We all forget our medications from time to time.
It doesn't seem like a big deal to stop taking our pills once we feel better, but, unfortunately, it is. Studies show that the total annual health care costs in the United States resulting from medication noncompliance range from $177 billion to $300 billion.
When patients don't take pills as prescribed, they don't become well, become more ill, or in some cases, they die. It makes the cost of medication noncompliance astronomical.
Sadly, many of these costs can be prevented by taking medications correctly.
How Did This Happen?
In 2007 there were more than 10,000 prescription drugs and biologics on the U.S. market, and more than 300,000 over-the-counter medications.
In fact, 27 percent of the population takes at least five medications a week. All of these medications have led to huge compliance problems.
The Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive poll reports, one out of three adults take a prescription drug on a regular basis, and they do not follow their doctor-recommended course of treatment. It also is reported that two-thirds of adults simply forget to take their medication.
Conventional medication reminders also are part of the blame because they are not very effective. Pill boxes feel unwieldy, and alarm watches and pill-dispensers can seem colossal and indiscreet.
Most traditional medication reminders have significant shortcomings; they don't continue along with the entire prescription or offer refill reminders. Most reminders only support the tablet form of medications, not asthma inhalers, eye drops etc.
Your employees are active. The medication reminders needed today should fit in naturally with their lifestyles, just as the coffee machine in your office does at 2 p.m.
Reminders Take on a New Precedence in Employee Health
As health care costs escalate, employers are switching their focus to the financial benefits of medication compliance.
A 2009 study by the Benfield group discovered 95 percent of employers were taking some sort of action to address compliance.
More attention is centered on sophisticated interventions for individuals that do not adhere to their prescribed treatments. Many employers are focusing on educational and supportive resources. Although wellness programs are one way to reduce health care costs, adoption rates can be slow.
How Do We Fix This?
Enter the omnipresent cell phone.
Nearly 82 percent of Americans own a cell phone, and it's generally always within grasp.
Why wouldn't it be an ideal device to receive electronic reminders?
Employees can use their cell phone reminders to take a medication, check blood sugar, or go to an appointment. Studies show that medication management has progressed and health care costs have decreased with mobile medication reminders.
The 2003 Division of Medical Services reported the average monthly Medicaid costs for diabetic patients with reminders was $949 compared to $1,233 without reminders.
According to the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, pediatric liver transplant recipients had a 69 percent medication compliance rate with SMS reminders versus 48 percent compliance rate without SMS reminders.
Smart phones also are one of the most promising solutions to improve employee health care costs.
Employees can use smart phones to browse the Web, receive medication reminders, monitor their biometrics, receive wellness tips, join in on exercise challenges, and have their personal health record in the palm of their hand.
Since the introduction of the Apple iPhone in 2007, smart phone adoption rates have exploded.
According to a report by Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley, 74 percent of the population will have a smart phone by 2014. This means more and more employees will have more control over their own health and your company's health care costs can be retained.
Selecting a Medication Reminder Service
When it comes to selecting a medication reminder service to offer employees, you want to consider flexibility, security, support, and accessibility.
Flexibility is an essential feature because everyone has a unique medication schedule.
The service should be able to support all different types of medications, like oral, patch, injection, supplements and more. It also should support medications taken at different times, changes in the time zone, and the ability to add special instructions (such as how to take it, where it's stored, etc.).
Does the service take security seriously?
This is a crucial feature to evaluate when dealing with employee health information. It should offer password protection, care communities with different administration and privilege levels controlled by the main user, tier 1 data hosting, audit trails, inactivity time-out, and HTTPS transmissions. These steps indicate a company is invested in protecting your employees’ health information.
Is it easy for you employees to access customer support when needed?
No matter how simple a service, at some point everyone will have a question. Whether help is online, by phone, or by e-mail, make sure it's easy to find an answer. If secured account sharing is available for tricky support questions, even better.
Another factor to consider is the accessibility of the service. Whether it's a text messaging service or a mobile application, the service needs to work on the phones that the majority of your employees use.
A medication reminder service offered for iPhones only has a limited market potential. The service should be available from any browser "in the cloud" to support employees at home, at work, or on the go.
If you come across a service that goes the extra mile and provides more than just medication reminders, it's probably a wise investment for your company's health.
Finding a service that offers features like a personal health record, report sharing, event reminders, a wallet list, prescription refill reminders, medical history, or wellness and biometric monitoring, is great because it meets more of your employees' needs.
Improving employee health, improves overall company health.
About the author
Pamela Swingley, is CEO and founder of RememberItNow! She designed RememberItNow! to help her father and millions of others who take multiple medications, take control of their health. Prior to founding RememberItNow! Pam worked as a marketing executive for several B2B software companies including, ADP, Siebel Systems, ClearBenefits, Gate58 Marketing, and OnLink Technologies.