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BACKGROUND: There is concern that increasingly common use of patient assistance programs (PAPs), out-of-pocket assistance provided by manufacturers or foundations, distorts our understanding of patient behavior and insurance design incentives. Yet the current literature on prescription drug cost sharing largely overlooks their use. PAPs prevalence and impact on drug demand and price elasticity is a major knowledge gap.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the use of PAPs among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and the association with drug demand in a specialty pharmacy program within a regional integrated health system that facilitates their use.

METHODS: We used pharmaceutical claims data from December 2017 to December 2018 linked to detailed payer information from Kaiser Permanente Washington to characterize the prevalence of PAPs for users of 7 MS specialty drug molecules. We estimated price …