Protect Patient Choice
Put a STOP to Patient Steering Practices in Arizona
Arizona patients deserve the highest quality healthcare. When it comes to prescription medication, our state's patients deserve the right to choose their own pharmacy; not be forced to endure long drives, substandard service, or mail order dangers just to have their prescribed medication covered by their own health plan.
What is Patient Steering?
"Patient steering" happens when a health plan or pharmacy benefit manager refuses to allow a patient to receive their prescription medication from a pharmacy or provider of the patient's own choosing. This may happen via mail or email communication threatening denial of coverage, in the doctor's office when a patient needs a physician-administered medication, or at the pharmacy counter when the patient attempts to fill a prescription.
How Does Patient Steering Affect Me?
Patient steering negatively affects Arizonans in multiple ways.
The act of patient steering:
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Hurts cancer, transplant, rheumatology, and other patients who require intravenous medications by delaying prescribed life-saving treatment;
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Hurts high risk and senior patients by forcing them to travel long distances to obtain their medication from a PBM-owned pharmacy, or to endure damaged/delayed receipt of their medication through forced mail-order;
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Drives up prescription drug prices by forcing patients to fill their prescriptions at pharmacies owned/affiliated with out-of-state pharmacy benefit manager/insurance corporations, which in many cases charge the patient's plan higher prices for the same medication;
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Harms local communities by forcing pharmacies' patients away from them, which decreases a town's ability to sustain these crucial healthcare small businesses, and sends millions of local tax dollars out of state.
