US patients receiving free samples spend more on drugs

According to the study, patients who never received drug samples had $178 estimated out-of-pocket prescription costs over six months, while those receiving samples spent an estimated $166 for a six-month period prior to getting the free drugs, $244 for the six months in which they received the samples and $212 for the subsequent six months.

Using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, the research team tracked 5,709 patients for up to two years. Of them, 84% were white, 76% had private insurance and 14% received at least one drug sample, with a total of 2,343 samples dispensed during the analysis period. And the patients’s average age was 48 years.

The study also found that older patients and people who had Medicaid (the US federal health care programme for people on low incomes) as their source of insurance coverage have fewer chances of receiving samples. The researchers also believe that patients who receive free samples may end up paying for a prescription for the medicine, which they have initially received for free. They also point that medicines given as free samples are often the newest and the most expensive.

Caleb Alexander, study author, said: “Samples may be particularly valuable in providing patients economic relief when they are used short-term and not followed-up with long-term prescription for the same medicine. However, all too often, physicians and patients end up continuing the medicines initially begun as samples, even though older, less expensive alternatives may exist.”