Overview

For too many patients, the journey from diagnosis to treatment is unpredictable, time-consuming and confusing.

Prescription pricing is opaque, which can cause sticker shock at the pharmacy.

Resources meant to help patients can only do so much when siloed from the wider healthcare ecosystem. Patient support programs are disconnected from patient benefit information, and patient engagement tools are disconnected from the prescribing process.

All of this means that patients continue to suffer through their symptoms and a frustrating, disjointed healthcare experience. In 2024, Americans’ view of U.S. healthcare quality reached a 24-year low according to one survey, with more than half saying that it has major problems.

Prescribers want to make things easier for their patients. But a majority say they find it somewhat or very hard to determine patients' total prescription cost, verify eligibility for financial assistance, determine pharmacy benefit coverage, share data with patient assistance programs and find additional payment options (such as coupons).

And although more than nine in 10 prescribers and pharmacists believe patient experience is very or extremely important in their work, 39% of pharmacists and 44% of prescribers feel they do not have much ability to impact it.

We’ve heard from clinicians, but what about patients? What challenges are they encountering and what would improve their experience? To find out, we partnered with The Harris Poll to survey 1,007 adults who interacted with the U.S. healthcare system in the past year.

The prescription experience is central to the patient experience

One nearly universal experience among patients is visiting the doctor’s office, followed closely by filling a prescription.

In the last 12 months, 91% of patients visited a doctor’s office, 83% filled a prescription, 44% had a telehealth appointment, 40% went to the hospital, 36% visited a clinic or urgent care, and 19% enrolled in a copay assistance or patient access program.

Overall, 76% reported good or excellent health, but this didn’t necessarily ease any worry—60% of patients said they were somewhat or very concerned about their overall health.

This concern may be in part due to high rates of chronic illness: 47% of patients have been diagnosed with at least one chronic condition, and 17% are caretakers for someone with a chronic illness. Among those diagnosed with chronic disease, 28% are managing two or more conditions.

For many, daily medication is the norm. Patients who received a prescription in the past three months reported taking an average of three prescriptions per day, with 47% taking specialty medications.

The prescription landscape is evolving. While most patients fill their prescriptions in-person at traditional pharmacies, 37% of those who have filled a prescription in the past 12 months chose an online option.

This chart shows how U.S. patients filled their most recent prescription: 58% did so in person at a retail pharmacy, 27% used an online option from a retail pharmacy, 15% filled it through an online pharmacy, 15% went to a hospital pharmacy, 9% used a copay assistance or patient access program, and 3% used another method.

Most patients have trouble filling prescriptions

Prescriptions may be common, but fulfillment isn’t always easy: 56% of patients experience challenges when filling their prescriptions, naming delays as the most common hurdle.

Thirty-seven percent of patients reported that their prescription took a long time to fill, 31% experienced back-and-forth communication with their health plan, provider, or pharmacy, and 26% faced delays or denials due to prior authorization. 23% learned about lower cost options too late, 22% could not afford their medication, 20% were unable to get their prescription filled, and 19% had difficulty finding pricing information.

Only 20% of patients say they feel empowered in managing their healthcare and prescriptions, and 17% say they feel frustrated.

For many patients, the entire experience is overwhelming: 31% said they were not confident navigating the healthcare system.

Price transparency and affordability are major pain points

Patients struggle to navigate prescription pricing.

They don’t want to wait until they arrive at the pharmacy counter to learn what a prescription costs. Getting clearer cost information before picking up a prescription would make managing medications easier for 36% of patients.

Conversations with providers only help so much. Only 26% discuss medication costs with their provider at half or more of their visits, and just over half (54%) feel their needs are fully met in these conversations.

Patients struggle to know where to look: 48% say that they don’t know who or what to trust for accurate information about prescription medications and pricing.

To avoid sticker shock, many have looked for ways to reduce the cost of their prescriptions.

Forty percent of patients compared prices across different pharmacies, 39% used a coupon, rebate, or discount, and 37% looked online for coupons, rebates, or discounts. Thirty-six percent asked their provider to prescribe a less expensive option, 25% abandoned the prescription, 24% switched medications, 23% enrolled in a copay assistance or patient access program, and 20% split pills or rationed medication.

High prescription drug costs aren’t just frustrating; they can also be dangerous. One in four patients say they haven’t picked up a prescription because it was too expensive, and one in five say they’ve split pills or otherwise rationed their medications to make them last longer.

Prior authorization delays harm patients' experience and outcomes

Among all the difficulties patients face in accessing care, prior authorization plays a significant role.

