GoodRx collaborating with RA Capital on Survey to Better Understand Patient Assistance Programs

Science
Written By Thomas Culman
 

By GoodRx & Rapport

August 24, 2022

When someone is uninsured or underinsured but needs to take a prescription medicine, they might get saddled with unaffordable out-of-pocket costs. Patient assistance programs (PAPs) can sometimes help. Often, PAPs are sponsored by the manufacturer of the medicine in question, but they can also be run by nonprofits or government entities. Some PAPs pay for the entire cost of the drug, while others only cover a portion.

PAPs are there to plug a hole in our healthcare system, but it’s difficult to measure and analyze their impact, because they can vary greatly in their participation requirements and in what assistance they provide. Usually - but not always - an eligible patient must be a permanent US citizen and meet various employment, income, and insurance requirements. People have also complained that PAPs are confusing and hard to use.  They might also be difficult to find without the help of a healthcare provider. Even then, a 2018 study found providers don’t always know which patients would benefit from a PAP because their requirements and benefits are so opaque.

For these reasons, GoodRx, in collaboration with RA Capital, is surveying patients who have used or even just applied to a PAP. GoodRx is a free price comparison resource that helps Americans find the lowest prescription prices at their local pharmacies. We hope the results of this survey will shed some light on PAPs’ role in the healthcare ecosystem as well as elucidate their strengths and weaknesses. 

In an ideal world, PAPs wouldn’t be necessary, and we’d have an affordable insurance system that worked for patients. Until then, we should help patients understand and leverage PAPs as best we are able.

The survey should take less than ten minutes for most people. Please share this link with the patients in your life.  https://goodrx.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8udbLTaLqUt17hA

If you or someone you know is looking for a PAP, we suggest you consult this medicare.gov database.

Please click here for important RA Capital disclosures.

Related reading

Featured
Eroding tolerance: A wonder drug shows us the drug industry’s fundamental failure to communicate
Drug Pricing, Drug Prices, Trikafta, Cystic Fibrosis, RA Capital Author, quests, GCEA, out-of-pockets, OOPs, Marketing, DTC
Biotech, Policy, Culture
Eroding tolerance: A wonder drug shows us the drug industry’s fundamental failure to communicate
Drug Pricing, Drug Prices, Trikafta, Cystic Fibrosis, RA Capital Author, quests, GCEA, out-of-pockets, OOPs, Marketing, DTC
Biotech, Policy, Culture

Many people who dedicate their lives to discovering, developing, and making new, lifesaving drugs don’t understand the extent to which the drug industry has failed to communicate its value proposition to society and to inspire its customers to pay for that value. That is to say, when the public and even legislators representing our biotech innovation hubs focus on the price of a breakthrough drug without a sense of its value or how it came into being and insist that innovators should not only invent medicines but pay for them, too, that’s a self-inflicted wound. Vertex’s Trikafta, one of our industry’s greatest success stories, provides an example.

Drug Pricing, Drug Prices, Trikafta, Cystic Fibrosis, RA Capital Author, quests, GCEA, out-of-pockets, OOPs, Marketing, DTC
Biotech, Policy, Culture
Battling the consequences of price controls at high altitude 
PDABs, Drug Pricing, Drug Prices, Trikafta, Cystic Fibrosis, Enbrel, RA Capital Author
Biotech, Policy
Battling the consequences of price controls at high altitude 
PDABs, Drug Pricing, Drug Prices, Trikafta, Cystic Fibrosis, Enbrel, RA Capital Author
Biotech, Policy

As a pioneering PDAB takes its first baby steps in Colorado, we’re getting the impression that we’re watching the rules being made up as it goes along. Fortunately, we’re also witnessing the power of organized and impassioned patient advocacy to slow, reverse, and maybe someday reshape misinformed public policy.

PDABs, Drug Pricing, Drug Prices, Trikafta, Cystic Fibrosis, Enbrel, RA Capital Author
Biotech, Policy
Post-launch, pre-cliff: The R&D Congress ignores
Reforms, Drug Pricing, Politics, R&D, Generic drugs
Policy, Biotech
Post-launch, pre-cliff: The R&D Congress ignores
Reforms, Drug Pricing, Politics, R&D, Generic drugs
Policy, Biotech

Often, a drug’s initial approval only hints at its full therapeutic potential and the eventual number of patients who may benefit over time. Continued R&D investment can unlock much more utility before the drug ultimately goes generic, but those investments require adequate incentives.

Reforms, Drug Pricing, Politics, R&D, Generic drugs
Policy, Biotech
Thomas Culman
Previous

Navigating a storm that threatens American biotechnology
Next

The NIH, R&D, and the first mile of the marathon - a conversation with John LaMattina