Study from NCPA sheds new light on med synchronization programs

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Patients who opt-in to medication synchronization programs offered through their community pharmacy average more than 100 additional days on therapy per year and are 30% more likely to take their medication as prescribed than patients not enrolled in a synchronization program, according to the results of a new study project released Wednesday that was conducted by the National Community Pharmacists Association.

 

Nearly 90% of patients who received synchronized refills were considered adherent as measured by the proportion of days covered, compared with 56% of patients not receiving synchronized refills. The gaps in medication coverage were reduced along with the provision of adherence-supporting services from the community pharmacies that patients do not typically receive through mail-order, auto-refill shipments. Patients in the medication synchronization program received a monthly call from their pharmacy to discuss medications and dosing instructions, to determine whether any physician visits or hospitalizations may have changed medication therapy, and to confirm that the patient needs the medication before it is dispensed.

 

“This study confirms that a personalized medication synchronization service delivered by community pharmacies is impactful, scalable and able to be replicated in any community pharmacy,” stated NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey. “It’s also further evidence of the positive impact that these and other types of pharmacy-provided services can have on patient health. As trusted, accessible medication experts, community pharmacists are ideally positioned to counsel patients and ensure they take medications as prescribed and understand their importance to better health.”

 

Other key findings from the study:

• Patients enrolled in a medication synchronization program received an average of 3.4 more refills per prescription over a 12-month period than non-enrolled patients;


• The average enrolled patient was taking 5.9 synchronized medications;


• Participating pharmacies filled 20 more prescriptions per patient per year, on average, for these patients; and


• First-fill abandonment — prescriptions that are initially filled and never refilled despite having refills remaining — was reduced more than 90% for patients enrolled in the medication synchronization program.

 

The NCPA study is the first study to look at a group of independent pharmacies that are not under common ownership and do not operate the same pharmacy management system. Pharmacies used Ateb’s Time My Meds online adherence platform to identify patients for enrollment and to manage the daily operations of the participating pharmacies’ medication synchronization programs.



The study conducted by NCPA and technology partner Ateb involved more than 1,300 patients enrolled in medication synchronization programs at 10 independent community pharmacies across the country. The pharmacy coordinated patients’ chronic prescription medications to be filled on the same date each month.

 

Estimates indicate that more than 1,600 community pharmacies are providing medication synchronization services to more than 70,000 patients nationwide through established medication synchronization programs, including NCPA’s Simplify My Meds program, which is utilized by more than 1,100 independent community pharmacies nationwide. The new study and Simplify My Meds program are part of NCPA’s Pharmacists Advancing Medication Adherence initiative, which is sponsored by the Cardinal Health Foundation, Merck and Pfizer.