Patient charities favor the insured and cover costlier drugs

Patient assistance programs are designed to do just that: help people obtain the medicines they need. But a new JAMA study finds that last year, a whopping 97% of such programs run by the six largest organizations didn’t help people who had no insurance. And the drugs they did cover were more likely to be expensive brand-name medicines than generic versions.

Not every program disclosed its data and two charities told STAT’s Ed Silverman they objected to the JAMA study’s conclusions. Among those that did reveal their spending, the cost for each Medicare Part D beneficiary for these drugs amounted to $1,157, compared with $367 for medications not covered. “The programs are relying on health insurance to pay most of the bill,” said study co-author Gerard Anderson of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “And the drug company benefits because the drug gets sold — and also makes more money if it’s a more expensive drug.”

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