How to improve outcomes with disease therapy management

(photo credit: renjith krishnan)

Medication non-adherence brings staggering costs. According to a study from the New England Healthcare Institute, one-third of all patients don’t take their medication as prescribed. This non-adherence results in $290 billion of additional medical costs each year, of which $100 billion is medication-related hospitalizations.

People have many reasons for non-adherence—they either forget to take the medication or forget to refill the prescription, don’t think they need it, or feel it’s too expensive. To further compound the problem, often people think they are taking a drug properly when, in fact, they’re not. NEHI research reveals that one-third to one-half of all patients don’t take their medication properly.