7 Step Analysis Process

Ethics Assignment

Determine the Relevant Facts:

People are concerned about the rising cost of medication. Express-script and new medication company, AbbVie, Inc., made a deal with one another. AbbVie offered a discount to Express-Script of its $84,000 list price for medication. The other drug that is offered to Hepatitis C patients is called Harvoni. Harvoni is more exclusive and for the sickest patients, while AbbVie is available to patients with the most common form of the virus. The new drug AbbVie, Inc., has come out with, now gives patients that were shut out by the exclusive drug, Harvoni, another option. Both drugs have equal success rates of 90%, but one drug may be more complicated than the other. Harvoni requires patients to take one pill a day, while AbbVie involves a few pills as well as second medication. The second medication, Harvoni has been said to be hard to tolerate. The concerning problem is that if a patients pharmacy benefits are determined by Express-Script they may be directed toward a medication choice that is not favorable to a physician and more likely for a patient not to adhere to the treatment.

Identify the ethical issues:

Is there an obligation to the patients that were considered not the “sickest”? If a patient’s pharmacy benefits are determined by Express-Script, is it fair they are directed toward one drug over the other? Should the burden of cost be on the payer or should optimal care decide what’s best? Should the pharmacy manager be making treatment decisions over clinicians? Is taking the brand new drug AbbVie ethical?

Develop alternatives for resolving ethical issues:

The alternatives are:

1. Keep the situation as it is right now with Express-Script and AbbVie

2. Break the deal with AbbVie

3. Express-Script could try to get a deal with Harvoni

4. Subsidize the drug Harvoni

Identify the stakeholders for each alternative.

The stakeholders are:

1. Hepatitis C Patients

2. Express-Script...