Academic health system researchers and IT leaders say electronic prescription cost estimators are an "important tool" for improving providers' medication decisions.
Five academic medical centers recently tested out a real-time prescription benefit platform that calculates what patients will pay out of pocket at the pharmacy: Froedtert Health (Milwaukee), Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore), Stony Brook (N.Y.) Medicine, UPMC (Pittsburgh), and Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health.
They found the drug price transparency system varied in implementation characteristics, patient coverage and estimate retrieval rates, but that they hold potential for lowering costs and improving access, according to a June study in Healthcare.
"While not perfect, it is an important tool for clinicians who may be making medication decisions in a cost vacuum today," Nitu Kashyap, MD, chief medical information officer of Yale New Haven Health, said in a June 6 health system news release. "Prescription costs remain a big unknown to prescribers and have huge implications for medication compliance."