Dr. Danielle Ofri’s opinion piece in the New York Times last week outlines “The Insulin Wars.” As a primary care physician who cares for hundreds of patients with chronic diseases, including diabetes, I could relate to Ofri’s frustration and outrage on behalf of patients and providers.
Ofri describes how her patient’s insurance company keeps changing the insulin that is preferred and therefore covered. This can be challenging for both the patient and the prescriber to keep up with, and there can be serious health consequences if there is a gap in use of this critical medication.
Ofri notes that “[b]etween 2002 and 2013, prices tripled for some insulins.” She offers several reasons that this is the case, but highlights that insurers use “pharmacy benefit managers, called P.B.M.s, to negotiate prices with manufacturers. Insurance programs represent huge markets, so manufacturers compete to offer good deals. How to offer a good deal? Jack up the list price, and then offer the P.B.M.s a ‘discount.'”
The end result for patients who can’t cover the costs of this vital medication may mean self-rationing, fluctuating blood sugar levels, and rejected prescriptions. For physicians, “it’s an endless game of catch-up.” It’s also a “colossal time-waster, as patients, pharmacists and doctors log hours upon hours calling, faxing, texting and emailing to keep up with whichever insulin is trending. It’s also dangerous, as patients can end up without a critical medication for days, sometimes weeks, waiting for these bureaucratic kinks to get ironed out.” There can be dire consequences for a diabetic patient to have short or long term uncontrolled diabetes.
In trying to get her patient’s insulin switched to an acceptable alternative, Ofri discovers that the insurance company “now had no insulins on its top tier. Breaking the news to my patient was devastating.” Ofri realized that the insurance company had found a way to place the burden on physicians and patients: “Let the doctors be the ones to navigate the bureaucratic hoops and then deliver the disappointing news to our patients. Let patients be the ones to figure out how to ration their medications or do without.” This piece highlights a sobering fact too common in modern medicine: the system often gets in the way of the best interest of the patient. We can, we must, find a better way.
Writing Prompt: Have you encountered a similar issue with insulin, either as a patient or as a physician? Have you seen other vital medications involved? What frustrates you most about the situation? How does this issue affect the patient-physician relationship? Write for 10 minutes.