Starting the Rx Cost Conversation with Patients – A Guide to Getting Started
Particularly in today’s economic environment, many patients place a high value on a their physician’s ability – and willingness – to discuss their specific costs for prescription medication, and work together to determine a care plan that is both clinically effective and also financially realistic. New technologies like Veradigm RxTruePrice have empowered providers with the patient-specific cash and benefit pricing, therapeutic alternatives, and other medication cost data needed to have this conversation, all within the course of their normal electronic health record (EHR) workflow.
However, in a 2019 survey of RxTruePrice users, some physician respondents indicated either that they did not view the medication cost conversation as their responsibility. Alternatively, others said that while they understood that patient’s valued the conversation, they did not feel comfortable or equipped to do so.
Like any initially uncomfortable topic, discussing financial matters relevant to patient care quickly becomes easier with experience, and those providers who remain unwilling to engage on the subject may be placing themselves at a competitive disadvantage. With price transparency solutions like TruePriceRx available for more than two years now, many physicians have found effective ways to start the conversation with their patients, and are increasingly reporting improvements in medication adherence, patient satisfaction and staff time savings as a result. For some easy methods to get started, check out the new resources below!
Download Veradigm Medication Cost Conversation Guide
Click below to view a brief video of Dr. Michelle Forbes of MD Pediatric Associates in suburban Dallas, Tx, on how her multi-site practice has gone from skepticism about having the conversation to making it a part of every single patient visit – and the impact it is having on their staff and patients.