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According to a report in <i>The Wall Street Journal</i>, UnitedHealth Group is offering patients up to $300 in annual prescription co-payment savings if they cut their prescription pills in half.
With pill splitting, a patient purchases pills at twice the prescribed dose and cuts them in half. Pill splitting can save money due to the way prescription drugs are manufactured and priced. Many prescription pills cost the same amount of money regardless of their dosage.
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While the practice of pill splitting has long been used by uninsured patients to help reduce prescription costs, this is the first time that a health insurer is encouraging the practice with discounts. The prescription drug industry has maintained that the practice is unsafe, arguing that patients might not get the exact dose they need and some pills may not be effective if cut in half. They also raise concerns that elderly and disabled people may have trouble splitting pills correctly and thus get the incorrect dose. There are currently a number of devices on the market which have been developed to make the process of splitting pills easier and more precise.
Under the UnitedHealth program, only certain categories of pills that have been shown in published studies or other research to be safe to split qualify for the program. Patients are also required to receive permission from a doctor to split pills. This is to ensure patients who may have trouble accurately splitting pill are not allowed to do so.
With pill splitting, a patient purchases pills at twice the prescribed dose and cuts them in half. Pill splitting can save money due to the way prescription drugs are manufactured and priced. Many prescription pills cost the same amount of money regardless of their dosage.
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While the practice of pill splitting has long been used by uninsured patients to help reduce prescription costs, this is the first time that a health insurer is encouraging the practice with discounts. The prescription drug industry has maintained that the practice is unsafe, arguing that patients might not get the exact dose they need and some pills may not be effective if cut in half. They also raise concerns that elderly and disabled people may have trouble splitting pills correctly and thus get the incorrect dose. There are currently a number of devices on the market which have been developed to make the process of splitting pills easier and more precise.
Under the UnitedHealth program, only certain categories of pills that have been shown in published studies or other research to be safe to split qualify for the program. Patients are also required to receive permission from a doctor to split pills. This is to ensure patients who may have trouble accurately splitting pill are not allowed to do so.
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