Last week, commuting to work on the DC Metro, I stumbled across a New York Times article talking about how some health care groups are paying patients to take their medications in an effort to improve adherence.
For years, people have been talking about medication adherence or the lack thereof and of course we hear the often repeated billion dollar number to characterize the costs associated with avoidable hospitalizations or lost productivity at work. While we might be becoming immune to the billion and trillion dollar figures increasingly found everywhere, there are still a few simple numbers that continue to stand out when it comes to treatment compliance:
- As many as half of all patients do not take their medications as prescribed.
- Upwards of 25% of patients never fill their prescriptions at all.
- Even for those patients who have health insurance and no treatment co-pays, non-adherence rates for almost 40%.
- Many doctors have too many patients and too little time – the average office visit lasts just fifteen minutes. (more…)
