Boosting quality, patient adherence while cutting costs with medication management devices

Medication non-adherence, particularly among senior patients, is a costly problem facing the American healthcare system. This issue results in an estimated $100 billion–$290 billion in annual costs, according to studies reviewed in the Annals of Internal Medicine (AIM). Other research cited by AIM indicates that 20%–30% of prescribed medications go unfilled by patients and approximately 50% of medications for chronic diseases aren’t used by patients as prescribed.

The latter statistic is striking, considering that older patients often suffer debilitating and costly effects of multiple chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and COPD. Additional studies reviewed by AIM estimate that medication non-adherence is responsible for nearly 125,000 deaths annually in the U.S.

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