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Inadequate health insurance leads to discontinuation of SCIT

Patients with allergies are more likely to discontinue subcutaneous allergen immunotherapy prematurely if they have inadequate or no medical insurance, according to study results.

“Patient adherence declines if the patient has to pay for the cost of the treatment,” Ravi Vaswani, BS, a medical student at New York University School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote.

Vaswani and colleagues contacted 555 patients with allergic rhinitis or asthma who discontinued immunotherapy before the completion of the prescribed duration — anywhere from 3 to 5 years — and received their final injection from January 2008 through September 2013 to see why patients discontinued therapy.

The researchers reported patients primarily discontinued therapy because of a lack of adequate insurance or none at all (40%).

Sixty-three percent of these patients required copayment at each visit, 14% had a high deductible and 14% either lost or had no insurance.

Other reasons that lead to an early discontinuation of therapy included inconvenience of travel (15%), change of residence (8%) and concurrent health problems (5%).

The researchers stressed if cost of treatment shifted to insurers more patients would have a better quality of life.

“If health insurers cover the cost of subcutaneous allergen immunotherapy fully, it will clearly allow for better use of this treatment option,” the researchers wrote. “This will not only improve quality of life of the patient and lessen the direct and indirect costs related to the disease but also will be economical to the health care system.” – by Ryan McDonald

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.