Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Doctors have access to life saving medication for a number of illnesses. However, the medication only works when patients take the drugs. Are physicians able to determine which patients are adherent to their medication? According to an article in JAMA Cardiology, the answer is ‘no’ for cardiology patients. Forty (61%) patients reported rarely or never…
Any economist knows that if you raise the price of a good, demand goes down. Thus, one should not be surprised to find numerous studies that show that increased cost sharing decreases drug utilization. But how does drug utilzation decrease? Is it along the extensive margin (i.e., the decision to initiate the drug) or along the intensive margin…
If you are attending AMCP Nexus in October, I am a co-author on a poster presentation titled “The Cost of Adherence Mismeasurement: A Claims-Based Analysis” co-authored with Felicia Forma, Ethan Scherer, Ainslie Hatch and Darius Lakdawalla. The presentation abstract is below and here. BACKGROUND: Payers often wish to measure how adherence to prescription drugs affects downstream…
If you are attending AMCP Nexus in October, I am a co-author on a poster presentation titled “Adherence Patterns for Oral Atypical Antipsychotics in Patients Diagnosed with Schizophrenia” co-authored with Joanna MacEwan, Felicia Forma, Ainslie Hatch and Darius Lakdawalla. The presentation abstract is below and here. BACKGROUND: Many payers rely on claims-based metrics—such as those…
This is one of the goals of Appointment-based medication synchronization (ABMS). These systems vary in their implementation but they have three common features: All medications refills come due on the same day of the month. Pharmacies place regular call to remind the patient to fill their prescription, typically 5 to 7 days before the scheduled pharmacy visit…
Patients with schizophrenia often require medication—such as antipsychotics—to control the symptoms of their disease. However, adherence to these medications has been poor. Valenstein et al. (2004) estimate that 40% of patients are non-compliant with therapy [i.e., mediation possession ratio (MPR)<0.8]. Why are schizophrenia patients likely to be non-complient to antipsychotic therapy? One key reason is…
According to this article, the answer is: “Both policies decreased medication adherence. The days’ supply policy [decreasing the days supply of each prescription from 100 to 34 days] had a much larger effect on adherence than did the copayment increase. Total Medicaid spending declined from the days’ supply policy, but the copayment policy resulted in…