Patient access to chronic medications during the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from a comprehensive dataset of US insurance claims

Jeffrey Clement, Maura Jacobi and Brad N Greenwood

PLOS ONE, 2021, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-13

Abstract: Patient access and adherence to chronic medications is critical. In this work, we evaluate whether disruptions related to Covid-19 have affected new and existing patients’ access to pharmacological therapies without interruption. We do so by performing a retrospective analysis on a dataset of 9.4 billion US prescription drug claims from 252 million patients from May, 2019 through August, 2020 (about 93% of prescriptions dispensed within those months). Using fixed effect (conditional likelihood) linear models, we evaluate continuity of care, how many days of supply patients received, and the likelihood of discontinuing therapy for drugs from classes with significant population health impacts. Findings indicate that more prescriptions were filled in March 2020 than in any prior month, followed by a significant drop in monthly dispensing. Compared to the pre-Covid era, a patient’s likelihood of discontinuing some medications increased after the spread of Covid: norgestrel-ethinyl estradiol (hormonal contraceptive) discontinuation increased 0.62% (95% CI: 0.59% to 0.65%, p

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0249453

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249453

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