Surescripts Real-Time Prescription Benefit Drove Medication Adherence

Clinicians using Surescripts Real-Time Prescription Benefit noticed their patients were more likely to pick up their prescriptions, a key first step to medication adherence, according to a recent study.

Researchers analyzed more than 34 million e-prescriptions for insured patients sent across the Surescripts network in May 2022 and compared those that were informed by Real-Time Prescription Benefit to those that were not.

By providing patient-specific benefit and cost information within the electronic health record (EHR) or pharmacy system, clinicians saw prescription pickup rates 3.2 percentage points greater than those without the EHR optimization tool.

Numerous studies have indicated that drug costs serve as the most significant barrier to medication adherence.

Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation indicated that nearly a quarter of adults stated that they or a family member in their household cut pills in half, did not fill a prescription, or skipped doses of medicine in the last year because of high prescription costs.

Medication nonadherence can lead to increased healthcare costs, disease progression, and even death. 

Integrating Real-Time Prescription Benefit into EHRs improved not only medication adherence but also patient engagement.

“Surescripts is helping to address one of the greatest barriers to improving patient health: the cost of prescription drugs,” Frank Harvey, Chief Executive Officer of Surescripts, said in a press release. “When a patient can’t afford their prescriptions, they are forced to abandon them at the pharmacy, often leaving serious health conditions untreated.”

“Surescripts gives providers better visibility into patients’ out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions at the point of care so providers can quickly identify safe and appropriate lower-cost alternatives that patients are more likely to pick up at their pharmacy,” Harvey continued.

The Surescripts study also compared pickup rates across 20 prescriber specialties. Researchers found that the pickup rates increased 0.4–7.3 percentage points when Real-Time Prescription Benefit was used.

These Surescripts findings support a similar July 2022 study published in The American Journal of Medicine, where researchers at a large health system analyzed six months of electronic prescriptions and compared fill and cancellation rates for prescriptions that were informed by Surescripts Real-Time Prescription Benefit to those that were not.

In the study, the prescription fill rate for the Real-Time Prescription Benefit group was 8.09 percentage points higher, while the cancellation rate was 5.5 percentage points lower.

More than half of United States prescribers are now using Real-Time Prescription benefits to address medication affordability and adherence. In June 2022, prescribers with access to Real-Time Prescription Benefit saved patients nearly $40 per prescription.

“With the rising cost of prescription drugs, physicians are seeking out ways to improve communication between pharmacies, provide better price transparency, and make the delivery of medicine faster and more attainable,” said David Cohen, chief product and technology officer at Greenway Health, which brought the ePrescribing service to the 50,000 users in its network.