There is an out-of-control epidemic in the United States that costs more and affects more people than any disease Americans currently worry about. It’s called nonadherence to prescribed medications, and it is — potentially, at least — 100 percent preventable by the very individuals it afflicts.

The numbers are staggering. “Studies have consistently shown that 20 percent to 30 percent of medication prescriptions are never filled, and that approximately 50 percent of medications for chronic disease are not taken as prescribed,” according to a review in Annals of Internal Medicine. People who do take prescription medications — whether it’s for a simple infection or a life-threatening condition — typically take only about half the prescribed doses.

This lack of adherence, the Annals authors wrote, is estimated to cause approximately 125,000 deaths and at least 10 percent of hospitalizations, and to cost the American health care system between $100 billion and $289 billion a year.

Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop put it bluntly: “Drugs don’t work in patients who don’t take them.” This partly explains why new drugs that perform spectacularly well in studies, when patients are monitored to be sure they follow doctors’ orders, fail to measure up once the drug hits the commercial market.

More important, it explains why so many patients don’t get better, suffer surprising relapses or even die when they are given drug prescriptions that should keep their disorders under control.

Studies have shown that a third of kidney transplant patients don’t take their anti-rejection medications, 41 percent of heart attack patients don’t take their blood pressure medications, and half of children with asthma either don’t use their inhalers at all or use them inconsistently.

“When people don’t take the medications prescribed for them, emergency department visits and hospitalizations increase and more people die,” said Bruce Bender, co-director of the Center for Health Promotion at National Jewish Health in Denver. “Nonadherence is a huge problem, and there’s no one solution because there are many different reasons why it happens.”

For example, he said parents often stop their children’s asthma treatment “because they just don’t like the idea of keeping kids on medication indefinitely.” Although a child with asthma may have no apparent symptoms, there is underlying inflammation in the lungs and without treatment, “if the child gets a cold, it can result in six weeks of illness,” Dr. Bender explained.

When Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, asked patients who had suffered a heart attack why they were not taking their medications, she got responses like “I’m old-fashioned — I don’t take medicine for nothing” from a man with failing kidneys, peripheral vascular disease, diabetes and a large clot in the pumping chamber of his heart. Another common response: “I’m not a pill person.”

When Dr. Rosenbaum told her hairdresser that she was studying why some people with heart disease don’t take their medications, he replied, “Medications remind people that they’re sick. Who wants to be sick?” He …

Have you ever been tempted to buy your medicines from an online pharmacy or another website?

You can protect yourself and your family by being cautious when buying medicine online. Some pharmacy websites operate legally and offer convenience, privacy, cost savings and safeguards for purchasing medicines.

Not all websites are the same. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that there are many unsafe online pharmacies that claim to sell prescription drugs at deeply discounted prices, often without requiring a prescription. These internet-based pharmacies often sell unapproved, counterfeit or otherwise unsafe medicines outside the safeguards followed by licensed pharmacies.

Many unsafe online pharmacies use fake “storefronts” to mimic licensed pharmacies or to make you think their medicines come from countries with high safety standards. But the medicines they sell could have been made anywhere, with little care or concern for safety and effectiveness. Also, these drugs could be fake, expired or otherwise unsafe for you and your family.

How can you tell if an online pharmacy is operating legally? The FDA’s BeSafeRx page has resources and tools to help you make safer and more informed decisions when buying prescription medicines online.

Warning Signs of an Unsafe Online Pharmacy

Beware of online pharmacies that:

• Do not require a doctor’s prescription.
• Are not licensed in the U.S. and by your state board of pharmacy.
• Do not have a licensed pharmacist on staff to answer your questions.
• Send medicine that looks different than what you receive at your usual pharmacy, or arrives in packaging that is broken, damaged, in a foreign language, has no expiration date, or is expired.
• Offer deep discounts or prices that seem too good to be true.
• Charge you for products you never ordered or received.
• Do not provide clear written protections of your personal and financial information.
• Sell your information to other websites.

These pharmacies often sell medicines that can be dangerous because they may:

• Have too much or too little of the active ingredient you need to treat your disease or condition.
• Not contain the right active ingredient.
• Contain the wrong ingredients or other harmful substances.

