Employer as Big Brother
WellPoint nurses and case managers pore over patient records and claims histories to see whether patients are following doctors’ orders…
Express Scripts this summer plans to roll out a program…to identify and intervene with patients less likely to take their prescriptions correctly…
Patients identified as likely to be noncompliant then receive tailored interventions to help overcome their specific hurdle. Some patients will receive over-the-phone pharmacist consultations and help signing up for auto-refills and other programs that simplify adherence.
More on the approach from health care players to improve health care quality and costs in the WSJ.
If people don’t like this, maybe they should shun employers offering company health plans and buy their own insurance.
Would we would all be in better health if only we took their medications as prescribed? I doubt it. The high rate of undiagnosed chronic illness and medication non-adherence sounds like the tip of a public health iceberg. But corralling everyone and forcing them to take their meds won’t necessarily change health status. Prevention would make a difference, however. But that would require eating right, watching our weight and hitting the gym once in a while.
This takes company wellness initiatives to a whole new level!
And if one buys one’s own insurance and the company proceeds to drive one nuts?
I’d have been a certified “noncompliant” with some guidelines. I didn’t comply because I thought that the published work used to develop the guidelines was of poor quality and common sense suggested that the guidelines were developed to suit a particular type of orthodoxy.
Bad idea.