Medication non-compliance directly accounts for $100 billion in health care costs and $50 billion in lost productivity in the U.S. each year. While adherence with chronic medications is estimated at around fifty percent, 20 percent of all prescriptions go unfilled and 70 percent of those that are filled go unconsumed.
Because so much is at stake, it is in the best interest of everyone — meaning the patient, physician, pharmacy, health plan, pharmaceutical company, and employer — to have a concerted, coordinated effort toward achieving perfect optimal medication compliance. We need to identify the challenges and barriers that are preventing individuals with complying with treatment, help them break down those personal barriers, and motivate them to comply with treatment.
Outcome data from HealthMedia® Care™ for Your Health (CFYH), a web-based chronic illness self-management program with more than 20,000 users to date, proves that an online behavior change intervention can improve medication adherence while reducing health care costs and productivity impairment.
Until now, primary adherence efforts have typically come in the forms of educational materials, pill containers, refill reminder systems, coupons, and rebates, which can all be useful. But take it a step further and ask a patient about her unique adherence barriers — things like cost, is she forgetful?, does she take more than one prescription medication?, is she often pressed for time?, etc., — and offer her personally tailored solutions to overcome those barriers, and compliance rates soar. Using proven behavioral science methods, the CFYH program does just this. It considers a person’s motivation and self-efficacy, medication routine, daily routine, and ability to manage time, and then crafts a personalized plan for self-management. Medication adherence is integrated as a core component of the comprehensive program.
“The power of behavior science and tailoring — combined with advanced technology — is a beautiful thing. We can take complex factors like a person’s level of motivation and their current daily routine and give patients simple solutions to their complex health issues, including medication adherence,” said Kevin Wildenhaus, Ph.D., Director of Behavior Science at HealthMedia, Inc. “Here is just one example. Many CFYH participants tell us they are motivated by the desire to live a long and healthy life. This is why many of them report faithfully taking a daily vitamin. Yet, they admit they aren’t so good at always taking the prescription medication that treats their illness. In this program, we simply point out the discrepancy between their motivation and their non-adherence — a concept we call cognitive dissonance. We then suggest they put their medication next to their vitamin and take them together — problem solved.”
Through its science-based tailoring technology, Care for Your Health achieved a 92 percent increase in the number of participants who are always compliant with their medication, and 61 percent of those who were not fully adherent at baseline became so at 30 days. Participants who were non-adherent at baseline had a 1-point gain in Motivation to take their Rx in 30 days and a .8 gain in Confidence.
Other CFYH outcomes that further highlight the program’s success with helping participants with medication adherence include:
According to Kevin J. Wildenhaus, Ph.D., Director of Behavior Science at HealthMedia, to achieve desired outcomes, an effective program must focus on nine key areas: