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Medication adherence programs can improve patient care and lower healthcare costs by more effectively managing chronic medication utilization. Beyond increasing risk of death, poor medication adherence is tied to as much as $290 billion annually in increased medical costs and responsible for 33 to 69 percent of all medication-related hospital admissions in the United States, at a cost of about $100 billion per year.

The recently enacted landmark healthcare reform bill contains important provisions related to medication adherence, including a series of grant and pilot programs in medication therapy management (MTM).

2010 Benchmarks in Improving Medication Adherence provides actionable information from 107 healthcare organizations on their efforts to improve medication adherence and compliance in their populations and the impact that medication therapy management programs are having on adherence levels, medication costs, ER visits, hospital and nursing home admissions, risk of death and other areas of concern.

Download the executive summary of 2010 Benchmarks in Improving Medication Adherence.

This 50-page resource provides metrics and measures on current and planned medication adherence programs as well as program elements, lessons learned, challenges and benefits and early returns from successful medication adherence initiatives.

This exclusive report analyzes the responses of 107 healthcare organizations to HIN's January 2010 Industry Survey on Medication Adherence, presenting the data in more than 40 easy-to-follow graphs and tables.

This report provides expanded data by overall respondents as well as health plan- and hospital-only views on:

• Current and planned medication adherence programs;
• Populations and conditions targeted by medication adherence efforts;
• The top strategies to improve medication adherence, including metrics on the use of financial incentives, medication packaging, pharmacist counseling and patient aids;
• Inclusion of the pharmacist on medication adherence program team;
• Trends in reimbursement for efforts related to medication adherence, including patient education and medication reconciliation/review;
• Technologies and data sharing utilized by medication management programs;
• The top five tools to assess and monitor medication adherence;
• Availability of medication adherence programs in the primary care office, at hospital discharge, during home visits and other points of care;
• Statistics on health professional contact with patients for the purposes of improving medication adherence (by PCP, nurse practitioner, pharmacist, health coach, and case manager);
• The impact of medication adherence programs on patient compliance with care plans, ER visits, hospital and nursing home admissions, adverse drug events, member/patient satisfaction and ROI and other metrics;
• The complete January 2010 Medication Adherence survey tool;

Half of the 1.8 billion prescriptions dispensed annually in the United States are taken incorrectly by the patient, according to the World Health Organization. Organizations seeking to avoid the adverse clinical and economic consequences associated with inappropriate use of medications and capitalize on legislative and payors' incentives for improved medication compliance will benefit from a review of these performance and utilization metrics to evaluate, plan and retool medication adherence programs.

This industry snapshot is enhanced with commentary from healthcare organizations like Geisinger Health Plan, Kaiser Permanente and CIGNA Pharmacy Management, whose efforts to improve medication adherence at various points of care have paid off in reduced hospital and nursing home admissions and improved compliance with care plans.