Lower cost-sharing improves drug adherence

Not a surprising finding but an important one nonetheless. Using data from the 2013–17 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) a paper by Gaffney et al. (2020) finds:

Although people with VHA [Veterans Health Administration] coverage were older and in worse health and had lower incomes than those with other coverage, VHA patients had lower rates of cost-related medication nonadherence: 6.1 percent versus 10.9 percent for non-VHA patients, an adjusted 5.9-percentage-point difference. VHA coverage was associated with especially large reductions in nonadherence among people with chronic illnesses and with reduced racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in nonadherence.

Cost-related medication adherence was defined as anyone who answered ‘yes’ to at least one of the the following NHIS questions:

• “needed…[a prescription drug], but didn’t get it because [they] couldn’t afford it”;
• “skipped medication doses to save money”;
• “took less medicine to save money”;
• “delayed filling a prescription to save money.

from Healthcare Economist https://ift.tt/37N0z7z