Comparison of time to treatment initiation of specialty medications between an integrated health system specialty pharmacy and external specialty pharmacies.

Background: Specialty medications are commonly dispensed through specialty pharmacies equipped to meet unique monitoring and dispensing requirements. Integrated health system specialty pharmacies (HSSPs) coordinate with health system providers to deliver specialty medications to patients and ameliorate barriers to care. However, payors may restrict specialty medication fills to specialty pharmacies external to the health system, potentially leading to delayed treatment.

Objective: To compare time to treatment initiation among patients whose specialty medications were transferred to external pharmacies and patients whose medications were filled at an internal HSSP.

Methods: This was a retrospective, propensity-matched cohort study examining time to treatment initiation in patients with a specialty medication referral to the University of Kentucky HealthCare Specialty Pharmacy between July 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022. Patients were classified into cohorts by receipt of dispensing services from the internal HSSP or an external specialty pharmacy. Data collected via chart review included insurance type, reason for prescription transfer, dates of service (including prescription order, transfer, and receipt of medication), and whether a prior authorization or clinical intervention was performed. Subgroup analyses were performed for patients requiring a prior authorization or clinical intervention. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to assess for statistically significant differences in time to treatment initiation between cohorts.

Results: A total of 560 patients with external transfers were identified for inclusion into the study, and after exclusion criteria were applied, 408 external transfer patients were propensity matched 1:1 to 408 patients with internal fills (total n = 816). Time to treatment initiation was significantly longer in the external transfer cohort as compared with the internal fill cohort, (18 days vs 12 days; < 0.0001). The internal fill cohort had a greater mean days from provider order to the medication being ready to fill compared with the external transfer cohort (10 days vs 6 days; < 0.0001). The internal fill cohort had fewer mean days from the medication being ready to fill to patient receipt of the medication as compared with the external transfer cohort (2 days vs 12 days; < 0.0001). Similar findings were observed in the subgroup analyses.

Conclusions: Average time to treatment initiation was 6 days shorter for patients whose specialty medications were filled at this HSSP compared with externally transferred patients. Delays in therapy can cause a negative impact on patient care and disease state management, with increased concern for specialty populations. The results of this study highlight the need for continued discussion about policies that limit patient choice to in-network pharmacies.