Table of Contents
WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Health is launching a new pharmacy service, ScriptSync, enabling patients with multiple medications to pick up eligible maintenance prescriptions in a monthly visit to a CVS/pharmacy store.
Patients or caregivers can manage ScriptSync prescriptions with what the company calls innovative online support tools. By aligning prescription fill schedules for customers, CVS aims to improve medication adherence while simplifying customers’ lives.
“Medication adherence is a complex public health challenge, and better adherence can improve health outcomes and lower overall health care costs for both patients and payors,” remarks Dr. Troyen Brennan, executive vice president and chief medical officer at CVS Health.
“Our research shows that people with chronic diseases [and] taking multiple medications may make numerous trips to the pharmacy each month for refills, which makes it harder for them to stay on track with different fill schedules and take [the medications] regularly, as prescribed. ScriptSync is one more way that we can work together with our patients to make medication adherence easier as we help people on their path to better health.”
ScriptSync is available in all CVS/pharmacy stores, and it will be available through CVS/caremark Mail Service Pharmacy in 2016.
A study by the CVS Health Research Institute that was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that as the complexity of medication regimens increases, adherence deteriorates. And patients with multiple medications who did not consolidate their drug refills were found to have significantly lower adherence rates than patients who consolidated refills.
Researchers concluded that adherence could be improved by a program that simplifies, synchronizes and organizes pharmacy care.
Participants in the ScriptSync pilot showed a significant increase in their medication adherence as a result of the program, according to the company.
“As a pharmacy innovation company, CVS Health is focused on using our technology and scale to deliver patient-centered pharmacy care and innovative digital solutions to address medication nonadherence,” remarks Brian Tilzer, the company’s senior vice president and chief digital officer.
“In fact, the online support feature of ScriptSync was developed in our Boston-based Digital Innovation Lab to help make viewing and updating prescription information quick, easy and convenient to give our ScriptSync patients more control over managing their health.”
CVS/pharmacy customers with multiple maintenance prescriptions can sign up for ScriptSync and work with their pharmacist to align prescription fills and choose an optimal pickup date. Once aligned, prescriptions are refilled within hours. Before the pickup date, patients can receive a call or text message from the company notifying them that their refill is available for pickup.
