6 benefits of prescription price transparency
If your goal is to deliver quality patient care, it’s critical you remove barriers that stand in the way of patients following their treatment plans. One of the most common barriers is the cost of medication.
When patients don’t adhere to medication regimens — whether because they don’t take their medication as prescribed or simply never fill their prescriptions — their health may suffer, and they may experience even more serious conditions as a result.
One all-too-common reason for not filling a prescription is cost. After fear of side effects, the American Medical Association (AMA) placed cost at the top of a list of eight reasons for medication nonadherence.
Unfortunately, in many cases, patients don’t find out their out-of-pocket costs until they reach the pharmacy counter. Surprised by higher-than-anticipated costs, they may turn around and head home without their prescriptions.
But how can you ensure your patients get the medication they need without having to face difficult financial decisions? Having a prescription price transparency tool integrated into your EHR can help you do just that.
Here’s an overview of the benefit both to providers and patients:
- Drives down patient out-of-pocket costs. When providers can view patient-specific benefits and costs in real time, they can see how much the patient would owe for the prescription and seek a less costly option if needed.
- Increase practice efficiency. With a prescription benefit tool integrated into the EHR workflow, providers can discuss prescription costs with the patient at the point of care. By doing this, they avoid having to call the pharmacist further ahead to change the patient’s prescription to a lower-cost alternative.
- Strengthens provider/patient relationship. By having upfront, transparent conversations about prescription costs, providers can demonstrate concern for the patient’s financial situation, in addition to setting expectations for out-of-pocket costs.
- Gives providers insight into prescription prices. Seeing the patient’s health insurance coverage for a prescription can give providers a better view into the patient’s healthcare costs and greater understanding of any medication non-adherence.
- Decreases time waiting for prescriptions. A prescription price transparency tool can also flag medications requiring prior authorizations from the patient’s health insurance. This can give providers a chance to identify options that don’t require prior authorization, which can save time otherwise spent waiting for the insurance plan’s approval.
- Improve the patient care experience. Overall, providing point-of-care price transparency can boost the patient experience — building greater patient/provider trust, ensuring care continuity, saving time spent picking up prescriptions, and helping patients make informed decisions about their care.
Greenway EHR offers Real-Time Prescription Benefit
To provide greater prescription price transparency, Greenway has included a Real-Time Prescription Benefit in the Intergy EHR workflow. This functionality offers the ability to see patient-level benefits, including estimated cost and alternatives. It also provides a prior authorization warning and drug and channel alternatives.
Intergy’s Real-Time Prescription Benefit gives prescribers and pharmacists the insights they need to make the best possible care decisions. With this feature, prescribers can work with patients to choose the most affordable and clinically appropriate treatment. Find out more.
For more information, CLICK HERE to schedule a conversation with a Greenway representative. Or watch our 3-minute overview video HERE.
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