Catastrophic drug coverage: utilization insights from the Ontario Trillium Drug Program.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Catastrophic drug coverage programs help those with high drug-costs to reduce the burden of out-of-pocket expenses. We set out to measure changes in utilization, spending and demographic profiles of people accessing Ontario's catastrophic drug program, the Trillium Drug Program.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional time-series analysis examining quarterly utilization and spending trends among medications reimbursed by the Trillium Drug Program in Ontario, Canada from Jan. 1, 2000, to Dec. 31, 2016. In each of 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, we described the population of beneficiaries, including demographic information, health care utilization and medication utilization.

Results

Over our study period, use of the Trillium Drug Program increased threefold from 3

SUBMITTER: Tadrous M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5878951 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature