Patients Save Over 88% with Real-Time Prescription Benefit

By: Angie Thompson and Megan Holsopple

For millions of Americans living with diabetes, consistent, affordable access to medication can be a daily challenge. This is especially true when high out-of-pocket costs serve as a significant barrier to effective treatment. Ensuring patients can access the right therapies at the right price is essential for successful diabetes management.

Real-Time Prescription Benefit (RTPB) technology is helping to overcome this challenge by giving prescribers real-time visibility into patient-specific medication costs and lower-cost alternatives. It empowers clinicians to make more informed, cost-effective prescribing decisions at the point of care.

Real-Time Prescription Benefit: A Transformative Tool

A 2025 study published in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy by Swart and colleagues examined how RTPB tools influence medication adherence and costs among newly diagnosed patients with diabetes.¹

The study revealed substantial benefits for both patients and health plans using RTPB technology.

• Patients paid 88% less out-of-pocket on their diabetes medications compared to those with prescribers that didn’t utilize RTPB and health plan spending was 32% lower.
• The technology encouraged more cost-effective prescribing resulting in patients within the RTPB group filling an average of 1.6 more low-cost prescriptions than the control group.
• Importantly, the quality metric of medication adherence, PDC, improved as well. The proportion of days covered (PDC) is the number of days a patient has a supply of medication on hand. In the study period, patients of RTPB users had a significantly higher PDC—2.7% higher—than the non-RTPB group.

Together, these results show that providing real-time prescription benefit information can drive the selection of lower-cost medication alternatives, reducing barriers that often prevent patients from filling their prescriptions and supporting better adherence.

Beyond Cost Transparency: RTPB’s Impact on Quality Metrics

In general, adherence to diabetes medications ranges from 51% to 55%.^2-4 Non-adherence, specifically when caused by financial limitations, has been associated with worse clinical outcomes including suboptimal glycemic control,^5,6 increased risk of hospitalization,⁷ and increased risk of all-cause and diabetes-related mortality.⁸ Improvements in adherence are associated with improved A1c,² decreased hospitalizations, and lower rates of diabetes complications (eg, nephropathy, retinopathy).⁴

In the 2025 JMCP published study, the mean PDC for the RTPB population was 71.4%, as compared to 68.7% in the control population. As a heavily weighted quality measure, even incremental changes in medication adherence can have a large financial impact.⁹ Missing four or more adherence quality measures was associated with a 20% increase in medical costs for patients.⁹ Implementing methods to address the issue of non-adherence in diabetes as well as other chronic diseases is vital.

The Bottom Line

To our knowledge, this is the first study that has examined the impact of RTPB on medication adherence in a critical chronic disease state. One of the key ways RTPB adds value is in its ability to identify medication alternatives that are both clinically appropriate and lower in cost and can subsequently impact the trajectory of chronic disease outcomes. Across its platform, Arrive Health identifies and presents lower-cost medication alternatives for diabetes treatments on average 31% of the time and up to 50% of the time, depending on medication class. The result is improved access to medication, higher adherence rates, and meaningful savings for both patients and plans.

Curious to learn more about RTPB and other initiatives at Arrive Health to improve medication affordability? Contact us to talk with a member of our team.

References

1. Swart ECS, Nguyen JL, Peasah SK et al. Impact of a real-time prescription benefit on adherence and utilization of low-cost prescription alternatives for members new to diabetes treatment. J Manag Care Spec Pharm. 2025;31(9):862-67
2. Piragine E, Petri D, Martelli A, Calderone V, Lucenteforte E. Adherence to Oral Antidiabetic Drugs in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Clin Med. 2023 Mar 2;12(5):1981.
3. Boonpattharatthiti K, Songkla PN, Chantara J, Koomsri C, Krass I, et al. Prevalence of adherence to oral antidiabetic drugs in patients with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Diabetes Investig. 2024; 15(11): 1614-1625.
4. Evans M, Engberg S, Faurby M, et al. Adherence to and persistence with antidiabetic medications and associations with clinical and economic outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A systematic literature review. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2021; 24(3): 377-390.
5. Chiang Y-C, Ni W, Zhang G, Shi X, Patel MR. The association between cost-related non-adherence behaviors and diabetes outcomes. J Am Board Fam Med. 2023;36:15–24.
6. Egede LE, Gebregziabher M, Echols C, Lynch CP. Longitudinal effects of medication nonadherence on glycemic control. Ann Pharmacother. 2014; 48(5):562-70.
7. Heisler M, Choi H, Rosen AB, et al. Hospitalizations and deaths among adults with cardiovascular disease who underuse medications because of cost: a longitudinal analysis. Med Care. 2010;48:87–94.
8. Van Alsten SC, Harris JK. Cost-related nonadherence and mortality in patients with chronic disease: a multiyear investigation, National Health Interview Survey, 2000–2014. Prev Chronic Dis. 2020;17:E151.
9. Poonawalla IB, Chung L, Shetler S, Pearce H, Dixon SW, Racsa P. Medication Adherence Star Ratings Measures, Health Care Resource Utilization, and Cost. Am J Manag Care. 2024.