Review the
Healthy People 2030 Health Care Access and Quality objective related to prescription medications. Consider how your treatment plan might change for this patient if he did not have insurance coverage for prescriptions.
When taking into consideration a patient’s insurance status, the ability to pay for prescribed medications plays a big role. Due to this patient’s diagnosis, I believe the triple the triple therapy approach of clarithromycin, amoxicillin, and PPI is the best option to relieve these symptoms, mainly due to the positive H. pylori diagnosis which requires the use of antibiotics and has shown resistance. If the patient did not have prescription coverage, there are cheaper options such as azithromycin that have proven effective but may present other complications (Levin, 2020).
What is the cost of the medication you suggested in your treatment plan? Is there a more affordable alternative? What resources are available to patients in your area who do not have
insurance coverage for prescriptions? Clarithromycin costs $21.97 for 14 days of 500 mg tablets twice a day, the amoxicillin is $9.47 for 1 g twice a day for 14 days and the cost of the Pantoprazole at our local Safeway pharmacy is
$17.69 for 40mg tablets twice per day for 6 weeks which will last the duration of the treatment period (Prescription prices, coupons & pharmacy information). There are many websites that provide medication price information such as goodRx.com. WebMDRx, and Rx Outreach provide
the most up to date prices. Not only do many of these websites provide prices but they may also provide the user with coupons to help with the costs of essential medications. According to these websites there are similar antibiotics within the same class that may be a cheaper alternative. References
Levin. (2020). Is Azithromycin a reasonable option for Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy?
South African Gastroenterology Review
,
18
(1), 19–20.
Prescription prices, Coupons & pharmacy information
. GoodRx. (n.d.). https://www.goodrx.com/provider
