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Health insurance corporations are preventing patients from receiving the latest and most effective treatments for IBD, Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Over 80% of US health insurance companies refuse to authorize the most contemporary therapy for inflammatory bowel disease as initial therapy. This the conclusion of a review by gastroenterologists at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital.

Over 90% of companies insist that any given patient first fail one of the decades-old therapeutic regimens for IBD before prescribing modern therapy. Only after failing to respond to salicylates, steroids, or immunosuppressive drugs, are patients permitted to employ cutting edge biologics including anti-tumor necrosis factors and adhesion molecule antagonists.

Studies have shown that the early use of these effective and contemporary approaches leads to enhanced bowel healing preventing hospitalizations, surgical procedures, and irreversible disease. Of the 34 insurance companies who would release their decision-making rules, between 59% and an abysmal 6% adhered to the current treatment recommendations by gastroenterology specialty groups.

It is time for health insurance companies to move into the present and begin covering the most effective therapy for this and other diseases. Only you can put pressure on your employers to demand the most modern and effective therapies..

https://journals.lww.com/ajg/abstract/9900/insurance_companies__poor_adherence_to_guidelines.1052.aspx

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7667923/

#ibd #crohns #ulcerativecolitis #biologics #salicylates #steroids #immunosuppression

Health Insurance Companies Drag Feet On Modern Therapy For IBD

Dr. Howard Smith Reports