Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Apr;43(2):785-97.
doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2007.00797.x.

Coping with prescription drug cost sharing: knowledge, adherence, and financial burden

Mary Reed  1 , Richard Brand, Joseph P Newhouse, Joe V Selby, John Hsu
Affiliations

Coping with prescription drug cost sharing: knowledge, adherence, and financial burden

Mary Reed et al. Health Serv Res. 2008 Apr.

Abstract

Objective: Assess patient knowledge of and response to drug cost sharing.

Study setting: Adult members of a large prepaid, integrated delivery system.

Study design/data collection: Telephone interviews with 932 participants (72 percent response rate) who reported knowledge of the structures and amounts of their prescription drug cost sharing. Participants reported cost-related changes in their drug adherence, any financial burden, and other cost-coping behaviors. Actual cost sharing amounts came from administrative databases.

Principal findings: Overall, 27 percent of patients knew all of their drug cost sharing structures and amounts. After adjustment for individual characteristics, additional patient cost sharing structures (tiers and caps), and higher copayment amounts were associated with reporting decreased adherence, financial burden, or other cost-coping behaviors.

Conclusions: Patient knowledge of their drug benefits is limited, especially for more complex cost sharing structures. Patients also report a range of responses to greater cost sharing, including decreasing adherence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Self-Reported Behavioral Responses to Cost Sharing* *Percentages who reported each type of behavioral response or category, weighted for sampling proportions, with 95 percent confidence intervals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adams A S, Soumerai S B, Ross-Degnan D. The Case for a Medicare Drug Coverage Benefit: A Critical Review of the Empirical Evidence. Annual Review of Public Health. 2001;22:49–61. - PubMed
    1. Ash A, Ellis R, Pope G C, Ayanian J Z, Bates D W, Burstin H, Iezzoni L I, MacKay E, Yu W. Using Diagnoses to Describe Populations and Predict Costs. Health Care Finance Review. 2000;21:7–28. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Briesacher B, Kamal-Bahl S, Hochberg M, Orwig D, Kahler K H. Three-Tiered-Copayment Drug Coverage and Use of Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2004;164(15):1679–84. - PubMed
    1. Cafferata G. Knowledge of Their Health Insurance Coverage by the Elderly. Medical Care. 1984;22(9):835–47. - PubMed
    1. Ellis R, Pope G, Iezzoni L, Ayanian J Z, Bates D W, Burstin H, Ash A S. Diagnosis-Based Risk Adjustment for Medicare Capitation Payments. Health Care Finance Review. 1996;17:101–28. - PMC - PubMed