While over 4 billion prescriptions are written each year in the United States (according to Statista), research has consistently shown that many patients do not take their medications according to their clinicians’ instructions. At CHIBE, researchers use principles of behavioral economics, such as incentives, social comparisons and remote monitoring, to better understand how to improve medication adherence. With cost being one of the biggest barriers to adherence, our researchers have also advocated to make prescription medications more affordable for Americans.
Our findings are practical and scalable, and they have been integrated into employer and insurer plans that drive health care value. For example, working with CVS Health, our team improved CVS’s automatic refill program by integrating enhanced active choice into their refill program. Enhanced active choice has been implemented across much of their business nationally and by CVS estimates, this intervention has influenced medication adherence for more than 10 million CVS Health members.
