diabetes Va Prescription Copayment Studies

[toimi]

The following study is from “Reforming VA’s Medication Copayment Statute” by Timothy J. McDonald. “..graduate of the Health Law Certificate Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and is currently serving as a Presidential Management fellow in the Patient Care Services Office of the Veterans Health Administration.” A link follows. This is followed by studies showing the effect of the VA copay increases.

“The limitation imposed by the copayment legislation that prevents VA from charging the veteran more than the cost of the medication to VA has led to at least one case before the Board of Veterans’Appeals (Board). 31 This case involved “pill splitting,” a practice where VA provides medication in a dosage that is higher than needed, and then has the patient split a single pill into two separate doses”

“However, the current medication copayment that many veterans are charged is based on outdated legislation…”

“This problem is not limited to cases where the veteran is splitting tablets. In fact, based on VA’s increased efficiency and price negotiation in the pharmaceutical arena, it seems very likely that under the current copayment plan many veterans are charged excessive copayments by VA.44”

http://www.va.gov/vbs/bva/manuals/vlr1mcdonald.pdf

Co-Payment Increases Result in Gaps in Veterans' Prescription Usage

American Heart Association rapid access journal report:

Study highlights: -- Cholesterol-lowering drug adherence drops with an increase in VA prescription co-payments.

DALLAS, Jan. 13, 2009 — Fewer veterans filled their prescriptions for cholesterol-lowering drugs after an increase in co-payment costs for prescription drugs, researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressReleas...009+PRN20090114

Impact of a prescription copayment increase on lipid-lowering medication adherence in veterans.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19139387

The Effect of a Medication Copayment Increase on Metformin Adherence by Veterans with Diabetes

Rationale: Copayment increases have been shown to affect health care demand in many settings, and adherence to essential medications may decrease when medication copayments rise. In 2002, the Veterans Administration (VA) increased medication copayments from $2.00 to $7.00 per 30-day prescription fill.

http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_...0444_index.html

[Pete53]

Than ks for this information. I had not thought of it but why pay VA 7 when all the pharmacies now charge 4 for metformin?

[tagandbag]

This is on of my biggest beefs with va health care, pill splitting. Co-pays are now $8.00, unles they went up. Your actually paying double for co-pays when you split pills, they should only charge $4.00 if you have to split the pill, The way I see it a pill is a pill is a pill, not a half of a pill. The money the VA save's is probably huge, by any means. In theory, I believe they are making 4 bucks on every vet monthly, whom split pills. Also, most of the prescriptions are generic ( where do the pills come from ), how accurate do you think each half of a pill, in it's dose. What if I have severe arthritis and can.t split pills, or blind or just don't give a crap and take the whole pill. It's free now so I have to take the good with the bad. Maybe we should let the va take over health care nationally and then everyone will be on the same playing field and we all could split pills. We could use like poker chips, I'll raise ya 4 splits for on of those big whole ones. Okayyy, now that I got that off my chest. I think I will go count my splits.

t&b

[Pete53]

Generics cost 4 bucks at Walgreens, CVS and Walmart. Why should they cost more at VA?

[toimi]

[quote Why should they cost more at VA?