Oral Parity or Time to Write Your Congressman

Does anyone know what that means? When I first  heard it, I needed an explanation. Oral means something to do with your mouth. Parity is something about evenness or equality (I am so smart I came up with that myself).

So what is oral parity? Its about health insurance paying for oral medications the same way they pay for in hospital infusions and other medical treatments.

You get the basics. You go to the doctor and get an IV or a shot and you pay a copay and go home. Or you go pick up your prescription and if you are lucky its a generic and costs somewhere less than $20.

But if its a brand name drug with no generic available or a new brand name drug which is considered to be a premium or Tier 37.8 (or whatever term the insurance company wants to call it to make you understand its EXPENSIVE). That means your co-pay will be something that puts a significant dent in your wallet. My copays max out at 35% of the cost. I have gotten the $100+/month prescriptions and am on one now. If I go through mail order, its a paltry $95 per month.

I think I have blogged about this before but it is increasing in importance. Currently 1/4 of all cancer drugs in development are planned as oral medications. So if a new cancer drug costs $100,000 per year and a patient needs to pay 35% of that? You can do the math.

The results is doctors are less likely to prescribe the expensive oral drugs or patients go bankrupt or just don't fill their prescriptions. To get affordable cancer care, a patient needs to get an IV infusion which is stressful, time consuming, and probably not the most advanced treatment available.

For the third time, a bill is going through Congress:

"The Cancer Drug Coverage Parity Act of 2013 (HR 1801) seeks to amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, the Public Health Service Act, and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 "to require group and individual health insurance coverage and group health plans to provide for coverage of oral anticancer drugs on terms no less favorable than the coverage provided for anticancer medications administered by a health care provider." Companion legislation must be introduced and passed in the Senate before the bill can become law."

You know how agreeable Congress is these days. Maybe its time to write your Congressman/woman.