Keep Medicine Nimble

A recent blog post by Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, about the value of repurposing drugs reminds us that medicine must be nimble. Just as NIH researchers are looking at putting older drugs to work against a new threat – COVID-19 – physicians must look at alternative therapies for patients for which standard therapies provided little or no relief.

When the first and second therapy options fail for a patient, physicians lean heavily on their medical expertise. Years of training prepare doctors for challenges that require them to ‘think outside the box’ for their patients. In some cases, this means using alternative therapies or repurposed treatments. This might mean highly specialized combinations of drugs or using a well-known therapy in a novel manner. Unfortunately, insurance plans often balk at coverage of these treatment options even though they may be the only alternative to provide patients with relief.

In July, 178 patient advocacy organizations, medical specialty societies and health care providers asked CMS to address restrictive prior authorization policies and to prohibit bureaucratic middlemen from interfering with the carefully crafted, individualized treatment plans physicians develop for their patients. When pre-authorization processes are deliberately difficult and driven by cost containment goals rather than concern for patients, priorities are dangerously off-track.

Patients and Providers United amplifies the voices that seek to keep patients and providers – not middlemen with inadequate clinical experience – at the center of medical decision making by telling policymakers Don’t Complicate My Care!