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Lowering Cost-Share for High Value Meds Improves Adherence
By A. Mark Fendrick M.D., Margaret F. Shope, B.S. & Caroline E. Richburg
A recent study shows that value-based insurance design programs reduce consumer cost-sharing for clinically indicated medications and increase adherence without changing total spending.
Imagine you’re a physician caring for a patient with high cholesterol. You have educated her about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and prescribed a statin to lower her risk of a cardiac event. You’ve discussed the potential negative clinical consequences of not taking her medicine as prescribed. You ask if she is regularly taking her medication, and she admits that she is not — she cannot afford it. Sometimes she splits her pill in half or skips days to make each prescription last longer. What do you do?
As Americans are being asked to pay more for medical care in the form of copayments and deductibles, one in four Americans reports having difficulty affording their prescription drugs. Value-based insurance design (V-BID) is one potential solution that may increase access to high-value drugs without increasing overall medical spending. In a recently published Health Affairs article, researchers reviewed the latest evidence on V-BID.
