Who pays for the patient care costs associated with a clinical trial?
• Health insurance and managed care providers often do not cover the patient care costs associated with a clinical trial. What they cover varies by health plan and by study. Some health plans do not cover clinical trials if they consider the approach being studied experimental or investigational. However, if enough data show that the approach is safe and effective, a health plan may consider the approach established and cover some or all of the costs. Participants may have difficulty obtaining coverage for costs associated with prevention and screening clinical trials; health plans are currently less likely to have review processes in place for these studies. It may, therefore, be more difficult to get coverage for the costs associated with them. In many cases, it helps to have someone from the research team talk about coverage with representatives of the health plan. • Health plans may specify other criteria a trial must meet to be covered. The trial might have to be sponsored by a sp
