What impact do reference drug programs and reference-based pricing have on patients in BC?
Reference drug programs and policies of reference-based pricing restrict patient access to medications prescribed by their physicians. This hurts patients and drives up costs. When reference drug programs include policies of therapeutic substitution, the impact on patients can be particularly harmful. Often, under therapeutic substitution policies there is only one medication that is listed for reimbursement out of the entire class of medications. Therefore, even if you are well managed on your current medication, you could be forced to use another medication that your doctor did not prescribe6. Moreover, under some therapeutic substitution policies, such as the one currently used for proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) in BC, patients are not able to pay the difference between the reference drug and the one prescribed by their physician. This means that if you choose to stay on the drug your physician prescribed all costs for the drug come directly out of your pocket7. Worse yet, under the
