Megan shares the story of Don, a cancer patient who struggled to access and afford his medications. She describes how human care plus an innovative, technology-driven patient support solution can help patients start therapy and get on the road to recovery.
To learn more about CoverMyMeds’ specialty therapy solutions, visit Booth 1519 at Asembia's Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas, April 30-May 4, 2023. Additionally, sign up for CoverMyMeds’ on-site recaps from the summit.
Read on for Megan’s insights.
Don’s Story: Patients Shouldn’t Have to be Resilient to Get Their Medications
By Megan Marchal, Director, Specialty Strategy, CoverMyMeds
But they shouldn’t have to.
Accessing a prescribed medication shouldn’t be more of a miracle than the medication itself. The systems that care teams work in should support and anticipate complex patient needs.
To anticipate and support these needs, CoverMyMeds’ end-to-end patient support services span the care continuum. CoverMyMeds’ personalized human care, paired with innovation-fueled technology, can help patients start therapy quickly, take it as prescribed and get on the road to recovery. These hub services support 100 different brands, including 37 oncology therapies, through both medical and pharmacy benefit.
Solutions like these could ease the journey for patients like Don, who had to be his own advocate through three different cancer diagnoses. Don now helps others diagnosed with cancer find their own best path to treatment. CoverMyMeds aims to do the same, with millions more patients.
To learn more about CoverMyMeds’ specialty therapy solutions, visit Booth 1519 at the Asembia's Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas, April 30-May 4, 2023. Additionally, sign up for CoverMyMeds’ on-site recaps from the summit.
DON’S STORY: ASKING ALL THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Living in small-town Pennsylvania, Don, 75, self-describes as a “different cut of senior citizen,” because he enjoys cutting-edge products and services and is technologically savvy.
Through three different cancer diagnoses over 20 years, Don advocated for innovative treatments, built a trusted care team and found ways to pay for his expensive medication.
“I think my doctors are afraid of me,” he said with a laugh. “They know if anything comes up that I'm going to do a lot of research.”
When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002, he was still working and wanted a treatment option that wasn’t cost-prohibitive and would allow him to continue bringing in an income.
Many patients share this sentiment and unfortunately, many make financial sacrifices to afford their medications. In the last year, 28% of patients gave up essential items to pay for medications. (2022 CoverMyMeds patient survey, Question 25) This is why it’s important for patients and their care teams to not only consider a medication’s cost, but to also consider the overall financial toll, along with their current expenses.
“People need to be concerned about what their lifestyle is: Can they afford the treatment? Can they take the time off from work?” Don said. “And everybody's different.”
Because everyone is different, patient support services focus on helping patients with their individual treatment needs, backed by medication and therapy area expertise.
Treatment decisions came into play again for Don in 2014 when he was diagnosed with both colon cancer and head and neck cancer.
His colon cancer successfully responded to chemotherapy and surgery. For his head and neck cancer, Don’s oncologist suggested a recently approved, innovative therapy. He was willing to try the treatment, but he had concerns.
“It’s a new therapy … How much is it going to cost?” he said, recalling his thoughts at the time.
While researching the treatment, Don found a patient financial assistance program offered by the pharma company that created the therapy. He applied for the program and was approved. For the last six years, he’s paid only a small administration fee at each infusion session every two weeks.
While he was glad to find financial assistance, Don wished his care team could have helped more.
“We had to research all that on our own,” he said. “It would have made it a lot better, mentally, for me and my family, had we known what we were up against rather than shooting in the dark and wondering how we were going to handle all this.”
Thankfully, Don found a way to afford his treatment, and, best of all, it works. Within six weeks of starting the medication, his scans showed no evidence of disease.
Don stresses the importance of patients and care teams having open, honest conversations about conditions beyond the medical plan when deciding treatment and affordability options.
Today, Don helps those who still need support in their journeys by leading a local cancer patient support group. While this makes it easier for patients to find help with their medications, tech-enabled hub solutions can provide connected expertise throughout the entire patient journey. Tough choices and trade-offs may be somewhat inevitable with unpredictable diseases like cancer. But resiliency is not a trait patients should have to exercise regarding their treatment options and medications.
Connect with CoverMyMeds about solutions for accessing specialty therapies at Booth 1519 at the Asembia's Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas, April 30-May 4, 2023.
Sponsored guest posts are bylined articles that are screened by Drug Channels to ensure a topical relevance to our exclusive audience. These posts do not necessarily reflect our opinions and should not be considered endorsements. To find out how you can publish a guest post on Drug Channels, please contact Paula Fein (paula@DrugChannels.net).
No comments:
Post a Comment