Survey: Four In Five Patients Experienced COVID-Related Meds Delays in 2021
Patients nationwide experienced difficulties accessing or obtaining their medications during 2021, a just-published survey has found. A news release published on Tuesday, Feb. 8 began thus: “New data released today by CoverMyMeds found 82 percent of patients experienced medication delays in the last year due to COVID-19 restrictions, insurance processes, communication challenges, and prescription cost. Of patients who experienced medication delays, 85 percent had to make financial sacrifices to afford their prescriptions.”
The 2022 Medication Access Report, published by the Columbus, Ohio-based CoverMyMeds company, a firm owned by the Alpharetta, Ga.-based McKesson Corporation, and which describes itself as “a medication access company committed to helping people get the medicine they need to live healthier lives,” uses industry research, patient interviews and new survey data from patients, pharmacists, providers, payers and biopharma companies to identify opportunities for healthcare technology to improve medication access. Additional key findings in this year's report include:
79 percent of patients said they've gone to the pharmacy only to discover a prescription cost more than they expected. Nearly 31 percent of those patients left without their medication or did not seek affordability options.
When faced with an affordability challenge, 56 percent of patients attempted to stretch out a prescription, 52 percent of patients skipped bills or other essential items to afford medications, and 51 percent of patients sacrificed medications to pay bills and other essentials.
54 percent of pharmacists said they lack time to complete their job effectively, with 81 percent citing inadequate staffing and 73 percent citing time-consuming administrative tasks.
Physicians also felt strained by unprecedented demands, with 42 percent reporting burnout and 69 percent feeling depressed.
To better inform affordability conversations with patients and help patients start specialty therapies, 56 percent of providers6 and 63% of pharmacists4 said they need access to patient-specific benefit information.
However, only 25 percent of providers and 36 percent of pharmacists4 said they have in-workflow access to critical information, such as plan- and pharmacy-specific pricing, cash pricing and patient deductible data needed to effectively support patients on their medication access journeys.
The 2022 Medication Access Report also highlights technology solutions that automate historically manual processes and provide actionable information that better enable care team members to help patients get the medicine they need.
In a statement contained in the press release, John Beardsley, senior vice president of corporate strategy at CoverMyMeds, said that, "For decades, the U.S. healthcare industry has wrestled with utilizing technology and timely insights to address quality, cost, choice and convenience to create better patient outcomes. But in the last two years, we have witnessed new digital health solutions emerge to meet the heightened needs from care teams and patients. By adopting newfound workflows and the latest technology to navigate patient care, the industry can further improve healthcare interoperability and progress toward the vision of improved outcomes."
The report was published by CoverMyMeds, part of McKesson Corporation, with an advisory board of industry leaders from Albertsons Companies, California Chronic Care Coalition, Cambia Health, Cerner, Clearview Healthcare Partners, Community Health Network, eMDs, Horizon Government Affairs, National Council for Prescription Drug Programs, National Patient Advocate Foundation, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Ontada, Orsini Healthcare and PioneerRx.
