Impact Of Decreasing Copayments On Medication Adherence Within A Disease Management Environment

This paper estimates the effects of a large employer’s value-based insurance initiative designed to improve adherence to recommended treatment regimens. The intervention reduced copayments for five chronic medication classes in the context of a disease management (DM) program. Compared to a control employer that used the same DM program, adherence to medications in the value-based intervention increased for four of five medication classes, reducing nonadherence by 7–14 percent. The results demonstrate the potential for copayment reductions for highly valued services to increase medication adherence above the effects of existing DM programs.