Today at the NACDS Pharmacy and Technology Conference, Varolii Corporation announced general availability of Varolii Adherence Outreach(TM), a fully managed, on-demand patient notification service that helps retail, mail-order and specialty pharmacies improve prescription medication adherence, a widespread health problem costing billions every year. By enabling delivery of automated, HIPAA-compliant communications to patients over the phone, through text messages or email, Adherence Outreach helps pharmacies reach more patients while avoiding the exorbitant time and money a traditional communications approach would require.
According to the World Health Organization, only half of patients worldwide take their medications as prescribed, leading to numerous health consequences, particularly among those with chronic conditions. In the United States, poor medication adherence is estimated to result in more than $100 billion in direct and $50 billion in indirect healthcare costs every year (Peterson, et. al, ASHP, 2003). And the problem is escalating due to the rising number of older patients, the number of prescriptions each of them take, a growing shortage of pharmacists, and increasing demands on their time–all of which make traditional care and contact strategies cost- and time-prohibitive.
Designed to overcome these operational barriers, Varolii Adherence Outreach not only benefits patients, but enables pharmacies to improve operational metrics, optimize pharmacist time, and even generate more revenue from non-pharmacy sales due to increased pharmacy customer visits.
Pharmacies that have already begun using Varolii Adherence Outreach have seen an overall 10-20 percent increase in refill efficiency for treated therapeutic classes (and more than 100 percent in some of them), an 18 percent enrollment lift into auto-fill programs, and a doubling of prescription refill rates among patients enrolled in the program versus those who were not.
By using Adherence Outreach, pharmacies can cost-effectively:
— Welcome new patients to pharmacy services
— Provide a variety of personalized reminders, including refills, tardy notifications, renewals, auto-fills and Rxs ready for pick-up
— Share significant news, such as changes to drug formularies or availability of generic substitutions
— Communicate time-sensitive information, such as medication recalls, dosage adjustments and changes in medication availability
— Survey non-adherent patients to understand why they aren’t taking their medication and then effectively triage to appropriate resources to get patients back on track
— Find missing contact information for patients and update pharmacy records
— Connect with patients who are identified as “lost to follow up” to re-engage and win them back
Varolii Adherence Outreach was developed with personalization, authentication and clarity in mind. Patients respond to relevant, accurate information–targeted directly to them–with the assurance no one else will receive this highly personal and protected information. Varolii Adherence Outreach incorporates patient authentication to ensure privacy and predictive analytics to identify the most appropriate patients, as well as the best timing, delivery and message for each one. In addition, Varolii’s digitally recorded real voices pronounce complex pharmaceutical names with crystal clarity so even hard-of-hearing patients can understand the message and respond.
“Low adherence rates are a major issue for everyone concerned,” said Dr. Michael Ross, Vice President of Healthcare at Varolii. “As healthcare consumers, we all pay for the associated costs of the resulting poor clinical outcomes. For affected patients, the impact is more personal, and for the pharmacies that serve them, low adherence drains their ability to profitably serve their clients. Varolii Adherence Outreach balances all of these needs by delivering personal communications that make a difference in a cost-effective, business-focused way.”
Varolii Adherence Outreach is generally available. For more information, please visit http://www.varolii.com/Industries/Healthcare.aspx.
About Varolii Corporation
Varolii Corporation provides the on-demand software and services that help organizations create intelligent, automated conversations with their customers and employees over whichever combination of communication channels will generate the best response. Each message is carefully designed and continually optimized to improve service, increase revenue or manage unplanned events, for example, flight cancellation notices, fraud detection alerts, outage notifications, customer surveys, medication adherence notifications, payment reminders, and emergency alerts. More than 350 organizations, including many of the largest U.S. banks, airlines, wireless carriers, utilities, and healthcare organizations, trust Varolii to send more than 3.5 million messages every business day. Varolii is headquartered in Seattle with offices in the Boston and Denver metropolitan areas. For more information, visit www.varolii.com.
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