Health Services > Collaboration with the Health Care Agency, Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy > Impact of the Abolition of a Cost-Sharing Drug Policy on Drug Consumption and Medical Care Utilization

Impact of the Abolition of a Cost-Sharing Drug Policy on Drug Consumption and Medical Care Utilization

Patient cost-sharing such as co-payments are used worldwide to control drug expenditures and to promote appropriate use of medications. A possible untoward effect, however, is that these initiatives also may limit access to needed medications. As a result, implementing cost sharing measures may produce short-term drug cost savings but inadvertently increase overall utilization and health care expenditures. The existence of comprehensive, linkable databases on drug and health care use in Emilia-Romagna provides an opportunity to evaluate the impact of a co-payment abolition—which occurred in Italy in January 2001—on the use and costs of select medications and medication classes and determine the effect on the rate of serious adverse events (hospitalization and mortality) associated with variations in drug use before and after the implementation of the new drug policy. (Vittorio Maio, PharmD, MSPH, Department of Health Policy is collaborating with Center Staff on this project.)