Starting next month, Green Shield Canada (GSC) is limiting new prescriptions of high-cost drugs to 10 days under its initial days supply feature.
Once it’s established that the patient can tolerate the drug, the insurer will allow a maximum supply of 30 days.
GSC says this change will prevent wastage of both medication and benefits plan dollars, provide an opportunity for additional counselling that could help with the patient’s adherence and improve safety as an unused amount of the drugs could be hazardous to the patient’s household as well as to the environment if they were disposed of improperly.
“While very few plan members will be impacted in the short term, with more (and more expensive) high-cost drugs entering the market, this is sure to be an emerging issue in the years to come,” says the October edition of GSC Update.
The company defines high-cost drugs as those with a daily cost of about $40 or more, or with an average annual cost of $14,600 or more. Many of the drugs in this category are for conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis or hepatitis.