1 Patients with financial barriers may choose to not fill their prescriptions, also known as prescription abandonment. These findings should be considered when evaluating policies, which impact access to copay assistance programs.Īmong adult patients in the United States prescribed medications, approximately 25% have challenges with out-of-pocket (OOP) costs. Improving access to copay assistance may narrow health inequities and disparities of care. Among commercially insured patients, the association of copay assistance with prescription abandonment did not vary across race, ethnicity, or income levels. This study found significant racial, ethnic, and income disparities in both the use of copay assistance and prescription abandonment for select RA and oral oncolytic medications. Copay assistance reduced the likelihood of patients not picking up their prescription similarly across race, ethnicity, and income levels, and thus has the potential to narrow the identified prescription use differences. Is copay assistance related to the likelihood of patients of different race, ethnicity, or income picking up rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or oncology prescriptions? Black/African American and Hispanic patients with RA medicine and patients with incomes less than $50,000 were more likely to not pick up prescriptions. Ms Donahue, Mr Thiesen, and Mr Yeaw are employees of IQVIA. Dr Wong is an employee of Genentech, Inc., and shareholder of Roche, Inc. Copay assistance, as a factor facilitating equal access to medicines, is an important consideration when evaluating policies that impact access to copay assistance programs.ĭISCLOSURES: Genentech, Inc., provided funding and support for this study. Among those prescribed RA medicines and not using copay assistance, Black/African American, Hispanic patients, and those with household incomes less than $50,000 were more likely to abandon prescriptions than White patients and patients with household incomes more than $200,000 (odds ratio, P value: Black/African American: 1.17, P 0.05).ĬONCLUSIONS: Copay assistance has potential to narrow disparities in prescription abandonment for commercially insured Black/African American or Hispanic patients taking RA medicines and patients with household incomes less than $50,000 however, efforts to improve access to copay assistance are needed. Copay assistance use across race, ethnicity, and income ranged from 28.2% to 31.1% (RA medicines) and 27.2% to 36.7% (oral oncolytic medicines). RESULTS: The sample included 67,674 patients prescribed RA medications and 9,560 prescribed oral oncolytic medications.
Interaction terms for copay assistance use by race, ethnicity, and income were tested. Logistic regression models measured odds of copay assistance use (copay/discount cards or free-trial voucher) and prescription abandonment (prescription not filled within 30 days of health plan approval). The first prescription for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or oral oncolytic medicines from 2016 to 2020 was included. METHODS: This pooled, cross-sectional study assessed claims-level prescription data linked to a consumer database containing information on race, ethnicity, and household income for commercially insured patients. OBJECTIVE: To assess disparities in copay assistance use prescription abandonment across race, ethnicity, or income and association of copay use with prescription abandonment and whether it differs across race, ethnicity, or household income. Whether copay assistance is associated with changes in prescription abandonment across different patient groups is unknown. BACKGROUND: Disparities in prescription abandonment may exacerbate health inequities.
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