrality and appeal
At medical training events, travel, accommodation, registration fees and similar costs are often covered by the organising pharmaceutical companies. Increasingly however, healthcare professionals may want or need to bear part of these costs themselves as a co-payment, in order to safeguard the event’s neutrality and reduce compliance risks.
The may, however, result in fewer participants registering than expected. It’s therefore important to weigh the pros and cons and fine-tune the event concept, to keep your training event both neutral and appealing.
Potential benefits of personal contributions
- Strengthening independence and neutrality
When healthcare professionals pay part of their own training costs, it reduces the risk that the event could be seen as influenced by the sponsoring company. The decision to participate is perceived to be deliberate, independent and neutral. - Increasing appreciation
When people pay for something themselves, they perceive it to be more valuable. At the same time, they tend to evaluate the content and benefits of the training event more critically, which can lead to greater engagement in participation – provided the quality is right. - Minimising compliance risks
Covering all costs can, in certain cases, be seen as an incentive for preferential treatment. Having participants contribute can help ensure that legal and code-based requirements are reliably met and that transparency is maintained with the public and regulatory authorities. - Cost awareness and sustainability
Sharing costs not only makes planning and budgeting your event easier, it also improves transparency for disclosures and audits. Beyond that, it helps raise cost awareness among your participants – another plus for sustainability.
Potential drawbacks and risks of personal contributions
- Reduced participation
Not all healthcare professionals are able or willing to make a personal contribution. This is especially the case if the contribution is high or if training costs become too burdensome overall. This can lead to lower participation rates, particularly among healthcare professionals from smaller practices, rural areas, or groups with limited budgets. - Inequality among participants
Personal contributions can exacerbate social differences, for example, between healthcare professionals with higher and lower incomes, across specialities, regions, or between trainees and established specialists. - Reduced diversity and innovation
If, primarily, financially better-off healthcare professionals participate, some individual points of view many be lost. This can affect discussions, knowledge transfer and the overall relevance of the training event. - Increased administrative complexity
Managing personal contributions – deciding the amount, how it is collected and how reimbursements or partial costs are handled – requires organisational effort Tax and accounting issues also need to be taken into account.
Practical tips for ensuring fair personal contributions
- The contribution should be meaningful but not prohibitive – for example, between 20 and 40 per cent of the costs. The figure can be reduced for healthcare professionals in training or from economically disadvantaged regions.
- Make it clear at registration which costs are covered, which participants may need to contribute themselves and how the process will be managed.
- Consider the composition of your target groups and the budgets individuals are likely to have. You should also take the type of event into account when deciding on the level of personal contribution. Will the event, for example, be a large congress, a small workshop, or an internal training session?
- Consider the possibilities of discounts, grants, or partial scholarships for healthcare professionals with limited budgets to make participation easier.
- Regularly assess how personal contributions affect participation, allowing you to improve the model iteratively. How many participants will be lost? Which participants are absent? What feedback are you getting?
- Make sure personal contribution are clearly recorded in contracts, agreements, and any sponsorship or support documentation. And make sure you are complying with your disclosure obligations as required by the applicable codes.
Summary Introducing a personal contribution for your participants can be a powerful tool to promote neutrality, transparency and compliance. At the same time, it carries the risk of creating budget barriers that may deter or exclude key target groups.
“We'll gladly develop a balanced personal contribution model that fulfils your compliance obligations, while keeping your training event attractive to participants.”
Sarah Huch | Compliance Officer and Head of Business & Process Development