These delays are fairly common: 29% of patients who have filled a prescription in the past 12 months say they experienced delays due to prior authorization. That number rises to 36% when patients take two or more prescription medications a day.

The impact of these delays extends beyond inconvenience—13% of patients report that their health actually worsened because of delays caused by prior authorization processes.

This chart shows the top three impacts of prior authorization delays reported by U.S. patients: 48% went without medication for a period of time, 25% paid out-of-pocket to avoid the delay and 24% switched to a different prescription.

This is a critical concern for clinicians: in a previous survey, 87% of pharmacists and 89% of prescribers said that prior authorization requirements negatively impact patient outcomes.

Digital solutions could offer the control and support that patients want

Patients want to take control of their prescribing experience.

They’re increasingly turning to digital solutions, which 78% of patients say believe would be helpful to the average patient. Nearly three in five (59%) are already using apps to manage their medications, and only 17% still rely on manual options, such as paper, fax or phone calls.

This chart shows the methods U.S. patients use to manage their medications: 37% use a pharmacy app, 33% use a health system or healthcare provider portal, 24% rely on a health insurance app, 17% use paper, fax, or phone calls, 15% use an independent discount or price-comparison app, 1% use something else, and 17% do not use any method.

While digital medication management might be common, digital tools for price comparison remain underused or unheard of. Only 51% of patients say they’re familiar with digital price comparison tools. Of this group, frequent usage is low, with only 10% saying they use the tools often.

This chart shows the results of a survey of U.S. patients about their use of digital prescription price comparison tools: 42% have never used these tools, 26% have used them once or twice, 22% use them every once in a while, and 10% use them often.

Despite the low use, there’s significant interest in these tools. Most (77%) said they would be likely to use a digital tool where they could view their prescriptions, compare prescription prices and choose where to fill each prescription.

We wanted to know more about what patients would find valuable in a tool like this. Given what we learned about the harm and frustration stemming from prior authorization, it’s no surprise that the most popular answer was the ability to see if the prescription requires approval from insurance.

This chart presents survey results from U.S. patients about the value of various digital prescription management features. Forty-three percent find it somewhat valuable and 46% very valuable to see if insurance approval is required; 40% somewhat and 47% very valuable to automatically route prescriptions to their preferred pharmacy; 37% somewhat and 49% very valuable to receive refill or renewal notifications; 38% somewhat and 45% very valuable to compare prices across pharmacies; and 45% somewhat and 38…

It’s not just patients who want these tools. Nine out of 10 clinicians (87% of pharmacists and 92% of prescribers) think that having a tool to let patients check prescription prices and availability would help their patient interactions. And patients would appreciate their endorsement: 84% said they’d value getting a recommendation for this tool from their healthcare provider or system.

These digital solutions aren’t just ideas to pursue in the future. Many already exist today and are making a direct impact in patients’ lives:

  • Script Corner™ gives patients personalized pricing and pharmacy options at the point of prescribing, so they can get the right medication at the right price from the pharmacy of their choice.
  • Eligibility helps both prescribers and pharmacists quickly determine a patient’s benefit plan coverage.
  • When prescription changes are needed, the RxChange and CancelRx E-Prescribing transactions make it easy for prescribers and pharmacists to align and get the right prescription to patients.
  • Touchless Prior Authorization matches clinical data with determination criteria at the time of prescribing to reach a clinically appropriate decision as quickly as possible, so patients can start treatment faster.
  • Real-Time Prescription Benefit sends cost and coverage information directly from the prescription benefit plan to prescribers and pharmacists.
  • For patients taking costly and complex specialty medications, Electronic Benefit Verification helps patient assistance programs verify pharmacy benefit coverage and out-of-pocket costs.

As an industry, we’ve made prescribing swift and efficient. The next step: Make patients' prescription experience more transparent and empowering, creating a smoother, faster start to therapy.

By meeting patients where they are—digitally, clinically and financially—we can simplify the medication experience and put meaningful choices directly into patients’ hands.

About the survey

Surescripts partnered with The Harris Poll to conduct an online survey in English and Spanish of 1,007 patients in the U.S. between November 21 and December 1, 2025.

Participant requirements:

  • U.S. resident
  • Aged 18 or older
  • Interacted with the U.S. healthcare system in the last 12 months

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within ± 4.0 percentage points using a 95% confidence level.  This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.

Recommended citation: Surescripts, “Data Brief: Patients Want a More Informed and Empowering Healthcare Experience,” January 2026.

Together, we can bring patients a refreshingly simple & empowering prescription experience

Explore our Patient Experience solutions to see how.

Learn more