The active ingredient of an approved drug product is what makes the medicine effective for the illness or condition it is intended to treat. If a medicine has unknown active ingredients, it could fail to have the intended effect, could have an unexpected interaction with other medicines you are taking, could cause dangerous side effects, or could cause other serious health problems, such as serious allergic reactions.

Also, these drugs may not have been stored properly, such as in a warehouse without necessary temperature controls, which may cause the medicine to be ineffective in treating your condition.

Know the Signs of a Safe Online Pharmacy

There are ways you can identify a safe online pharmacy. These pharmacies:

• Always require a doctor’s prescription.
• Provide a physical address and telephone number in the U.S.
• Have a licensed pharmacist on staff to answer your questions.
• Are licensed with a state board of pharmacy.

Another …

Self-medication is characterized as the use of medicines by an individual to treat self-diagnosed illnesses or symptoms without any medical guidance or knowledge.

In today’s healthcare system, treatment of a minor issue using a pharmaceutical product received without a prescription is a part of self-care. These products are commonly referred to as over the counter (OTC) medicines.

Throughout the years, a positive outlook toward the role of self-medication within healthcare is growing. Researchers looking into self-care have suggested that self-medication causes an individual to take better responsibility for managing their own health and preventing minor illnesses.

The pharmaceutical industry also benefits from self-care via OTC medicines, as the public has greater access to their products. In addition, if members of the public can effectively treat their own minor illnesses, then the cost of public health for the government will be reduced.

What encourages patients to self-medicate?

There are various factors that influence the use of self-care through self-medication with OTC drugs. An individual’s socio-economic situation, time and cost required to visit a doctor, education level, age, and whether they have medical products that are available easily.

Products used as self-medication account for approximately 20% of the total international pharmaceutical market.

Misuse and abuse in self-medication

There are multiple concerns surrounding the misuse and abuse of self-medication.

Among these concerns are the facts that OTC drugs have been used for non-medical purposes and are sometimes used for longer than the recommended usage period. As well as this, the use of OTC drugs may delay a patient seeking treatment for serious medical conditions.

Studies suggest that members of the public are blindly taking OTC medications due to advice from family and friends, sometimes unaware of things like suggested dosage. Proper awareness of side effects and relevant dosages of OTC drugs needs to be cultivated.

Pharmacists play a key role in monitoring and combatting the risks associated with patients misusing or abusing OTC drugs. Through consultation with patients about the proper use and management of OTC drugs, pharmacists can alleviate some of the risks.

Many pharmacists use a series of questions like the ones listed below:

·      Who is the patient?

·      What are the Symptoms?

·      How long have the symptoms been present?

·      Has any previous medication been taken?

The answers to these questions can help the pharmacist effectively guide the patent and monitor the outcome.

Conclusion

Self-medication with OTC drugs is not a practice that’s likely to reduce in scope anytime soon.

Although it comes with positive outcomes, such as patients taking greater responsibility for their own health and overall better access to medication. There are also several risk factors including potential misuse and abuse of OTC drugs leading to harmful and potentially deadly medical conditions.

The regulation of OTC drugs relies on advice from pharmacists, taking into account the education levels of different patients whilst providing proper advice and counselling on the proper usage of OTC drugs.…

Taking medications as prescribed can help you maintain or improve your health. Whether you are taking one or multiple medications, it is important to follow the directions of your doctor or pharmacist.

What are the benefits of taking your medications as prescribed?

1. It helps your medicine do what it is intended to do. Every medication has a purpose and is prescribed for a reason. Some help prevent and treat disease, while others ease symptoms or relieve pain. When taken correctly, medications can work very well. Because medicine is complex and does not work the same way for everyone, you need help from a medical professional. Doctors and pharmacists understand what will work best for your specific situation. They will know what medicine you need and how much you should take. They will know how it should be taken so that it works properly.
2. Reduces the risk of dangerous and unpleasant side effects. When medication is taken the wrong way, it has the potential to make you sick. Your risk for becoming ill or needing to go to the hospital goes up with the more prescriptions you have. For your safety, your doctor and pharmacist should always know which prescription and non-prescription medications you take. This will help them ensure they are prescribing the right medication at the right doses. It also allows them to provide advice on how to take them safely.
3. Simplifies your medication routine. Managing an illness or chronic condition can be stressful. Following the directions of your doctor or pharmacist will give you one less thing to worry about. You can rest assured they have your health and safety in mind.Some pharmacies offer services that make it easier to manage your medications. They can align your refills so you get your all prescriptions on the same day every month. (Read about how this can help you stay on track.)They can also pre-sort and package your pills by day and time. Getting your pills this way helps prevent mistakes and provides peace of mind for many people.

