Not even the most effective medication will achieve the desired results if its high cost prevents patients from taking it.
Nearly all physicians (96%) report that patients stopped taking a medication because of cost without telling them, the 2026 Physician Drug Cost survey from RazorMetrics found. Almost the same percentage said they would be comfortable substituting a clinically appropriate, lower-cost alternative.
“Adherence to prescribed medications is vital to patient outcomes, yet our survey shows that affordability is regularly affecting treatment plans,” said Dr. Siva Mohan, cofounder, president and chief medical officer of the pharmacy technology company. “As a physician, I’m grateful to those who shared their experiences and demonstrated that providers are ready to help patients access lower-cost medications. Giving physicians patient-specific options within existing workflows allows them to act earlier without adding administrative burden or leaving patients to navigate affordability on their own.”
Four areas shape how physicians manage prescription affordability — their willingness to switch patients to lower-cost medications; the administrative burden of resolving prescription affordability issues; medication-list visibility and barriers to deprescribing; and how payer and PBM outreach can better support prescribers.
Affordability issues carry an easy-to-overlook cost for providers. More than 8 in 10 practices handle five or more patient calls about high-cost prescriptions each week. Two-thirds report that they or their staff spend at least five hours resolving medication cost issues after a prescription is written, and 20% spend up to 20 hours a week.
Although nearly half of prescribers say fewer workflow interruptions would make outreach more useful, nearly two-thirds have never encountered real-time benefit tools or have had a bad experience with them.
“Physician-reported data on drug affordability is often missing from the conversation, even though physicians are the ones fielding the calls, changing prescriptions and managing the fallout when patients stop treatment,” said Tom Dorsett, CEO and cofounder of RazorMetrics. “Listening to both sides of the prescription gives health plans, employers and PBMs a clearer view of where the process breaks down and what it will take to make lower-cost options easier to act on.”
These findings underscore the need to deliver timely, patient-specific cost information within existing clinical workflows and at scale.
“Physicians, patients and payers all want to address affordability while advancing patient outcomes,” Mohan said. “Solutions that integrate into existing workflows and identify lower-cost options are critical to achieving meaningful savings.”