Measuring the Willingness-to-pay for standardizing medication information: a two-pronged stated preference approach

When patients lack information about their medications, they are more likely to experience adverse events that may have costly health outcomes. One possible approach for improving the information that patients receive about their medications is to standardize the written information that pharmacies provide so that it is uniform and easier to read. While patients have expressed a preference for this standardization, no previous study has provided nationally representative estimates of its monetary benefits. In this paper, we estimate willingness to pay (WTP) to measure the potential benefits of standardizing the medication information leaflets that pharmacies provide to patients. We use data collected from an online, nationally representative, stated preference survey administered to non-institutionalized adults age 18 and over in the United States. Survey respondents were randomized to receive either open-ended valuation questions or referendum-style valuation questions. Responses from the open-ended questions suggest a mean WTP between approximately $3 and $13 per year depending on the treatment of outliers. Regression results suggest that those who received the referendum-style questions would be willing to pay, on average, just under $7 per year for the standardization.