Advocacy Pathway
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Epidemiology & Health Services Pathway
Health Equity/Social Determinants of Health
Hospital Medicine
Public Health
Punita Ponda, MD
Associate Professor, Pediatrics and Medicine
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Great Neck, New York, United States
Shetal Shah, MD FAAP (he/him/his)
Professor of Pediatrics
Maria Fareri Children's Hospital, New York Medical College
Syosset, New York, United States
Lois Lee, MD, MPH (she/her/hers)
Associate Professor
Emergency Medicine
Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Although Medicaid and programs such as the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) protect children from the high cost of some medications, there are still significant financial barriers to access. For many low- and middle-income families, cost is an important contributor leading disproportionately, to the lack of access to many prominent high cost medications, including medications such as injectable epinephrine autoinjectors.
Factors including increased medication cost sharing, need for prior authorizations, insurance coverage gaps and increased costs of child friendly medications lead to greater out of pocket costs for families as well as delays in obtaining the medication, making some high cost medications out of reach for families. This session will educate pediatric clinicians, hospital administrators and anyone taking care of children, about the factors leading to poor access to medications in childhood. In addition, the greater understanding of the problem will be coupled with discussion of strategies to help mitigate this impact.
Topics and speakers:
1. High-Cost Medications and Out of Pocket Expenses for Families
Dr. Alison Galbraith, Boston Children’s Hospital
2. Policy Options to Improve Drug Affordability for Children
Dr. Kao-Ping Chua, University of Michigan
3. Effects of High-Cost Drugs on the Care of Children in the Inpatient Setting
Enrico Ligniti, Director, Pediatric Pharmacy, Cohen Children’s Hospital
4. Mitigation Strategies for Families, and Health Care Providers (Individual and Institutional)
Summary of suggested actions/mitigation strategies by each speaker
Open panel discussion and Questions/Answers
Moderators: Drs. Lois Lee, Shetal Shah and Punita Ponda
Speaker: Shetal Shah, MD – Maria Fareri Children's Hospital at Westchester Medical Center
Speaker: Lois K. Lee, MD, MPH – Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Speaker: Alison A. Galbraith, MD MPH – Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
Speaker: Enrico Ligniti, PharmD – Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Speaker: Kao-Ping Chua, MD, PhD – University of Michigan Medical School