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Article: Coping with prescription drug cost sharing: knowledge, adherence, and financial burden.(Research Brief)
- Article from:
- Health Services Research
- Article date:
- April 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Health Research and Educational Trust. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the face of rising prescription drug costs in the United States (Kaiser Family Foundation 2004), cost sharing has become more complex. For example, patients might face different copayment amounts for generic and brand name drugs (multitier benefits), and out-of-pocket costs for the same drug can vary at different points in time (such as with annual benefit caps). Despite the increasing complexity of cost sharing structures, few studies have examined how well patients know their actual drug costs, or have determined their specific responses to this mixture of incentives.
Moreover, higher cost sharing can have unintended consequences, especially in the case of ...