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Pharmaceutical drug coupons |
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Prescription drugs Over-the-counter drugs |
A drug coupon is a coupon intended to help consumers save money on pharmaceutical drugs. They are offered by drug companies or distributed to consumers via doctors and pharmacists, and most can be obtained online. There are drug coupons for drugs from many categories such as cholesterol, acne, migraine, allergies, etc.
Direct-to-consumer or "DTC" marketing of prescription drugs is common in the United States. Patients frequently inquire about or request medications they have seen advertised in print or on television.
Pharmaceutical companies use drug coupons as a marketing tool to stimulate demand for their products.
Drug coupons are commonly offered for new products to stimulate demand or ameliorate high co-pays for non-formulary (non-preferred products) as a way to level the playing field and remove the disincentive for using a drug that is not covered by insurance.
In an effort to avoid unregulated resale of drugs, the Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1988 banned the traffic or counterfeiting of redeemable drug coupons. [1]
Most drug coupons are printed by consumers using their personal computers and printers. Drug coupons reduce out-of-pocket costs for consumers in a variety of ways such as instant savings offers, free trial offers (also known as try-before-you-buy offers), copay reduction or rebates.
Generic drug companies rarely offer coupons, though insurance companies occasionally offer discounts on generic drugs. [2]
In addition PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers) offer discount cards that act similarly to coupons. These cards work for both generic and brand medications and can save cash paying customers up to 75% on their prescription medication.
Critics of prescription drug coupon programs have argued that these programs lead to higher healthcare costs for consumers. Typically, American patients with health insurance pay a percentage of the cost of a prescription drug out of pocket, with insurance companies responsible for the rest of the medication's cost. Insurance companies charge higher copayments for brand-name drugs than for generics in order to encourage patients to choose less expensive alternative medications when they are available. However, by reducing a patient's copayment, prescription drug coupons also reduce a patient's incentive to choose a less expensive generic medication. As an example, NPR reported in 2009 that the generic acne medication Minocin cost $109 a month while a newer alternative called Solodyn cost $514 a month. Solodyn can be taken only once daily, while Minocin must be taken twice daily. Since Solodyn's manufacturer offers a coupon to reduce copays, patients may believe that both drugs cost the same amount. [3]
Drug coupon advocates argue that coupon programs enhance medication adherence by reducing or eliminating drug copays. [2]
As of 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was planning a study to see if coupons make patients overlook drug risks and side effects in their effort to save money. [2] All medicines come with a certain level of risk. This is why all prescription drugs include information reviewed and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about how the medication works in the body, its uses and when it should not be used, possible side effects, the recommended dosage, and other facts about the appropriate use of the drug. Most Americans have never heard of “Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies” (REMS); yet, these drug safety protections give millions of Americans with serious diseases, such as cancer and multiple sclerosis, access to medicines that would otherwise be too dangerous to be allowed on the market. [4] REMS programs exist because certain medicines can cause serious side effects, life-threatening infections, allergic reactions, liver damage or birth defects. Before patients take one of these drugs, they and their prescriber should be aware of the risks, and may need to take certain steps that lessen these risks, in order to ensure they benefit from the treatment.
Unions have filed several lawsuits seeking to ban drug coupons, characterizing them as illegal kickbacks. As of June, 2013 Three of these lawsuits have been dismissed. Six more are pending. This ruling is seen as vindication for the Pharmaceutical industry that drug coupons are an acceptable business practice. [5]
The United States Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food safety, tobacco products, caffeine products, dietary supplements, prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs (medications), vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, blood transfusions, medical devices, electromagnetic radiation emitting devices (ERED), cosmetics, animal foods & feed and veterinary products.
Prescription drug list prices in the United States continually are among the highest in the world. The high cost of prescription drugs became a major topic of discussion in the 21st century, leading up to the American health care reform debate of 2009, and received renewed attention in 2015. One major reason for high prescription drug prices in the United States relative to other countries is the inability of government-granted monopolies in the American health care sector to use their bargaining power to negotiate lower prices, and the American payer ends up subsidizing the world's R&D spending on drugs.
A prescription drug is a pharmaceutical drug that is permitted to be dispensed only to those with a medical prescription. In contrast, over-the-counter drugs can be obtained without a prescription. The reason for this difference in substance control is the potential scope of misuse, from drug abuse to practicing medicine without a license and without sufficient education. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug.
Rosuvastatin, sold under the brand name Crestor among others, is a statin medication, used to prevent cardiovascular disease in those at high risk and treat abnormal lipids. It is recommended to be used together with dietary changes, exercise, and weight loss. It is taken orally.
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is a program of the Australian Government that subsidises prescription medication for Australian citizens and permanent residents, as well as international visitors covered by a reciprocal health care agreement. The PBS is separate to the Medicare Benefits Schedule, a list of health care services that can be claimed under Medicare, Australia's universal health care insurance scheme.
Pharmaceutical marketing is a branch of marketing science and practice focused on the communication, differential positioning and commercialization of pharmaceutical products, like specialist drugs, biotech drugs and over-the-counter drugs. By extension, this definition is sometimes also used for marketing practices applied to nutraceuticals and medical devices.
