In the rural North Carolina town where my dad lived, access to healthcare often came down to a 30-minute drive by car. Time to pick up a prescription? He’d drive his beat-up white Ford pickup half an hour to the pharmacy until he could no longer get there on his own. Primary care or specialist visits? Plan for a half hour each way. Dialysis appointments? Those took an hour-and-a-half daily.
My father’s scenario is not unique among rural residents. It is representative of the challenges people face in getting the care and services they need. Access to affordable medications is perhaps the most daunting challenge.
If a trip to the pharmacy takes half an hour, what are the chances a rural patient is going to shop around for a better price once the pharmacist shares the cost of that prescription? Not likely, and even less so for young parents making that road trip with children or family caregivers with parents in tow.
Many patients still cannot see what their prescriptions will cost before they get to the pharmacy. The result? If they can afford the medication, they get it. If not, they head home without it. Their doctor won’t know that they didn’t receive the medication they needed until months later at the next check-up or, worse, when they wind up in the emergency department.
It’s an area where better prescription affordability and patient access solutions could help and where states could make a deep impact through Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) funding and initiatives.
Closing the medication access gap
One of the most important aspects of the RHTP, which will distribute $50 billion to approved states over five years, is the freedom it offers states to invest in solutions to improve health. This includes programs and technologies that help patients navigate costs and care.
There are no restrictions around which entities can receive RHTP monies from the state. States can award funds to organizations that strengthen prevention and management of chronic disease, improve patient health outcomes and support sustainable access to high-quality rural healthcare services.
Better access to pricing information could help clarify how much prescription medications cost and how to get the lowest price before a patient arrives at the pharmacy counter. That’s a critical step in helping rural consumers obtain needed medications at an affordable price.
Research shows that cost-related medication non-adherence worsens patient outcomes, increases hospitalization and prolongs illness. It also contributes to billions in avoidable healthcare costs each year. Research consistently shows that high out-of-pocket medication costs contribute to prescription abandonment and poorer health outcomes.
When consumers don’t have access to this information at the point of purchase or, better yet, before they leave for the pharmacy, the time for informed decision-making shrinks. That’s especially true for rural patients, who typically don’t have the luxury of driving to another local pharmacy to lower their medication cost burden.
The role of states
State legislators must ensure funds are spent on the infrastructure and patient affordability initiatives that keep patients from walking away from the pharmacy counter empty-handed.
By dedicating funding to improve medication affordability for rural consumers, states can significantly reduce the risk of medication non-adherence and help ensure patients obtain the prescriptions they need before they leave the pharmacy.
Photo: marekuliasz, Getty Images
Miriam Paramore is a self-made entrepreneur, investor and board member with decades of experience driving innovation in health IT and data. She shaped big data initiatives, machine learning and neural networks for over 10 years, and she used AI to build products in her last two companies. Currently, Miriam is the CEO and founder of RxUtility, a healthcare technology company purpose built to make medications affordable for consumers. RxUtility produces an annual benchmark research report detailing trends, transparency and predictions about medication affordability. Miriam is the immediate past President and Chief Strategy Officer of OptimizeRx, where she led growth strategy and a successful NASDAQ uplisting. Her contributions have had a significant impact on the major healthcare business sectors including providers, payers, pharmacy, life sciences and patients. She is an expert in healthcare business processes and IT as well as healthcare data and the rules that govern it.
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