Some of the patients may not have prescription coverage. Discuss some low-cost measures to help patients have access to medication. How can you or the staff determine Rx cost for the patient? Citation and reference required. Length: A minimum of 250 words, not including references
Medication Access
Access to expensive medication is still an issue in the healthcare delivery system, especially for patients who do not have insurance coverage for prescription medications. However, healthcare providers are in a position to help patients access medication. There are various ways of ensuring patients access medications which are expensive. To begin with, the prescriber can advise the patient to get the generic form of the prescribed medication which is likely cheaper than the original drug. While this is an alternative for medication access, not all drugs have generic forms and hence need other ways to ensure patients access medications (Staff, 2021). Other ways include referring patients to programs that offer assistance for patients from low socioeconomic status. These programs facilitate waivers for expensive medication to ensure the medications are affordable. Alternatively, other programs offer free medical services and medication to needy patients, such as the disabled, the elderly, and those from low socioeconomic status.
The second option is using prescription coupons that aid in subsidizing the cost of medication. Through the application of the above-outlined strategies, patients can access medications affordably. However, healthcare providers should be able to determine the treatment cost for the patients to anticipate the need for strategies to lessen the cost. The treatment cost can be determined by reviewing the terms for the insurance company to know whether the patients have prescription coverage (Li & Chapman, 2020). If not, healthcare workers should look at the standard market price of the prescribed drugs and opt for the cheapest form for affordability.
References
Li, M., & Chapman, G. B. (2020). Medical decision making. The Wiley Encyclopedia of Health Psychology, pp. 347–353. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119057840.ch84