What You Should Know: 

– CipherHealth, a leader in patient engagement technology, announced a new Medication Affordability & Adherence Program that aims to increase access to life-saving medications and improve medication adherence for patients by addressing a major barrier: cost.

– With this latest program, CipherHealth continues to pave the way in digital healthcare by including access to medication affordability options as a seamless part of outreach to patients.

The High Cost of Non-Adherence

When patients skip medications due to affordability concerns, the consequences can be severe. A staggering 67% of patients cite cost as a reason for not filling prescriptions. This non-adherence is estimated to cause at least 100,000 preventable deaths and $100 billion in avoidable medical costs annually.

CipherHealth Partnerships with Health Systems

CipherHealth recognizes the critical role medication affordability plays in patient health.  Partnering with leading healthcare systems like Community Health Network and Prisma Health, CipherHealth is stepping up to address this challenge.

How the Medication Affordability & Adherence Program Works

The Medication Affordability & Adherence Program is seamlessly integrated with CipherHealth’s existing outreach platform, CipherOutreach. Following a healthcare event, patients can be offered the program. 

Here’s how it works:

• Personalized Savings: Patients receive SMS messages with personalized medication savings options based on their specific needs – prescribed medications, insurance coverage, and preferred pharmacy.
• Convenience: The program connects patients with savings programs across over 70,000 pharmacies nationwide.
• Easy Utilization: Patients simply show the pharmacist instructions provided by CipherHealth to access the savings at checkout.

“Prescription drug prices in the US are higher than in any other industrialized nation in the world. Many patients, despite having health insurance, are still unable to afford their medications,” said CipherHealth Chief Executive Officer Jake Pyles. “With this new program, CipherHealth is able to help reduce these medical costs and give patients the medication they need at a price they can afford.”

A new BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) survey conducted by HIMSS Analytics®, 2017 Medication Management and Safety Survey, found more than 75 percent of physicians, nurses and pharmacists surveyed described the medication management process as “flawed,” “fragmented,” “disjointed” and “primitive.” 

The survey of 153 physicians, nurses and pharmacists, and 1,131 patients and their family members sheds light on the current state of patient safety, patient perceptions toward medication management and, perhaps most importantly, healthcare professionals’ thoughts on potential solutions to help the healthcare industry move toward the elimination of errors.

While healthcare organizations have made progress with various technologies in recent years, they have a long road ahead to eliminate harmful medication errors altogether.The greatest vulnerability in the medication management process exists in care transitions, according to the survey results. Indeed, 32 percent of clinicians cited care transitions as the area of greatest concern, while 24 percent pointed to the patient bedside, and 15 percent had concerns with the medication management process while in the pharmacy. 

Additional results revealed:

– Nearly half of healthcare professionals surveyed cited better integration with electronic health records as an opportunity for improvement

– More than 70 percent of organizations surveyed see the value in moving to a single vendor for medication management

– Over a quarter of clinicians polled stated that data from medication management devices do not integrate well with EHRs at their facilities

– 56 percent of healthcare professionals surveyed indicated that their medication management process fails to capture 20 percent or more of medication errors

– Nearly 40 percent of the patients and families who participated in the survey feel more protected than ever before.

– More than 96 percent of patients and family members trust that their medications will be administered according to the five rights (right patient, drug, dose, route and time), with a full 60 percent of respondents reporting supreme confidence.

–  23 percent of patients reported that they have experienced a medication error. And, one in five of these patients suffered from “severe repercussions.” In addition, 38 percent of respondents reported that they know someone who has experienced a medication error ― and of those, 35 percent experienced a prolonged length of stay; 23 percent, severe repercussions; and 7 percent, death.

–  90 percent of medication errors through their medication management processes point to closed-loop medication tools as the primary cause of their success (63 percent), followed by attention from leadership (55 percent), ongoing training (47 percent) and seamless integration with the EHR (32 percent).

“BD is partnering with IT industry leaders and collaborating with customers to help address these evolving medication management challenges,” said Ranjeet Banerjee, worldwide president of Medication Management Solutions for BD. “By leveraging these partnerships, we will improve interoperability across the medication management process, enhance cybersecurity and develop advanced analytics to drive sustained customer outcomes.”

Report Background/Methodology

The professional online survey was administered to 153 physicians, nurses and pharmacists between May 23 and June 23, 2017. In addition, in-depth interviews with 20 of these professionals were conducted between June 16 and June 28, 2017. The patient and family online survey was administered between June 19 and June 23, 2017, and included 1,131 individuals who had a loved one admitted to the hospital within the previous 12 months.

