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I've written before on my blog about the fact that Medicare premiums didn't go up as much as expected in part because of the economy. The costs of co-pays for office visits and prescriptions is rising, and with gasoline going through the roof, many seniors simply aren't going to the Doctor when they should which results in Medicare premiums not rising as quickly as expected. Services are going unused, which will cost society in the long-run as seniors don't seek preventative medicine. A recent study published by insurance giant Aetna had some disturbing results. The research findings revealed that heart-attack survivors would improve the chances of avoiding a second heart attack if co-payments for heart-drug prescriptions would be removed. Aetna said that using such a strategy actually did not raise their costs because fewer patients wound up in the hospital, more than offsetting the costs of the subsidized co-pay. Based on the results of the study, Aetna will start enabling heart-attack survivors to get some medications with little or no out-of-pocket expenses starting in 2013. That's great news. Data has consistently shown that only about half of patients who are discharged from the hospital after a heart attack stay on medication which could reduce their risk of heart attacks. The Aetna study, which analyzed 6,000 heart-attack victims, found that only 10.5% of patients conscientiously took all of their medications in the 13 months following a heart attack. As many as 20% discharged after a heart attack had a major cardiovascular episode within a year, leaving researchers to conclude that there are 325,000 recurrent heart attacks in the U.S. each year, many of which can be prevented. Some prescription drug purveyors have started to subsidize co-pays for drugs, so seniors should check out all of their options before deciding not to fill or refill a prescription. Researchers also found that synchronizing prescriptions so that all refills (including drugs prescribed prior to the heart attack incident) could be processed at the same time improved the chances the patients would take the pills. This makes sense. Many of the Clients we see at Family inHome Caregiving are confused about new drug regimens and if all of their prescriptions don't come up for a refill at the same time this certainly increases the risk that they may run out of one which is on a different schedule. Cost is also clearly an issue, particularly when it's not made crystal clear what drugs are for and what the ramifications could be if patients don't take them. At the Mayo Clinic, they started developing graphics which portray a patients personal risk for heart attacks. They use smiley faces and frowning faces to portray good behavior versus bad. This may have a more lasting impact than simply telling someone to take a prescription. The co-payments for patients in the recent Aetna study were just $13-$25 for each of three different prescriptions. This shows that it's not just expensive name-brand drugs that seniors aren't picking up, even low-cost generics are too expensive for many in this weak economy. Elimination of the co-pays actually resulted in an 11% reduction in major events such as heart attacks. Hospitals and physicians need to query patients closely to see whether the medications they are prescribing are actually affordable. This could prevent many deaths.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203503204577038433899558246.html?mod
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