Step Therapy Requirements Are Worsening, Says Dr James Howard

James F. Howard, Jr, MD, professor of neurology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, former chief of the Neuromuscular Disorders Division, and former James F. Howard Distinguished Professor of Neuromuscular Disease, explains the step therapy burdens faced by patients with myasthenia gravis, as well as their providers.

Transcript

How are patients with rare diseases like myasthenia gravis affected by step therapy and prior authorization, and do you see this getting better or worse?

The burdens that are placed on to us by our payers through prior authorizations, etc, are overly burdensome. It consumes time—not only the physician, but of the staff—to complete paperwork, to spend countless amounts of time on telephone calls that totally detracts from our ability to provide top-level care to the individual patient themselves. I foresee this, unless there's a change in culture, in our legislature, I see this becoming progressively worse. And it has been over my career.