Moving the needle on medication adherence with tech and touch | Viewpoint

Creating value-based care (VBC) initiatives that effectively improve patient outcomes is essential in today’s healthcare landscape.

Weston Blakeslee

As the industry shifts toward outcome-focused models, VBC programs that genuinely address the needs of both patients and healthcare providers require more than a one-size-fits-all approach; they demand tailored solutions that fit unique clinical workflows and patient behaviors.

One accessible and impactful way to support VBC is by focusing on medication adherence, a proven strategy to reduce costly readmissions and improve chronic disease management.

Improving adherence requires a careful balance of technology and human connection—especially for patients managing chronic conditions. While advanced technology and data analytics can help identify patients at risk of non-adherence, it is often the human touch that builds trust, keeps patients engaged, and ensures they stay on track with their care plans.

Together, these elements form a “tech-plus-touch” approach, an effective strategy for healthcare providers to monitor adherence and intervene early, ultimately preventing avoidable hospitalizations.

Focusing on medication adherence as a starting point for VBC programs offers a direct path to quick, measurable results. Adherence challenges—whether cost, access, or health literacy—provide clear opportunities for targeted interventions that address patients’ real needs.

Technology identifies and engages high-risk patients

So, how can healthcare providers support patients before they fall off their treatment plans? The first step is to identify those at risk for non-adherence. But collecting prescription fill data isn’t always easy.

Insights from medication history data are crucial for care managers to act before a missed prescription escalates into a health crisis. Rather than traditional sources that often deliver unstructured and outdated data, VBC demands accurate and timely information that integrates seamlessly with electronic health record (EHR) systems, offering up-to-date, actionable medication history that highlights high-risk patients in need of intervention. Access to this information allows care managers to proactively support these patients, reducing the time spent verifying prescription fills across providers and pharmacies.

Automated patient notifications are another component of a tech-driven adherence strategy. By sending messages directly to patients’ mobile devices, reminding them to pick up prescriptions, providing educational materials on their medications, and even including cost-saving options, healthcare providers can reduce the likelihood of prescription abandonment, a major barrier to adherence, especially for high-cost medications.

Combined with periodic follow-ups from telehealth visits or calls, these reminders keep patients engaged and accountable for their medication regimens.

Caregivers add a personal touch

Some health systems have improved adherence by combining human outreach with the latest technology.

To help patients with congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) manage their medications after leaving the hospital, the University of Maryland Medical Center launched a program to improve adherence by combining human outreach with the latest technology.

As part of a mobile integrated health-community paramedicine program, trained paramedics visited patients at home 24 to 72 hours after discharge, checking vital signs, conducting physical exams, and identifying any challenges, like fall risks or medication concerns. A pharmacy technician would then step in to assess barriers to medication use—whether it was trouble reading labels, difficulty opening bottles, or the cost of co-pays.

From there, the patient was connected with a pharmacist via telehealth to tackle any issues head-on. Together, they would come up with a plan to ensure the patient stayed on track and avoided medication-related problems. This was all made possible by the team’s access to real-time medication history data through the electronic health record system.

By seeing exactly when prescriptions were filled, the care team, including the patient’s physician, could quickly intervene. For example, if a patient couldn’t afford a prescription, the pharmacist could suggest a more affordable generic alternative, or if transportation was a problem, they would arrange for delivery from a local pharmacy.

The results were impressive. Within the first 30 days, the program increased first-fill prescription rates by almost 20% for heart failure patients and 25% for COPD patients. Over 60 days, adherence rates climbed by an additional 8% to 14%.

In Mississippi, Magnolia Regional Health Center created a nurse navigator program that provided counseling to heart failure patients and their families at discharge and between clinic visits. The program focused on adherence to evidence-based guideline-directed medical therapies, which are essential for preventing complications after hospitalization but often come with high out-of-pocket costs.

Three days after discharge, a nurse navigator called the patient to review their medication regimen, identify their risk of non-adherence, and address barriers to compliance. Another phone call one to two months later repeated the process, with the nurse navigator coordinating with the physician as necessary.

By combining access to real-time prescription data with compassionate care, Magnolia Regional improved the rate at which patients fill and take their critical medications, helping to keep patients with congestive heart failure out of the hospital and on the road to better health.

The path forward: Tech-plus-touch for quality care

Programs like these that focus on patients with chronic conditions are crucial because non-adherence can lead to poor outcomes, unnecessary hospitalizations, and, in extreme cases, even death.

The numbers are alarming: One in four new prescriptions is abandoned at the pharmacy, and half of patients with chronic conditions stop taking their medications within a year. This contributes to an estimated 125,000 preventable deaths annually in the United States. It also puts a financial strain on health systems, with one in four hospital readmissions related to poor medication adherence.

Medication adherence is a complex issue, but a tech-plus-touch approach offers a promising solution. By combining clinically actionable data with personal care, health systems can better engage patients, address barriers to adherence, and improve overall outcomes.

As more hospitals adopt this approach, they’ll be better equipped to move the needle on adherence, meet performance benchmarks, and make a lasting difference in their patients’ lives.

Weston Blakeslee, Ph.D., is vice president of clinical data strategies at DrFirst.