Study Data from University of Pennsylvania Update Understanding of Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy (Cost Sharing In Managed Care and the Ethical Question of Business Purpose): Drugs and Therapies – Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy

2023 SEP 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Data detailed on Drugs and Therapies - Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy have been presented. According to news reporting from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “For-profit managed care organizations face decisions about cost sharing that can involve a tradeoff between the interests of investors and the interests of patients. No successful business can ignore the interests of its investors, but moral philosophy points to ethical reasons for managed care organizations to make patients’ health, rather than investors’ profit, their primary goal.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Pennsylvania, “One reason is the ethical obligation of all businesses to avoid wrongful exploitation of vulnerable customers. An insurance company’s cost-sharing policy can exploit customers either by collecting an unfairly large amount of money from them or by unfairly deterring them from making claims for resources they medically need. Another reason stems from the fact that managed care organizations’ profits derive in part from the existence of artificial barriers to access to medicine, notably including patents. Putting a fence around a water well in the desert is legitimate only if doing so facilitates a financial arrangement that maximizes people’s access to water they need. Likewise, patents and other artificial barriers to access to medically necessary drugs are legitimate only if they are used to help finance access to medical resources people need.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “For these reasons, managed care organizations should make cost-sharing decisions that maximize the sustainable availability of effective drugs to patients who need them.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Cost Sharing In Managed Care and the Ethical Question of Business Purpose. Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, 2023;29(8):965-969. Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy can be contacted at: Acad Managed Care Pharmacy, 100 N Pitt St, 400, Alexandria, VA 22314-3134, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Robert C. Hughes, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Legal Studies & Business Eth Dept, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)