Health Insurance Daily

Skipping Prescriptions Costly, Study Says: Employers Might Save By Covering Co-pays

The concept seems logical: Take medications as prescribed and lower your risk for surgeries, amputations and long hospital stays.

But a study paid for by drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) found that one in five Ohioans don't take their medications as recommended, a problem that adds $700 million a year to health-care costs statewide.

"Patients were continuing to be the problem by the lack of compliance," said Dr. David Nash of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and author of the study.

"There are . . . potentially billions of dollars that can be saved in Ohio."

The complete study won't be released until fall, but company officials gave an overview yesterday of the 429,000 Ohio health-insurance claims that were examined. The focus was on people who should take daily medications for chronic conditions such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, asthma and depression.

To read more on how the drugmaker plans to improve compliance and reduce overall health-care costs for employers, click on prescriptions.

posted by Mike @ 11:20 AM