Commercial insurance formularies have posed a barrier to cutting greenhouse gas emissions from metered-dose inhalers used to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a study showed.
Issues with Lower-Emission Inhalers
Lower-emission versions — dry powder inhalers and soft mist inhalers — had less coverage and less often were covered on tier 1 or 2 without prior authorization or step therapy compared to more polluting metered-dose inhalers, Soko Setoguchi, MD, DrPH, of the Rutgers RWJBarnabas Center for Climate, Health, and Healthcare in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and colleagues reported.
For short-acting β2-agonists (SABAs), 66.4% of plans only covered a metered-dose inhaler without any hydrofluoroalkane propellant-free option.
And whereas over 99% of the 31,219 commercial plans examined covered at least one inhaled corticosteroid inhaler (ICS) and combination ICS-long-acting β2-agonist inhaler (LABA), propellant-free versions were covered by 89.5% and 82.6%, respectively.
Fuente: https://www.medpagetoday.com/pulmonology/asthma/123176
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