Background
According to 2021 data from the US Department of Health and Human Services, 16% of persons in the United States under the age of 65 do not have prescription drug insurance.1Unsurprisingly, prior investigations have shown that the presence of prescription drug insurance is associated with reduced probability of hospital admission and length of stay for many common medical conditions.2A large majority of hospitalized patients are started on at least one new medication at the time of hospital discharge. Increasing the proportion of individuals with prescription drug insurance would have a substantial benefit on our population\u27s health.
One care gap we seek to address is the timely identification of hospitalized patients who do not have prescription drug insurance well before hospital discharge. Within our health system, it is often the case that individuals lacking prescription drug insurance are not appropriately identified until the time of hospital discharge. This can have several consequences, including inadequate access to life-saving medications following hospital discharge, prolonged length of stay as these issues are addressed, or direct costs to the health system in the form of charity care that is pursued to facilitate timely discharge. This initiative\u27s purpose would be to screen patients for prescription drug insurance at the time of hospital admission to allow for ample time to plan for ongoing access to medications following hospital discharge
