ArticleBMC health services research2016
Giving formulary and drug cost information to providers and impact on medication cost and use: a longitudinal non-randomized study.
Article in BMC health services research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- What is in your wallet? A cluster randomized trial of the effects of showing comparative patient out-of-pocket costs on primary care prescribing for uncomplicated hypertension.Implementation science : IS · 2018Trial
- Article
- "It's a mess sometimes": patient perspectives on provider responses to healthcare costs, and how informatics interventions can help support cost-sensitive care decisions.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2022Article
- Health informatics interventions to minimize out-of-pocket medication costs for patients: what providers want.JAMIA open · 2022Article
- A Pilot Program to Teach Pharmacy Students Practical Skills to Navigate Drug Insurance Benefits.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Clinicians' Values and Preferences for Medication Adherence and Cost Clinical Decision Support in Primary Care: A Qualitative Study.Applied clinical informatics · 2020Article
- Formulary Management Activities and Practice Implications Among Public Sector Hospital Pharmaceutical and Therapeutics Committees in a South African Province.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2020Article
- Assessing and Improving Zoster Vaccine Uptake in a Homeless Population.Journal of community health · 2018Article
- We need to mandate drug cost transparency on electronic medical records.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundProviders wish to help patients with prescription costs but often lack drug cost information. We examined whether giving providers formulary and drug cost information was associated with changes in their diabetes patients' drug costs and use. We conducted a longitudinal non-randomized evaluation of the web-based Prescribing Guide ( www.PrescribingGuide.com ), a free resource available to Hawaii's providers since 2006, which summarizes the formularies and copayments of six health plans for drugs to treat 16 common health conditions. All adult primary care physicians in Hawaii were offered the Prescribing Guide, and providers who enrolled received a link to the website and regular hardcopy updates.
methodsWe analyzed prescription claims from a large health plan in Hawaii for 5,883 members with diabetes from 2007 (baseline) to 2009 (follow-up). Patients were linked to 299 "main prescribing" providers, who on average, accounted for >88 % of patients' prescriptions and drug costs. We compared changes in drug costs and use for "study" patients whose main provider enrolled to receive the Prescribing Guide, versus "control" patients whose main provider did not enroll to receive the Prescribing Guide.
resultsIn multivariate analyses controlling for provider specialty and clustering of patients by providers, both patient groups experienced similar increases in number of prescriptions (+3.2 vs. +2.7 increase, p = 0.24), and days supply of medications (+141 vs. +129 increase, p = 0.40) averaged across all drugs. Total and out-of-pocket drug costs also increased for both control and study patients. However, control patients showed higher increases in yearly total drug costs of $208 per patient (+$792 vs. +$584 increase, p = 0.02) and in 30-day supply costs (+$9.40 vs. +$6.08 increase, p = 0.03). Both groups experienced similar changes in yearly out-of-pocket costs (+$41 vs + $31 increase, p = 0.36) and per 30-day supply (-$0.23 vs. -$0.19 decrease, p = 0.996).
conclusionGiving formulary and drug cost information to providers was associated with lower increases in total drug costs but not with lower out-of-pocket costs or greater medication use. Insurers and health information technology businesses should continue to increase providers' access to formulary and drug cost information at the point of care.
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