A pretreatment medication for women who suffer miscarriages called mifepristone is not only more clinically effective when combined with the standard of care drug, but also more cost effective, according to researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine. A new economic analysis found the average health care cost for a woman to receive mifepristone with the standard miscarriage drug misoprostol was roughly equal to the cost for a woman to receive only misoprostol, while the costs, from a societal perspective, for mifepristone plus misoprostol was about $1,000 less than misoprostol alone. Researchers published their findings in JAMA Network Open.
“Strict federal regulations and concerns over the high cost of mifepristone have made it harder for some women with early pregnancy loss to gain access to the drug through their providers,” says study lead author Courtney A. Schreiber, chief of the division of Family Planning and an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology. “Showing this regimen’s economic value is one important piece to help lower a barrier for patients seeking a safe and more comfortable closure to a painful experience. Physicians, payers, and health systems should be encouraged by these findings.”
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