Qualitative Exploration of Triangulated, Shared Decision-Making in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Treat-to-target implementation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) requires a shared decision-making (SDM) process. However, ability to pay is a major determinant of patient choice, but how this factor affects SDM is under-explored.

Visits at 4 RA clinics during which patients faced a decision to change their treatment were audiotaped between May 2016 and June 2017. Audiotapes were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative framework analysis.

A total of 156 visits were analyzed. Most patients with RA, except those with effective insurance coverage, had deliberations disrupted or sidelined by third-party insurance providers having power to authorize the preferred disease-modifying antirheumatic drug choice. This triangulated SDM complicated efficiency in deliberations and timely treatment and was a barrier to shared engagement about health risks and symptom improvement typically found in patient-provider dyads.

Rheumatology care providers should aim to incorporate treatment costs and ability to pay into their deliberations so that individualized out-of-pocket estimates can be considered during triangulated SDM at the point-of-care.