Programs Try Cash Incentives To Get Forgetful Patients To Take Meds
The New York Times reports on a new approach to getting patients to take their medications consistently: financial incentives.
"One-third to one-half of all patients do not take medication as prescribed, and up to one-quarter never fill prescriptions at all, experts say. Such lapses fuel more than $100 billion dollars in health costs annually because those patients often get sicker. Now, a controversial, and seemingly counterintuitive, effort to tackle the problem is gaining ground: paying people money to take medicine or to comply with prescribed treatment."
One program in Philadelphia offers patients taking warfarin, "an anti-blood-clot medication," the opportunity to "win $10 or $100 each day they take the drug. ... Skeptics question if payments can be coercive or harm doctor-patient relationships." Health insurer Aetna, however, "helped pay for part of the Philadelphia experiment," and has also "begun paying doctors bonuses for prescribing medication likely to prevent problems: beta blockers to prevent heart attacks, statins for diabetes sufferers" (Belluck, 6/13).
This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org.
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