(1) Physicians who participate in managed care plans should maintain awareness of plan decisions about drug selection by staying informed about pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committee actions and by ongoing personal review of formulary composition. P&T committee members should include independent physician representatives. Mechanisms should be established for ongoing peer review of formulary policy. Physicians who perceive inappropriate influence on formulary development from pharmaceutical industry consolidation should notify the proper regulatory authorities.
(2) Physicians should be particularly vigilant to ensure that formulary decisions adequately reflect the needs of individual patients and that individual needs are not unfairly sacrificed by decisions based on the needs of the average patient. Physicians are ethically required to advocate for additions to the formulary when they think patients would benefit materially and for exceptions to the formulary on a case-by-case basis when justified by the health care needs of particular patients. Mechanisms to appeal formulary exclusions should be established. Other cost-containment mechanisms, including prescription caps and prior authorization, should not unduly burden physicians or patients in accessing optimal drug therapy.
(3) Limits should be placed on the extent to which managed care plans use incentives or pressures to lower prescription drug costs. Financial incentives are permissible when they promote cost-effectiveness, not when they require withholding medically necessary care. Physicians must not be made to feel that they jeopardize their compensation or participation in a managed care plan if they prescribe drugs that are necessary for their patients but that may also be costly. There should be limits on the magnitude of financial incentives, incentives should be calculated according to the practices of a sizable group of physicians rather than on an individual basis, and incentives based on quality of care rather than cost of care should be used. Physician penalties for non-compliance with a managed care formulary in the form of deductions from withholds or direct charges are inappropriate and unduly coercive. Prescriptions should not be changed without physicians having a change to discuss the change with the patient.
(4) Managed care plans should develop and implement educational programs on cost-effective prescribing practices. Such initiatives are preferable to financial incentives or pressures by HMOs or hospitals, which can be ethically problematic.
(5) Patients must fully understand the methods used by their managed care plans to limit prescription drug costs. During enrollment, the plan must disclose the existence of formularies, the provisions for cases in which the physician prescribes a drug that is not included in the formulary and the incentives or other mechanisms used to encourage physicians to consider costs when prescribing drugs. In addition, plans should disclose any relationships with pharmaceutical benefit management companies or pharmaceutical companies that could influence the composition of the formulary. If physicians exhaust all avenues to secure a formulary exception for a significantly advantageous drug, they are still obligated to disclose the option of the more beneficial, more costly drug to the patient, so that the patient can decide whether to pay out-of-pocket.
(6) Research should be conducted to assess the impact of formulary constraints and other approaches to containing prescription drug costs on patient welfare.
(7) Our AMA urges pharmacists to contact the prescribing physician if a prescription written by the physician violates the managed care drug formulary under which the patient is covered, so that the physician has an opportunity to prescribe an alternative drug, which may be on the formulary.
(8) When pharmacists, insurance companies, or pharmaceutical benefit management companies communicate directly with physicians or patients regarding prescriptions, the reason for the intervention should be clearly identified as being either educational or economic in nature.
(9) Our AMA will develop model legislation which prohibits managed care entities, and other insurers, from retaliating against a physician by disciplining, or withholding otherwise allowable payment because they have prescribed drugs to patients which are not on the insurer’s formulary, or have appealed a plan’s denial of coverage for the prescribed drug.
(10) Our AMA urges health plans including managed care organizations to provide physicians and patients with their medication formularies through multiple media, including Internet posting.
(11) In the case where Internet posting of the formulary is not available and the formulary is changed, coverage should be maintained until a new formulary is distributed.
(12) For physicians who do not have electronic access, hard copies must be available.
Policy Timeline
CEJA Rep. 2, A-95 Res. 734, A-97 Appended by Res. 524 and Sub. Res.714, A-98 Reaffimed: Res. 511, A-99 Modified: Res. 501, Reaffirmed: Res. 123 and 524, A-00 Modified: Res. 509, I-00 Reaffirmed: CMS Rep. 6, A-03 Reaffirmation I-04 Reaffirmed: Sub. Res. 529, A-05 Reaffirmation A-08 Reaffirmation A-10 Reaffirmed in lieu of Res. 822, I-11 Reaffirmation A-14 Reaffirmed: CMS Rep. 05, A-19 Reaffirmed: CMS Rep. 6, I-20