Pedro M. Abreu and Bruno R. Mendes
Copayment Strategies for Chronic Medications A Qualitative and Comparative Analysis at European Level
579 - 583
2016
10
12
International Journal of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences
https://publications.waset.org/pdf/10006029
https://publications.waset.org/vol/120
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
The management of pharmacotherapy and the process of dispensing medicines is becoming critical in clinical pharmacy due to the increase of incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases, the complexity and customization of therapeutic regimens, the introduction of innovative and more expensive medicines, the unbalanced relation between expenditure and revenue as well as due to the lack of rationalization associated with medication use. For these reasons, copayments emerged in Europe in the 70s and have been applied over the past few years in healthcare. Copayments lead to a rationing and rationalization of user’s access under healthcare services and products, and simultaneously, to a qualification and improvement of the services and products for the enduser. This analysis, under hospital practices particularly and copayment strategies in general, was carried out on all the European regions and identified four reference countries, that apply repeatedly this tool and with different approaches. The structure, content and adaptation of European copayments were analyzed through 7 qualitative attributes and 19 performance indicators, and the results expressed in a scorecard, allowing to conclude that the German models (total score of 68,2 and 63,6 in both elected copayments) can collect more compliance and effectiveness, the English models (total score of 50) can be more accessible, and the French models (total score of 50) can be more adequate to the socioeconomic and legal framework. Other European models did not show the same quality andor performance, so were not taken as a standard in the future design of copayments strategies. In this sense, we can see in the copayments a strategy not only to moderate the consumption of healthcare products and services, but especially to improve them, as well as a strategy to increment the value that the enduser assigns to these services and products, such as medicines.
Open Science Index 120, 2016