April 1, 2011 
I was at a presentation recently where a Chief Medical Officer from one of the PBMs was talking about a survey they did on statin users and why they didn’t refill. Amazingly, he said that 21% of people said they thought they were cured after the first fill. Talk about a problem.
This data reminds me of a barrier survey from a statin adherence program that we did where 37% said they didn’t know they were supposed to refill their medication.
This topic then reminded me of a study that was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2006 which looked at the frequency with which physicians did certain things when talking with patients. So, how often did they explain the duration of therapy to the patients – 34%!
Sometimes, we spend so much time trying to solve the complexities of adherence when there are baseline activities which can make a huge difference.
Enabling Healthy Decisions 
Pharmacists see the patients 3 to one for the Doc, so the role of the Pharmacists should be more than just counting pills, as they, the pharmacists, should be able to collect from the payers for consuling the patients, even a small fee for their service, about the meds and when, how many and what to take to keep the patient out of the emergency room.