Medisafe, the leading personalized medication management platform with almost three and a half million patient and caregiver registered users announced that it has raised $14.5 million in Series B funding from Octopus Ventures and M Ventures. Other investors participating from previous rounds include Pitango Venture Capital, 7wire ventures, lool Ventures, TriVentures, Qualcomm Ventures and Eyal Gura. The company plans to use the funding to increase sales, marketing and engineering staff and open European office.

Medisafe recently announced a new feature on the app that alerts users of any drug-to-drug interactions (DDIs) that may cause unexpected side effects and/or alter the way the medications perform. The new interactions feature also includes disclosures when medications have other lifestyle implications, such as interactions with specific foods or alcohol. Medisafe’s new drug interaction feature is initially available for iOS users.

MediSafe’s mobile-first approach involves creating personalized interventions to the major causes of non-adherence – forgetfulness, lack of support, emotional distress, information overload, low engagement, and rising medication costs. Through its platform, the company is enabling tighter care coordination between patients, caregivers or “MedFriends,” physicians, and other providers. 

The MediSafe platform now includes web and SMS sync via branded solutions with pharmaceutical companies, HMOs, pharmacies, electronic medical/health records companies (EMR, EHR) and more. MediSafe also aggregates anonymous patient behavior data for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, serving as a bridge between patients and health providers, improving health outcomes while benefiting all stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem.

“We are excited to welcome Octopus Ventures and M Ventures who believe in and support our mission of improving people’s health, while producing measurable outcomes for our partners across the healthcare continuum, from pharma companies, to insurers and providers. We will use the new capital to hire the best talent, enhance the platform’s capabilities, and achieve our ambitious expansion goals globally,” said Omri Shor, CEO and co-founder of Medisafe.

To date, Medisafe has recorded over 500 million successful medication doses on their iOS and Android smartphones and tablets and contributed 140,000 user reviews that average 4.5 out of 5 stars in the App Store and Google Play app stores.

Surescripts’ Medication Management for Adherence solution provides closed-loop feedback and collaboration between care providers and payers, and is optimized in their EHR workflow for the physician to use during the patient visit. The solution intelligently manages adherence messages by discarding expired content or messages that have been resolved, so care providers see only relevant content that requires their attention.

“Medication non-adherence takes a huge toll on the patient’s wellbeing, as well as the cost of care. But physicians can only address the issue if they are armed with the correct information when it matters most–during the patient’s visit,” said Tom Skelton, Chief Executive Officer of Surescripts. “Our network’s unrivaled connectivity revolutionizes the use of valuable insights from payers, combined with innovative EHR technologies that enhance patient outcomes, giving physicians a digital snapshot of whether or not their patients are adhering to their medication, so that they can intervene when needed.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls medication non-adherence a national epidemic, costing the nation’s healthcare system $300 billion annually. Fifty percent of patients never take their medication as prescribed,2 which can negatively impact health outcomes and increase healthcare costs.

“Medication adherence is vital to helping providers improve patient care, especially those with chronic conditions. The direct integration of Surescripts’ Medication Management within the MedConnect product suite ensures providers can easily access this information,” explained Jimmy Chapman, President and CEO of MedConnect. “Our company is honored to be among the early adopters to connect with Surescripts to integrate this valuable service, and physician feedback has already been overwhelmingly positive.”

Walgreens mobile pill reminder feature and its activity tracking digital health solutions has improved medication adherence among pharmacy patients, according to two recent company studies. Recent Walgreens research has shown that consumers over 50 years of age who track activities through its Balance® Rewards for healthy choices (BRhc) program, which awards loyalty points for healthy behaviors and activities, are more adherent to their medication therapies. A separate Walgreens study found that the pill reminder feature within the Walgreens mobile app is also demonstrating better optimal adherence[1] among users. 

Balance Rewards for healthy choices and patients over 50 Study

The Walgreens retrospective cohort study examined patients who filled an antihypertensive, oral antidiabetic or antihyperlipidemic medication among those 50 years old or greater, between March and October 2014. The findings concluded that tracking physical activity four or more times per week were 11.2 percent higher for antihypertensives, 5.1 percent higher for oral antidiabetics and 4.5 percent higher for antihyperlipidemics. 

[2] In addition, tracking blood pressure twice or more per week or tracking blood glucose once or more per week was associated with significantly better optimal adherence: 6.8 percent higher for patients taking antihypertensives and 12.3 percent higher for oral antidiabetics.

Mobile Pill Reminder Research Findings

For the mobile pill reminder feature, the Walgreens study took a group comprised of patients who used the pill reminder and had oral antidiabetic, antihypertensive or antihyperlipidemic medications between an index period of January 2014 and September 2014 and compared to a control group comprised of those who did not use the pill reminder.

The research found that utilization of the Walgreens mobile app pill reminder was 12.3 percent higher for oral antidiabetics, 11.3 percent higher for antihypertensives and 9.1 percent higher for antihyperlipidemics.

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