Roughly 20% of sufferers surveyed modified their prescriptions as a result of they might not afford their drugs or left the pharmacy with out their prescription as soon as they realized the prescription would price greater than anticipated.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways
- 65% of sufferers have skilled a delay in accessing their medicine
- 54% of sufferers are involved about medicine prices
- 1-in-5 sufferers surveyed modified prescriptions as a result of they might not afford their medicine. Practically that very same quantity left the pharmacy with out their prescription as soon as they realized the prescription would price greater than anticipated
Sufferers proceed to face medicine entry and affordability obstacles with 65% experiencing delays in receiving their drugs and 54% involved about prices, in accordance with the 2025 Medicine Entry Report: From Limitations to Bridges printed at the moment by CoverMyMeds. Additional, one in 5 sufferers surveyed modified their prescriptions as a result of they might not afford their drugs – and practically that very same quantity left the pharmacy with out their prescription as soon as they realized the prescription would price greater than anticipated.
Ongoing medicine entry, affordability and adherence obstacles stem from fragmentation amongst pharmaceutical firms, prescribers, pharmacies and payers, as outlined within the 2025 Medicine Entry Report. This fragmentation has intensified lately because of the fast tempo of trade modifications, together with the rise in specialty drugs, shift in public coverage dynamics, integration of synthetic intelligence (AI) and the evolving, multidimensional wants of sufferers. Regardless of progress, gaps amongst healthcare stakeholders proceed to adversely affect sufferers, making the necessity for collaboration and interoperability throughout the trade extra pressing than ever.
“Sufferers are finally those shouldering the burden of the obstacles that exist between varied healthcare organizations taking part in a component of their care,” stated Kevin Kettler, President of CoverMyMeds. “The 2025 Medicine Entry Report is a name to motion, urging us to assume otherwise, collaborate extra deeply, and reimagine a healthcare system that places sufferers on the middle. By working collectively, we will rework these obstacles into bridges and obtain higher well being outcomes for all.”
Over the past 10 years, CoverMyMeds has analyzed trade statistics, market analysis, in-depth affected person interviews and survey information to make clear the important obstacles that may restrict sufferers’ entry to drugs. The annual Medicine Entry Report is meant to assist empower healthcare professionals with actionable methods to assist overcome these challenges. Key insights from this yr’s report establish areas of alternative to fulfill the multidimensional wants of at the moment’s sufferers by way of collaboration and interoperability:
- Reimagining the Affected person Journey: With fast developments in expertise, the U.S. healthcare system has grow to be more and more advanced. It’s past time for the trade to rethink the way it defines and helps the affected person journey.
- Dimensionalization is an rising, complete method outlined within the 2025 Medicine Entry Report that considers the total spectrum of a affected person’s expertise—together with the social determinants of well being, medical situations, and interactions with totally different healthcare stakeholders—to personalize their therapy pathways.
- Knowledge Sharing & Interoperability: System collaboration and efficient information sharing are important for addressing the nuanced challenges of at the moment’s healthcare system. But the instruments to attain this stay underutilized.
- Centralized information techniques may help be certain that stakeholders—from pharmacies to healthcare suppliers—function in sync to considerably scale back gaps and align remedies precisely with affected person wants.
- Drug Pricing Dynamics: Medicine affordability challenges stay one of many major gaps between sufferers and the medication they want.1
- Optimized workflows may help healthcare stakeholders overcome these challenges, from instituting built-in care fashions and the introduction of accountable AI options to affected person coverage training and facilitating at-home administration.
- Affected person Engagement and Affected person Help Applications (PSPs): PSPs have an necessary function in affected person communication, and in serving to to bridge the medicine entry gaps throughout the affected person journey.
- Sufferers choose digital communication with healthcare suppliers and types and count on a seamless, user-centric expertise when partaking with healthcare platforms.2
The 2025 Medicine Entry Report displays insights gathered by CoverMyMeds during the last 12 months by way of a mixture of proprietary analysis and intensive evaluation of different publicly out there sources. Proprietary analysis spanned 6 phases, together with 180 qualitative interviews and 777 quantitative survey responses with pharma firms, pharmacists, suppliers/prescribers, EHR decision-makers and sufferers.
References
- CoverMyMeds Affected person Survey 2023.
- 2024 Care Entry Benchmark Report for Well being Plans: Digital Entry Insights from a Survey of 1,000 Healthcare Shoppers. Kyruus Well being, Kyruus, Inc., 2024, www.kyruushealth.com/sources.
