Hi, I'm Krista Lynch, and I'm the Director of the Esophageal Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Hi, I'm Sravanti Parasa, I'm a gastroenterologist at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. Welcome everyone to this EOE Train the Trainers program module 12. In this module, we'll be talking about the cost effectiveness of therapies, the costs of different therapies, and also strategies for you to use as you navigate the process of prior authorization, denials, and the resources available both to you as a clinician, as well as to your patients as they go through this journey of treatment for EOE. In this module, I think it would be key to emphasize both the overt costs and the hidden costs as outlined in the graphic in the beginning of the module. I think it's important as clinicians and for our support staff to have some tips about how to navigate the complex process of prior authorization and denials, and we do have some tips which are specific for this disorder in the module as well. Additionally, at the end of the module, we have a list of references. Many of these are helpful looking at the patient advocacy group resources and podcasts for the patient perspective, but there are also sample letters of appeal for patients who have had medications denied, which is a very good starting point for providers who are in this situation. So in areas where there is a dearth of providers who see eosinophilic disorders or rare diseases, the AFAD provider finder can be very helpful. On their website, which is featured in the resources pages of this module, patients can put in their age, what type of provider that they're looking for, as well as where they live to seek any providers near them. This is also a hidden cost for patients with EOE as they do not have providers near them, there could be significant travel time, but at least with this resource, they can find providers who subspecialize in this area to get them the right care, even though it may be quite a ways to travel. Adding to Dr. Lynch's point, I think having a pipeline of information regarding your prior authorization, which is local to your area and understanding the trends of denials or appeals is important so that you can customize your prior authorization protocols within your healthcare system or wherever you practice. So given the modular nature of our Train the Trainers program module, you can pick different aspects of this particular module where you can get information specifically about the costs that are involved in treatment. You can go to the next section where you can see information on tips to kind of get through your prior authorization process and also kind of piece together different aspects of these modules and customize it to your audience. So one of the key takeaways that I would emphasize as you're going through this module is try to understand the tips that you can utilize in your practice as you work through the process of prior authorization, which can be very helpful for your patients as well. And I would add that when we have the initial shared decision-making conversation with the EOE patient about therapy and surveillance, it's very important to consider cost-effective therapy and having that conversation evolve around therapeutic options, but consider costs because that is critical to the overall care for the patient with EOE. We wish you good luck in using this module and using the resources that are available at the end of this module as well. Good luck with your journey and keep us posted how you like our module. We really hope that this module has been helpful, especially looking towards the resources at the end and the links to various ways to advocate for our EOE patients.

eosinophilic esophagitis

shared decision making

patient-centered care

treatment plans

healthcare compliance

cost-effectiveness

prior authorization

patient advocacy

healthcare systems