Medication access through patient assistance programs

Abstract

The Notes section welcomes the following types of contributions: (1) practical innovations or solutions to everyday practice problems, (2) substantial updates or elaborations on work previously published by the same authors, (3) important confirmations of research findings previously published by others, and (4) short research reports, including practice surveys, of modest scope or interest. Notes should be submitted with AJHP's manuscript checklist. The text should be concise, and the number of references, tables, and figures should be limited.

Serving Underserved Transplant Recipients: Experience of a Medication Access Program.

“…MAP and similar programs are designed to combat the financial challenges faced by transplant recipients and other patient populations to facilitate increased access to needed medication. [13][14][15][16][17][18] Such access may, in turn, foster positive outcomes, including decreased graft rejection and improved health-related quality of life. 18 An additional study objective was to compare the characteristics of recipients whose MAP enrollment was continued versus those who were discontinued during the 2012 annual re-enrollment period.…”

“…[13][14][15][16][17][18] Such programs improve patient access through enrollment in pharmaceutical manufacturers' medication assistance programs (PMAPs) and other programs/services such as Medicare Part D. Prior studies indicate medication assistance programs may decrease patients' out-of-pocket expenses and increase medication adherence, which in turn may improve health outcomes. [14][15][16][17][18] For example, a formalized program located at an outpatient pharmacy and designed to help liver transplant recipients acquire post-transplant medications decreased nonadherence from 25% to 10%. 16 However, apart from a very few studies, there is a dearth of information available in the literature regarding medication assistance programs serving solid-organ transplant recipients.…”

Use of Prescription Drug Samples and Patient Assistance Programs, and the Role of Doctor–Patient Communication

“…Our survey is the first that directly asks a national sample of seniors whether they receive drugs through patient assistance programs. PAPs cover a majority of the top-selling medications in the US 18,20 , and most of the programs base eligibility partially on income, although income cutoffs vary, with some as high as 750% of the federal poverty limit. 20 Slightly more than a quarter of these programs did not require documentation of income in 2007 and about half allowed patients to have existing prescription coverage.…”

“…14 Much less is known about seniors' participation in PAPs and very little data exist on the use of these programs. [15][16][17][18][19][20] In a telephone survey of PAPs, only 4% of programs would state how many people they had helped, which ranged from single digits to over 10,000. 19,20 Physicians report provision of free samples as one of their most frequently used strategies for reducing patients' out-ofpocket costs.…”

Comparison of patient assistance program software

“…PAPs (also referred to as "pharmaceutical manufacturer assistance programs" and "medication assistance programs") improve access to many branded medications that uninsured patients might otherwise not receive [1][2][3][4][5] and lower pharmacies' drug acquisition costs. [6][7][8][9][10] In a study at a renal transplant clinic in 1998, enrolling patients into PAPs was found to have a benefit:cost ratio of at least 4 to 1.…”