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A newly released study; Doucette, M.L., Hemraj, D., Macfarlan, D.L. et al. The Cost Effectiveness of Adjunctive Medical Cannabis Therapy in the Treatment of Moderate Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Clin Drug Investig (2025) suggests that Medical cannabis products, particularly non-flower formulations, represent a cost-effective adjunctive therapy for moderate PTSD under various reimbursement scenarios. This analysis underscores the importance of evidence-based reimbursement policies to improve patient access to cost-effective treatments while ensuring financial sustainability for payors.
The new study says of non-flower products, findings suggest policymakers may want to “prioritize reimbursement policies that that support these cost-effective options while recognizing the limited cost effectiveness of dried flower under certain conditions.”
“This study finds the dried flower is likely less cost effective compared to other medical cannabis products,” it says. “While medical patients may have preferences towards using dried flower, from a payor perspective, it may not make sense to reimburse for all types of medical cannabis products. Evidence here, combined with existing body of literature examining the impact of smoke inhalation on lungs, suggests payors may reduce some of the negative harms and promote some of the positive benefits from medical cannabis through strategic reimbursement strategies that are cost effective, largely safe, and likely efficacious.”
This compliments a finding from last month in a study that concluded that state-level medical marijuana legalization appeared to significantly reduce health insurance costs. In states with legal medical cannabis, companies paid 3.4 percent less for health insurance premiums compared to where marijuana remained illegal—a savings of about $238 per employee per year.
Per the various findings if all states were to implement medical cannabis programs, that study said, the country could save an estimated $29 billion in health insurance costs annually.
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