High-Intensity vs Low-Intensity Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation and Need for Endotracheal Intubation

Expanding Medicare's negotiation process to include more drugs, lowering drug costs for individuals with private insurance, and an independent health technology assessment appraisal would lower costs and better align financial incentives for drugs that offer the greatest benefit for patients.For some generic drugs, insured patients can pay lower out-of-pocket costs by using a pharmacy coupon or direct-toconsumer pharmacy instead of their health insurance.This places the burden on patients to shop for the lowest prices and could result in patients with complex medication regimens using multiple pharmacies. 6Policy reforms to increase price transparency and eliminate incentives for pharmaceutical supply chains to favor more costly medications over less costly alternatives would likely reduce patient outof-pocket costs.Until these root causes are addressed, prescribers, pharmacists, patients, and families are faced with navigating the nation's fragmented and inefficient pharmaceutical delivery system and finding ways to help patients access affordable medications.While policymakers consider additional solutions to address these underlying drivers of high drug prices in the US, the strategies and algorithm highlighted in our article can be used by patients, prescribers, and other clinical team members-including pharmacists-to help patients afford clinically necessary medications.