New Jersey Medicaid: Help ease the strain of rising medication costs

According to a recent poll by KFF research, 3 in 10 adults report not taking prescribed medications at some point in the past year due to cost. This can have lasting impact on a patient’s health. In some cases, the patient’s life may be at risk, as the medication may be needed to prevent a serious illness or medical condition. 

As a provider, you can help

As patients face an ongoing rise in the cost of prescriptions, there are steps you can take to help advance medication affordability, including:

• Using available technology: When prescribing medications to your patients, make use of all available technology, such as a real-time benefit check (RTBC) tool like Optum Rx PreCheck® MyScript (PCMS) to uncover and evaluate lower-cost covered patient medication alternatives, review covered medication alternatives and more. This will help you work with your patients to identify the lowest-cost medication solutions that meet their medical needs while also helping to minimize out-of-pocket expenses. 
• Prescribing generics: Whenever appropriate, consider prescribing the generic over a brand-name medication. Generic medications contain the same active ingredients as brand-name medications and typically cost significantly less than their brand-name counterparts. Visit our Drug Lists and Pharmacy page for helpful resources, including the latest Prescription Drug List updates and formularies.
• Considering biosimilars: The emergence of biosimilars presents another opportunity for providers to help their patients manage rising prescription costs. According to a Food and Drug Administration definition, biosimilars are biologic medications that are highly similar to and have no clinically meaningful differences in terms of safety, purity and potency from an existing FDA-approved biologic. Like generics, biosimilars enter the market after the original brand is no longer protected from competition. Biosimilar options are often much more affordable for patients when compared to the original branded medicines.

Learn more

For more information on what you can do to help your patients manage prescription costs, read the recent perspective from Optum Rx® titled “Ease the strain of rising medication costs.”

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