DrFirst’s real-time solutions for Medication Adherence help patients become more informed, engaged, and efficient stewards of their own health.
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Improve Patient Adherence to Medication
Helping Patients Take Medication as Directed
Though new medications and better treatments are constantly entering the market to provide better results for patients, prescription abandonment continues to prevent patients from getting the medicine they need. In fact, a recent report showed that over 20% of branded drugs fail to get filled by patients.
The main reasons patients fail to fill their prescription often comes down to three main causes: education, cost, and procrastination.
This is where DrFirst comes in. Our innovative medication adherence tool keeps patients educated, with key medication information delivered straight to patient’s phones the moment after a prescription is written. It keeps them aware of cost, with money-saving resources such as coupons. And it allows patients to schedule pharmacy pickup, helping to do away with procrastination.
With these resources at their fingertips, patients feel more informed and empowered about their medication options, and are therefore more likely to fill their prescriptions.
Medication Adherence Solutions
DrFirst solutions works to promote Medication Adherence by delivering the right information to the right patient at the right time, seamlessly.
I worry about my patients sticking to their treatment plans. When they don’t pick up their medications or take them as prescribed, I worry about their health and the health of my bottom line.
Prescription abandonment costs pharmacies about $10 each in related costs. Even at half that $10-per-prescription rate, abandoned drugs are costing the nation’s pharmacies more than a half billion dollars a year. This is in addition to the potential loss of front of store sales!
And when patients don’t adhere to their treatment plans, the impact can be catastrophic: it contributes to 125,000 deaths, 10 percent of hospitalizations and between $100–$289 billion a year!
Patients typically abandon their medications and treatment plans due to three reasons:
- They can’t afford the therapy
- They don’t understand why they need to take a drug
- They simply forget to pick up their prescription
Prescription reminders from DrFirst have been proven to reduce abandonment by 11% by addressing each of the reasons for abandonment and non-adherence. Using the immediacy of secure messaging, reminders engage patients to pick up their prescriptions through:
- A scheduling option that encourages them to pick up their prescription
- Visibility into the cost of their prescription before arriving at your pharmacy so they can talk with their doctor to make sure they get the most effective treatment at a price they can afford
- Educational material to help them understand their course of treatment
If patients don’t stick to their treatment plan, the health consequences can be dire.
Recent studies show that 3.8 billion prescriptions are written annually, but 25% of new prescriptions are never filled and as much as 50% of medications are not taken as prescribed. The toll on patient health is mind boggling – 30 to 50 percent of chronic disease treatment failures and 125,000 deaths per year in this country.
Whether it’s a first fill or a refill, prescription abandonment is a major barrier to reaching health goals and controlling costs overall.
When scripts go unfilled, providers can’t track a patient’s medication progress which can lead to
- Costlier care
- Increased healthcare service utilization
- Poor outcomes
- Lower provider reimbursement
But when patients understand why they need to take a medication, how they can get help to pay for it, and get reminders to schedule their prescription pick up, they are more likely to continue to follow their course of treatment.
This is where DrFirst comes in.
Moments after a doctor prescribes a medication, the patient receives a message on their phone that includes helpful information about their new drug including:
- Educational materials about the prescribed medication
- Cost-saving resources including coupons
- Pick-up scheduler to expedite pharmacy visits
With these resources at their fingertips, patients feel more engaged, informed and empowered about their medication options, and therefore more likely to fill their prescriptions.
How do we make providers and patients aware of our coupons and discount cards to help keep their costs down?
Nothing is worse for patients than getting blindsided by sticker shock at the pharmacy. They may not take their medication as prescribed to try to stretch the quantity or may abandon their course of treatment altogether. And the pharmacist will be forced to restock the drug.
Any way you look at it, the scenario is a lose-lose for your drug, for the pharmacy, and for the patient. To help patients start—and follow—treatment plans, both providers and patients need to know the cost of the drug while it’s being prescribed. They also need to be aware of any copay or discount cards you offer to help defray costs.
Through price transparency and alerts, DrFirst builds the awareness of your financial options that you need to influence patient health, reduce prescription abandonment, and grow your brands.
We need to keep patients engaged with solutions that deliver meaningful information directly to them, to drive better adherence and outcomes.
According to an FDA study, 25% of new prescriptions are never filled. 24% of hospital readmissions are related to non-adherence. The major causes of inaction are financial, clinical, and behavioral in nature. Besides forgetting to take medications or not understanding why or how to take them, many patients fail to adhere to following their care plans because they can’t afford their medications.
DrFirst’s adherence solution is proven to increase first-fill rates by engaging patients minutes after their new prescriptions are sent to the pharmacy by tackling the major causes of abandonment:
- Reducing financial barriers – offering copay assistance for brand or generic drugs
- Addressing clinical concerns – delivering relevant educational videos and information
- Minimizing procrastination – providing the ability to schedule the prescription pickup
We need to dramatically reduce unnecessary PAs—and expedite the ones that are required—to help providers accelerate care.
According to a 2019 study by the American Medical Association, more than two thirds of physicians reported difficulty determining if a medical service or prescription required a PA. Because PAs can consume 14.9 hours/week of staff time, eliminating unnecessary PAs is vital to all stakeholders.
CareComplete offers a quick code lookup that automates the verification process at the point of care. If a submission is required, EMR-populated electronic PAs eliminate portal logins and reliance on faxes., Submission status updates are delivered to the workstream.
Our real-time response eases the PA burden, enables providers to file quickly or delegate, and dramatically reduces call center activity. And your members get timely care with price and location.