Patients Do Not Buy Some Prescription Drugs Because Of Their Cost

Patients Do Not Buy Some Prescription Drugs Because Of Their Cost.
In these perplexing remunerative times, even people with health insurance are leaving formula medications at the pharmacy because of high co-payments. This costs the pharmacy between $5 and $10 in processing per prescription, and across the United States that adds up to about $500 million in additional fettle trouble costs annually, according to Dr William Shrank, an assistant professor of drug at Harvard Medical School and lead author of a new study. "A little over 3 percent of prescriptions that are delivered to the druggist's aren't getting picked up".

So "And, in more than half of those cases, the medicament wasn't refilled anywhere else during the next six months". Results of the study are published in the Nov 16, 2010 child of the Annals of Internal Medicine. Shrank and his colleagues reviewed details on the prescriptions bottled for insured patients of CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager and nationwide retail pharmacy chain. CVS Caremark funded the study.

The study period ran from July 1, 2008 through September 30, 2008. More than 10,3 million prescriptions were filled for 5,2 million patients. The patients' middling long time was 47 years, and 60 percent were female, according to the study. The norm family income in their neighborhoods was $61762.

Of the more than 10 million prescriptions, 3,27 percent were abandoned. Cost appeared to be the biggest driver in whether or not someone would mislay a prescription, according to the study. If a co-pay was $50 or over, populace were 4,5 times more no doubt to abandon the prescription adding that it's "imperative to talk to your doctor and pharmacologist to try to identify less expensive options, rather than abandoning an expensive medication and going without".

Drugs with a co-pay of less than $10 were dissolute just 1,4 percent of the time, according to the study. People were also a lot less likely to leave generic medications at the Rather formal counter, according to Shrank.

The medications most frequently abandoned were cough, cold, allergy, asthma and coating medications, those used on an as-needed basis. Insulin prescriptions were abandoned 2,2 percent of the time, but Douglas Warda, number one of pharmacy for ambulatory services at the University of Chicago Medical Center, said this might be a price issue, but it could also be that some people are afraid to inject insulin. The investigate also found that antipsychotic medications were abandoned 2,3 percent of the time.

Drugs least likely to be dissipated included opiate medications for pain, blood pressure medications, birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy, and blood-thinning medications, according to the study. Young mortals between the ages of 18 and 34 were the most meet to forgo their prescriptions, and new users of medications were 2,74 times more acceptable to leave their drugs behind.

Prescription orders that were delivered to the pharmacy electronically - via the computer - were 64 percent more right to be abandoned than prescriptions walked into the pharmacy. "We're absolutely not saying that e-prescribing is bad; it's great, but there appear to be some unintended consequences". There was no way to confirm if people never tried to pick up their prescriptions, or if they went to retrieve them but chose to leave them behind because of the cost.

Warda said he believes that more patients might start up their medications if the instructions from their physicians were clearer. For example, prescriptions for proton send inhibitors were left at the pharmacy 2,6 percent of the time. These medications tone down the amount of acid in the stomach and can help prevent heartburn or more serious problems. "If the medical doctor message is, 'You need to take these medications for two to three months and it will cut down your pain and help your body heal,' fewer people might abandon these medications".

Plus, if cost is an issue for you, conduct it up with your doctor ahead of time. "Don't get blindsided at the pharmacy. Always ask your doctor if there's a generic option, or if there's something cheaper that might work just as well. Sometimes commonalty are embarrassed to say anything, but it's better to ask and get a medication you can afford health bnane ki dwa. "If you get to the pharmacy, and you can't be able the medication, follow up with your doctor or ask the pharmacist if there's a cheaper alternative," suggested Warda.