The New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI) recently completed a study finding that patients who do not take their medications as prescribed by their doctors cost the country’s health care system $290 billion per year.
NEHI conducted the study “Thinking Outside the Pillbox: A System-wide Approach to Improving Patient Medication Adherence for Chronic Disease,” which found that the billions of lost dollars come in the form of unnecessary hospitalizations and increased medical risks for the one-third to one-half of all patients who do not take their medications properly. The NEHI study also noted that creating “health care teams,” which would include home health workers among other health care professionals, is one of a few solutions to improving medication adherence.
Click here to read the Alliance’s Press Release on the NEHI study.
Other solutions addressed in the NEHI study included patient engagement and education, payment reform where positive outcomes would be rewarded, and leveraging health information technologies like electronic health records.
To find out more about the study, visit http://www.nehi.net/.
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