The competition seeks innovative and sustainable strategies for cost sharing to reduce inequality and promote access, affordability, and adherence to treatment.

WASHINGTON, DC (June 9, 2015) — The Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation and The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC) today announced the launch of their inaugural “PAN Challenge: Balancing Moral Hazard, Affordability and Access to Critical Therapies in the Age of Cost Sharing,” a “call for papers” to find solutions for the millions of Americans with chronic and rare diseases, who may not be able to access critical medications because they cannot afford the deductibles, co-pays and coinsurance required by their health plans.

The competition seeks innovative and sustainable strategies for cost sharing to reduce inequality and promote access, affordability, and adherence to treatment for 2 population categories: Medicare beneficiaries and the commercially insured. Winning papers will be published in a supplemental issue of AJMC and presented at a cost-sharing roundtable in Washington, DC, early next year.

“The PAN Foundation is concerned about the growing cost-sharing obligations for people living with life-threatening, chronic and rare diseases,” said PAN Foundation President and CEO Dan Klein. “We are excited to work with AJMC on this challenge and hope that by doing so we can stimulate a dialogue about how to ease the financial burden and improve the quality of life for millions of patients and their families.”

Papers will address the following questions:

How does federal policy regarding health care cost sharing (eg, deductibles, co-pays, coinsurance, out-of-pocket limits) affect the ability of individuals with chronic and rare diseases to have affordable access to critical therapies?
What policy solutions are likely to improve access to critical therapies for individuals with chronic and rare diseases?

“With the rising cost of healthcare, especially with specialty pharmaceuticals, increased cost sharing is a challenge for patients,” said Brian Haug, President of AJMC. “AJMC looks forward to partnering with the PAN Foundation to seek innovative ideas that will contribute to alleviate some of the patient burden.”

Individuals and teams of individuals who are sponsored by a university, college or health system, 18 years of age or older and US residents may register for the Challenge and submit an abstract by September 15, 2015. An expert panel will review the abstracts and invite semi-finalists to submit papers (2500 to 5000 words) by December 15, 2015. One winning paper from each population category and runners-up will be announced by January 15, 2016.

For more information about the PAN Challenge, visit www.panfoundation.org/challenge.