Dig Dis Sci. 2021 Dec;66(12):4140-4148. doi: 10.1007/s10620-020-06806-1. Epub 2021 Jan 12.

Eric D Shah ¹, Lin Chang ², Anthony Lembo ³, Kyle Staller ⁴, Michael A Curley ⁵, William D Chey ⁶

Author information

¹Center for Gastrointestinal Motility, Esophageal, and Swallowing Disorders, Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH, 03766, USA. eric.d.shah@hitchcock.org.

²Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

³Digestive Disease Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.

⁴Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

⁵Center for Gastrointestinal Motility, Esophageal, and Swallowing Disorders, Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH, 03766, USA.

⁶Division of Gastroenterology, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

Abstract

Background: Prescription drug costs exert profound effects on commercial insurance coverage and access to effective therapy.

Aims: We aimed to assess threshold pricing to achieve budget neutrality of FDA-approved drugs treating irritable bowel syndrome from an insurance perspective, based on cost-savings resulting in decreased healthcare utilization through effective disease management.

Methods: We constructed a decision-analytic model from an insurance perspective to assess the budget impact of IBS prescription drugs under usual insurance coverage levels in practice: (1) unrestricted drug access or (2) step therapy in a primary care population of middle-age, care-seeking IBS patients. Budget-neutral drug prices were then calculated which resulted in $0 budget impact to insurers with a short-term, one-year time horizon.

Results: If used according to FDA labeling, IBS-D drugs cost between $4778 and $16,844 per year and IBS-C drugs cost between $4319 and $4955 per year. These drug costs often exceed insurance expenditures of $6999 for IBS-D and $3929 for IBS-C if left untreated. Therefore, for drugs to have $0 budget impact to insurers, their prices would need to be discounted 36.7-74.2% for IBS-D drugs and 59.3-82.5% for IBS-C. IBS drugs are already priced to support step therapy "failing one of several common, inexpensive IBS treatments with a responder rate > 30-40%," reflecting the subpopulation with more severe disease and greater healthcare costs.

Conclusions: Broader prescription drug coverage for patients failing common, inexpensive IBS treatments to which at least 30-40% of patients would typically respond appears warranted to enable gastroenterologists to offer personalized approaches targeting specific mechanisms of this heterogeneous disease.