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Free samples cost patients in the long run

Those “free” drug samples docs give out can turn out to be costly in the long run.

A new study published this week in the journal Medical Care shows that patients who get the samples wind up having significantly higher out-of-pocket prescription costs than those who don’t get the samples from their doctor.

Samples are a major part of the $30 billion to $60 billion a year researchers say is spent on promoting drugs in the United States. Physicians vary in how they choose patients to receive the samples, but many believe they’re giving those chosen to receive the packets an economic benefit.

Dr. Caleb Alexander of the University of Chicago Medical Center and colleagues took data from a national survey of medical spending that included 5,709 patients and followed their experience for up to two years.

Patients who never got a sample had out-of-pocket drug costs of $178 over six months. But among those who got free samples, personal drug spending for the six months closest to when they got the samples averaged $244.

“Our findings suggest that physicians should use caution in assuming that the use of free samples ultimately reduces patients’ out-of-pocket prescription costs,” Alexander said.

While samples may be valuable to patients when the drugs are only needed for a short time, he said, “All too often, physicians and patients end up continuing the medicine initially begun as samples, even though older, less expensive alternatives may exist.”

Previous studies have shown that free samples can lead to overuse of newer drugs instead of older, cheaper alternatives, but these have typically only looked at one clinical setting and not attempted to measure out-of-pocket costs.

Alexander said it’s possible that patients who got the free samples were more seriously ill than those who did not, and thus had higher costs across the board. But such differences probably only account for a fraction of the extra costs, he added, and stressed that medicines given as free samples are usually the newest and most expensive drugs.

By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service

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