Nina Chavez, MBA, FACMPE: Biosimilars and Patient Out-of-Pocket Costs

Nina Chavez, MBA, FACMPE, chief operating officer, New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants, Ltd, discusses the role that biosimilars have to play in reducing patients’ out-of-pocket costs in cancer care.

Transcript

You know, anything that can decrease the cost to the patient is the best thing for the patient.

We have financial counselors, we have a lot of copay cards, we have a lot of drug assistance, drug replacement. We as a practice work very hard to get therapies to the patients that they cannot afford. And so, if there's a way that these biosimilars coming into the market can not only lower the total cost of care, but they can lower the patients’ out-of-pocket and that stress and anxiety that the patient has, I think that's fantastic.

I don't know how it will play out because it's so new, and right now, like I said, they're kind of marketing like the brand; they're not that much cheaper. They don't want to disrupt [average selling price, ASP]; it's more about, “we’ll give you a contract to use all of our stuff, including our biosimilar, instead of using this other guy’s, right?”