November 15, 2010
The results of a new study by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Duke University, and the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy show that patients who paid little or nothing for prescriptions filled their prescriptions more regularly.
BCBSNC customers with four chronic diseases—diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and congestive heart failure—filled their prescriptions a statistically significant 1.5 percent to 3.8 percent more when there were no or reduced copayments. Such programs hold promise as an incentive for patients to take the medicines that keep them healthy and reduce their medical costs.
“The results from this study provide additional evidence that reducing or eliminating copayments for medications with proven value has the potential to significantly improve patient compliance,” says Joel Farley, PhD, an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy and one of the study’s authors. “Ultimately this has the potential to improve the overall quality of care for chronic medical conditions. These measures may be particularly important for patients facing financial hardships during periods of economic decline.”
With a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, BCBSNC is currently looking at how to design ongoing programs that are financially sustainable and proven to promote good health and reduced medical costs.
“Increasingly, patients are not taking the medicines they need to treat chronic diseases. We have to reverse that,” says Don Bradley, MD, BCBSNC’s senior vice president for healthcare and chief medical officer. “Programs like this can be a win-win for our company and our customers: patients can better stay on their medicine, enjoy better health, pay less out of pocket, and help bend the cost curve on medical costs.”
The lead author of the study is Matthew L. Maciejewski, research career scientist at Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and associate professor of general internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center. His is also an adjunct faculty member at the School.
The results of this program have been published in a new article in Health Affairs magazine, “Copayment Reductions Generate Greater Medication Adherence In Targeted Patients,” by researchers at Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and BCBSNC. The study was also presented November 2 at the National Press Club at the “Designing Insurance to Improve Value in Health Care” press briefing sponsored by Health Affairs.
The other authors of the study are John Parker, senior informatics analyst at BCBSNC; and Daryl Wansink, director of research and evaluation at BCBSNC.
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