ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation has issued a request for proposal (RFP) to study "primary medication nonadherence," or when a patient fails to fill or pick up newly prescribed medication.
On Tuesday the NACDS Foundation said it has set aside funding for qualified researchers to measure rates of primary medication nonadherence (PMN) and to develop, test and gauge the effectiveness of PMN interventions in the pharmacy setting.
According to a recent peer-reviewed study, nearly one in four newly prescribed drugs was not collected by patients, the foundation said. Such behavior, which is also known as prescription abandonment, was especially prevalent among patients with chronic disease such as hypertension and diabetes.
"The NACDS Foundation’s request for proposal seeks to examine primary medication nonadherence rates and ways in which the health care system — through the collaborative integration, engagement and intervention of pharmacists, physicians and other health care providers, and the proper and effective use of health information technology — can be utilized to improve overall patient health outcomes and medication adherence rates," NACDS Foundation president Edith Rosato said in a statement.
The foundation called medication nonadherence "a patient crisis" and said it’s a multibillion dollar health care problem in the United States. According to the New England Healthcare Institute, when patients don’t fill or properly take their prescribed medications correctly it leads to dangerous complications, emergency room visits and hospital admissions, needlessly costing the nation’s health care system more than $290 billion annually.
