Whether at the individual, provider, or health system level, the barriers standing between people with behavioral health conditions and the treatment they need to live richer, healthier, more independent lives are high and myriad. It’s often difficult not only to procure the medication needed to manage their conditions in the first place but also to regularly take it.
Medication adherence is hard and time-consuming for individuals and their care teams alike. Barriers to medication access and cost notwithstanding, complex drug regimens are often difficult to keep up with. Poor drug compliance costs more than just money—while billions of dollars per year are incurred in additional medical appointments, ER visits, and hospitalizations, over 100,000 lives are lost annually as well1. Hospitalization costs due specifically to antipsychotic nonadherence have been estimated at $1.5 billion annually2.
In short, finding medication adherence solutions is about saving not just money, but lives.
The right tools and strategies to improve medication adherence can lead to fewer hospital and ER visits, lower treatment costs, and better outcomes. Compliance helps individuals stay on top of their conditions, live healthier, and experience a greater sense of independence and dignity in their daily lives.
In this article, we’ll explore why individuals struggle with compliance and how to improve patient compliance with medication.
What holds individuals back from compliance with their medication?
Drug adherence isn’t easy. From rising medication costs that outstrip inflation3 to blind spots in insurance coverage and hefty out-of-pocket costs, individuals in need of medication to manage behavioral health issues have their work cut out for them just getting their hands on the treatment they need in the first place.
Once individuals have the medication they need, there are still significant barriers standing in the way of compliance with medication. Especially for individuals with comorbidities or low health literacy, staying on top of complex drug regimens can be incredibly difficult. Individuals with behavioral health issues can struggle with knowing when and how to take their medication or face challenges related to motivation and executive function.
On top of that, especially in rural areas, individuals without access to reliable transportation can have difficulty getting their prescriptions refilled—leading to gaps in treatment that can cause dangerous health issues.
These barriers can seem insurmountable. Fortunately, there are medication adherence solutions that help individuals and their care providers surmount these barriers together.
How to Improve Medication Adherence for Individuals with Behavioral Health Needs
There are many things pharmacists, doctors, and behavioral health agencies can do to ensure individuals can overcome the barriers that stand between them and their health and well-being. Just one on its own is unlikely to be a “silver bullet,” but the right combination of solutions can make a profound difference in the lives of the people in your care.
Strategies to improve medication adherence include:
Medication Synchronization
Providers can align refill dates for multiple prescriptions, allowing individuals to pick up all of their medications at once and reducing travel time.
Automated Refill Reminders
Pharmacies can send phone, text, or email alerts well in advance of an individual’s prescription running out, giving ample time for refills and preventing gaps between prescription refills.
Collaborative Behavioral Healthcare Models
By integrating the operations of pharmacies, doctors, and health agencies and applying a team-based approach to healthcare, providers can more efficiently and effectively provide personalized, coordinated treatment plans that keep individuals on track with their drug adherence.
Behavioral Health Coaching
Personalized support from health coaches can help individuals improve their health literacy and develop their own strategies to improve medication adherence. Studies have shown consistent improvement in drug adherence and outcomes for individuals with poorly controlled conditions4 as a result of health coaching.
Telehealth and Remote Monitoring
Virtual healthcare appointments make it easier for individuals to ask questions and get timely advice about their medications from their doctors without having to secure transportation or block out large portions of their daily schedule.
Financial Assistance Programs
Subsidies and financial aid programs can help individuals cover out-of-pocket costs for their medication, especially if their insurance does not fully cover their medical needs. Financial medication assistance has been found to help individuals get started with new medications and lower their risks of discontinuation5.
Medication Adherence Tools for Patients
The dilemma of improving medication adherence isn’t just up to the care provider to solve. On the individual’s side of the equation, there are many tools that they can use to stay on track with their treatment regimens and avoid missed or incorrect doses.
These tools include pill organizers, smartphone apps to remind them when to take which medications, or custom blister packaging that organizes diverse medications into individual doses. Every person is different and has their own needs and strategies that will work best; individuals can find the right combination of tools to make taking their medications accurately and on time easier.
Medication Adherence Technology
Today, automation has an especially important role to play in helping individuals take their medications accurately and on time. Automated medication adherence technology takes work off the plates of both individuals and their care providers, reduces the risks of manual errors, and frees up time and effort for care teams to provide more attention to the individuals in their care as human beings with their own unique needs.
Medherent: Supporting Patient Independence and Compliance with Medication
Medherent is Altruix’s premier solution for individual compliance with medication. As an automated, remote medication adherence platform, Medherent is built specifically to help individuals with behavioral health conditions or intellectual and developmental disabilities stay on top of their medication and achieve independence.
Medherent puts a personal medication management assistant right in the middle of an individual’s care team. By facilitating synchronized medication refills and integrating with remote health monitoring tools for more effective telehealth services, Medherent acts as a lynchpin for comprehensive, multi-pronged medication compliance strategies.
The results our clients see when they rely on Medherent to improve compliance with medication speak for themselves. Care teams save 7.6 hours per month, per client on medication administration—hours that can be better spent providing more personalized care attention. Individuals who use Medherent see 90% improvements in their medication adherence, on top of 40% lower hospital and ER costs, 25% fewer ER visits overall, and significant improvements in their health outcomes.
Solving Medication Adherence Challenges with Local Community Pharmacies
Other strategies to improve medication adherence involve further collaboration with local pharmacies. Local pharmacies can provide services that more centralized pharmacies aren’t as able to provide. For example, local pharmacies are more well-equipped to know their customers as people and can more effectively tailor unique medication adherence solutions for them as individuals.
As the healthcare system leaves behind one-size-fits-all care models and moves toward a results-based model that treats patients as individuals first and foremost, local pharmacies have the community ties and operational efficiencies necessary to lead this pivot, making them especially essential to the collaborative behavioral healthcare models that improve compliance with medication and healthcare outcomes.
Partner with Altruix for Superior Medication Adherence Solutions
Altruix is here to help care providers provide better, more attentive healthcare to individuals with behavioral health conditions—individuals who are most in need of support to achieve better health outcomes and live happier, more independent lives.
Through our advanced, high-tech medication adherence solutions, personalized community-based approach to pharmacy care, and extensive experience helping individuals access and afford their medication, we empower your care team to provide seamless, supportive, and best-in-class service to the people who depend on you to live and thrive.
Partner With Us to discover what we can do to help you provide superior, individualized care to the people you serve.
- “Medication Adherence – Taking Your Meds as Directed.” Www.heart.org, www.heart.org/en/health-topics/consumer-healthcare/medication-information/medication-adherence-taking-your-meds-as-directed.
- Semahegn, Agumasie, et al. “Psychotropic Medication Non-Adherence and Its Associated Factors among Patients with Major Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Systematic Reviews, vol. 9, no. 1, 16 Jan. 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6966860/, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-020-1274-3.
- Cubanski, Juliette, and Tricia Neuman. “Prices Increased Faster than Inflation for Half of All Drugs Covered by Medicare in 2020.” KFF, 25 Feb. 2022, www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/prices-increased-faster-than-inflation-for-half-of-all-drugs-covered-by-medicare-in-2020/.
- Dh, Thom, et al. “The Impact of Health Coaching on Medication Adherence in Patients with Poorly Controlled Diabetes, Hypertension, And/or Hyperlipidemia: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM, 1 Jan. 2015, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25567821/.
- Hung, Anna, et al. “Impact of Financial Medication Assistance on Medication Adherence: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, vol. 27, no. 7, July 2021, pp. 924–935, https://doi.org/10.18553/jmcp.2021.27.7.924.
