CVS Caremark's medication adherence program for people with diabetes has positive impact

CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) said the company's comprehensive adherence program for people with diabetes positively impacts medication adherence for both new and continuing patients. A review of data tracking the program found that 75.6 percent of patients continuing on a diabetes therapy who participated in the adherence program maintained optimal adherence to their prescribed therapy vs. 61.2 percent in the control group. The study also found that patients newly prescribed a diabetes medication, who participated in the adherence program, achieved a first fill persistency rate of 80 percent, eight percent higher than the control group.

According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly 24 million people in the U.S. have type 1 or type 2 diabetes and an additional 57 million people are considered pre-diabetic. Diabetes is associated with increased risk for a number of serious, potentially life-threatening complications such as heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. Furthermore, research has underscored the importance of adherence to diabetes medication showing that for every $1 spent on medication for the treatment of diabetes, $7 is saved in disease-related costs. While good diabetes control can help reduce the risk of complications and managed health care costs for these patients, a variety of factors can impact medication adherence and prevent people from maintaining optimal control of their disease.

"Our data illustrates that direct, focused interventions to help patients with a chronic disease such as diabetes stay on their medications work," said Troyen A. Brennan, M.D., M.P.H., Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, CVS Caremark. "CVS Caremark's comprehensive adherence program is designed to engage all enrolled plan participants in their care by providing disease and therapy education and outreach to help them improve medication adherence, resulting in improved outcomes and reduced overall costs."

The CVS Caremark adherence programs are some of the most comprehensive in the industry. All members enrolled in these programs, whether they utilize the mail pharmacy or fill their prescriptions at any of the 64,000 retail pharmacies within the CVS Caremark retail network, receive timely messaging and interventions designed to help keep them adherent to medications for chronic conditions. These interventions include IVR and Web refill reminders, renewals and pick-up prompts, and letters about the importance of staying on a prescribed therapy sent to patients who have stopped filling a maintenance prescription and their health care provider.

The study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of adherence programs for participants with diabetes using a pre-post study design methodology with a matched control group. Four clients new to the program between February 2007 and January 2008 were included in the analysis, which reviewed 2,740 members with diabetes enrolled in the adherence program vs. a control group (matched to the program group based on age, gender and disease severity) of 7,181 members with diabetes who were not enrolled in the program or any other known medication adherence program.