Insurers Try Incentives to Improve Medication Adherence

HealthLeaders Media
September 14, 2010

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down," Julie Andrews sang in the Disney classic Mary Poppins. It is an immortal lyric that was meant as a lesson for children, but it contains an implicit truth about healthcare: Taking medicine is often hard, and sometimes an extra incentive makes it a little easier.

For the millions of adults who don't regularly take their medicine as prescribed by their doctors, insurers and others in the healthcare industry are trying to figure out what incentives may improve medication adherence and, in the long run, improve quality and reduce costs...

The overall cost of poor adherence, measured in otherwise avoidable medical spending, may account for as much as $290 billion per year, or 13% of total healthcare expenditures, according to an estimate from the New England Healthcare Institute.

Link to Full Article: http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/MAG-256306/Insurers-Try-Incentive…