Reference no: EM133218532

Working in the hospital, I have come across many patients that are unable to afford their medications. There will be times when we would have to provide our patients with coupons for expensive medications, such as Brilinta. I have also found myself calling our inpatient pharmacy to ask if they can provide charity medications, especially for our homeless patients. The cost of healthcare is a burden for so many patients, their families, and society. Those with chronic conditions are sometimes debilitated from their illness and/or their treatments making them unable to work and furthermore, putting them in financial debt (Nass et al., 2017). It is prudent for us as future Nurse Practitioners to understand the cost of some prescriptions and to take the necessary measures to ensure that our patients are able to access their medications.

According to Se-Yeon et al. (2021), there are patient assistance programs that are funded by the pharmaceutical companies to help eligible patients get coverage for their out-of-pocket costs. As a provider, we can help inform out patients of these types of programs and help them apply. As stated earlier, we can also offer coupons for expensive medications. Also, another option is to see whether there is a less expensive, generic medication alternative to the medication first prescribed. In order to determine prescription costs, we can help call the pharmacy to see what the out-of-pocket price may be before prescribing the medication (Se-Yeon et al., 2021). We can also call the insurance company if the patient has insurance.

Can you give me idea or example on how to response to this post?