Step therapy (ST) has again reared its most ugly head in our prostate cancer world, to the detriment of us, prostate cancer survivors and only to the benefit of private insurance payers.
So, what is this “creeping crud,” Step Therapy (aka as Fail First Therapy)?
Simply, ST is when insurance companies decide, without sound medical reasons, only for financial reasons, to limit a drugs availability to their subscribers. As referred to by the web site Fail First ST does the following:
“Fail First is used by health insurers to control costs. It is time-consuming from a physician and patient standpoint, is more expensive from a direct and indirect out-of-pocket cost perspective, denies patients the drugs they need when they need them, and allows payers to practice medicine without a license.
- Creates additional barriers leading people to forgo needed medications
- Can cause patients’ medical conditions to deteriorate, increasing the need for medical intervention in the future. As a result, patients require increasingly costly medical care
- Increases frustration and incidents of de