Medication Adherence: A Positive Story You Are Not Hearing

20 Nov 2013

Pharmaceutical companies are spending more to help patients adhere to their therapeutic regimens – an almost universally recognized way to improve health outcomes and pharma’s bottom line. But an unclear legal and regulatory climate and poor understanding of the adherence problems it is trying to solve means industry isn’t trumpeting what could be one of its best health care value arguments.

It appears that taking your medicine is actually good for you – and probably good for overall health care costs as well. The Congressional Budget Office will now score savings from so-called medication adherence programs. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has incorporated medication adherence as a quality metric in the Medicare Advantage star rating program. And the pharmaceutical industry believes in the power of medication adherence programs, with a recent report showing that companies are spending more money in this area.

For an industry searching for positive stories to tell – especially in terms of the role it is playing in...