Off-label use is the use of pharmaceutical drugs for an unapproved indication or in an unapproved age group, dosage, or route of administration. Both prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs (OTCs) can be used in off-label ways, although most studies of off-label use focus on prescription drugs.
A copayment or copay is a fixed amount for a covered service, paid by a patient to the provider of service before receiving the service. It may be defined in an insurance policy and paid by an insured person each time a medical service is accessed. It is technically a form of coinsurance, but is defined differently in health insurance where a coinsurance is a percentage payment after the deductible up to a certain limit. It must be paid before any policy benefit is payable by an insurance company. Copayments do not usually contribute towards any policy out-of-pocket maximum, whereas coinsurance payments do.
Sodium oxybate, sold under the brand name Xyrem among others, is a medication used to treat symptoms of narcolepsy: sudden muscle weakness and excessive daytime sleepiness. It is used sometimes in France and Italy as an anesthetic given intravenously; it is also approved and used in Italy and in Austria to treat alcohol dependence and alcohol withdrawal syndrome.
The iPLEDGE program is a program by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) intended to manage the risk of birth defects caused by isotretinoin, a prescription medication used for the treatment of acne. Patients, their doctors and their pharmacists are required by the FDA to register and use the iPLEDGE web site in order to receive, prescribe or dispense isotretinoin.
An online pharmacy, internet pharmacy, or mail-order pharmacy is a pharmacy that operates over the Internet and sends orders to customers through mail, shipping companies, or online pharmacy web portal.
In the United States, a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) is a third-party administrator of prescription drug programs for commercial health plans, self-insured employer plans, Medicare Part D plans, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and state government employee plans. PBMs operate inside of integrated healthcare systems, as part of retail pharmacies, and as part of insurance companies.
Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) refers to the marketing and advertising of pharmaceutical products directly to consumers as patients, as opposed to specifically targeting health professionals. The term is synonymous primarily with the advertising of prescription medicines via mass media platforms—most commonly on television and in magazines, but also via online platforms.
A pharmacy is a premises which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacist oversees the fulfillment of medical prescriptions and is available to counsel patients about prescription and over-the-counter drugs or about health problems and wellness issues. A typical pharmacy would be in the commercial area of a community.
Medication costs, also known as drug costs are a common health care cost for many people and health care systems. Prescription costs are the costs to the end consumer. Medication costs are influenced by multiple factors such as patents, stakeholder influence, and marketing expenses. A number of countries including Canada, parts of Europe, and Brazil use external reference pricing as a means to compare drug prices and to determine a base price for a particular medication. Other countries use pharmacoeconomics, which looks at the cost/benefit of a product in terms of quality of life, alternative treatments, and cost reduction or avoidance in other parts of the health care system. Structures like the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and to a lesser extent Canada's Common Drug Review evaluate products in this way.
Naproxen/esomeprazole, sold under the brand name Vimovo, is a pain reliever medication in the form of a tablet for oral consumption, containing naproxen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), and a delayed release formulation of esomeprazole, a stomach acid–reducing proton-pump inhibitor (PPI). It is produced by AstraZeneca. Vimovo is US Food and Drug Administration approved for use against osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis. It is intended to decrease the risk of gastric ulcers from treatment with NSAIDs.
Specialty drugs or specialty pharmaceuticals are a recent designation of pharmaceuticals classified as high-cost, high complexity and/or high touch. Specialty drugs are often biologics—"drugs derived from living cells" that are injectable or infused. They are used to treat complex or rare chronic conditions such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, H.I.V. psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and hepatitis C. In 1990 there were 10 specialty drugs on the market, around five years later nearly 30, by 2008 200, and by 2015 300.
Philidor Rx Services is a Pennsylvania-licensed specialty online pharmacy, which mainly sold Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc drugs directly to patients and handled insurance claims on the customers' behalf.
Value-based insurance design is a demand-side approach to health policy reform. V-BID generally refers to health insurers' efforts to structure enrollee cost-sharing and other health plan design elements to encourage enrollees to consume high-value clinical services – those that have the greatest potential to positively impact enrollee health. V-BID also discourages the use of low-value clinical services – when benefits do not justify the cost. V-BID aims to increase health care quality and decrease costs by using financial incentives to promote cost efficient health care services and consumer choices. V-BID health insurance plans are designed with the tenets of "clinical nuance" in mind. These tenets recognize that medical services differ in the amount of health produced, and the clinical benefit derived from a specific service depends on the consumer using it, as well as when and where the service is provided.
GoodRx Holdings, Inc. is an American healthcare company that operates a telemedicine platform and free-to-use website and mobile app that track prescription drug prices in the United States and provide drug coupons for discounts on medications. GoodRx checks drug prices at more than seventy-five thousand pharmacies in the United States. The platform allows individuals to consult with a doctor online and obtain a prescription for certain types of medications at a cost of US$20, regardless of insurance status. Medical testing services, which vary in price, are also offered through the platform.