What should you do if you are having trouble taking your medications as prescribed?

Sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with it all. At times, you may run into challenges, such as:

• Not being able to pick up your prescriptions on time
• Being forgetful due to your condition
• Feeling better and thinking you don’t need your medication anymore
• Having a side effect that makes you feel bad

Whatever your reason, make sure to talk to your doctor or pharmacist as soon as possible. They will go over your options with you and help find the right path forward.…

Using medications correctly at the right time and in the right way as prescribed by your doctor can help keep you healthy and control medical issues, but not everyone sticks to those rules. What they might not realize, however, is not doing so can have some grim consequences.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 20 to 30 percent of medication prescriptions are never filled and in 50 percent of cases, patients don’t continue medication as prescribed. Unfortunately, non-adherence causes 30 to 50 percent of chronic disease treatment failures and 125,000 deaths per year.

“Medication adherence is a huge issue faced by many people,” said Kelly Erdos, PharmD, a clinical pharmacist with Banner Baywood Medical Center. “I always tell patients I work with that you can be on all the right medication, but if you don’t take them, then they’re not going to work.”

Why medication non-adherence?

There are countless reasons medications aren’t being used as prescribed, and not all of them are intentional. Here are two common reasons and five ways to keep you on track.

“I’m feeling better. I can stop taking medication.”

Sticking to medication may seem like a chore, especially if you’re feeling better, but you should never abandon prescribed medication. If you aren’t taking a certain medication, or medications, as prescribed by your doctor, there can be several negative outcomes.

“If you’ve started on a new blood pressure medication but you’re not taking it regularly, it may not properly control your blood pressure,” Dr. Erdos said. “If your doctor thinks you’re taking the medication as prescribed, they may look at high blood pressure readings as a sign that you need additional medication. But that may not be the case.”

“My medication is too expensive. Missing one dose or taking a half-dose here and there to save a little shouldn’t be a big deal.”

Your doctor may not notice you’ve missed a few doses here and there, however, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t bad for your body and health.

“Medications like those for your thyroid or blood thinners may have a huge impact if only one dose is missed,” Dr. Erdos said. “There are even certain medications, like those for depression, that can have serious withdrawal symptoms when even a few doses are missed.”

Don’t let cost be a hindrance to getting the treatment you need. Your doctor can help you find an alternative.

5 Important medication rules to follow

Taking your medication as prescribed is important to controlling chronic conditions, treating temporary ones and overall health and well-being. Here are five ways that may help:

• Don’t skip doses or take half-doses to save some money. Let your doctor know if you are having issues with the cost of the medication, if you’ve missed doses, want to stop medication or are experiencing certain side effects, so they can address accordingly.
• Don’t double-up your medication if you forget either. Too much at one time could be dangerous. Let your

Pros and Cons of Prescription Medicine

If the FDA considers a medication safe enough to approve, that means its benefits outweigh its known risks. The medications you take play an important role in your overall health. However, all medications have side effects, warnings and drug interactions, so it’s important to understand your treatments, expected results, and alternative medical options.¹

• The benefits of medicines are the helpful effects you get, such as easing pain, controlling blood sugar, lowering blood pressure, or curing an infection.
• The risks of medicines are the possible unwanted or unexpected effects that might happen to you when you use them. Risks can be minor, like a mild upset stomach, or more serious, such as an increased risk of bleeding or liver damage.

What if you have questions?

You may have questions or feel concerned about the medication or treatment plan your doctor has prescribed. It is important for you to ask questions and learn as much as possible about your condition.

You’ll want to know about:

• your full treatment plan
• medications, tests, or other therapies
• the timeline of your treatment (short-term or long-term)
• your expected outcomes (a cure, control of a chronic disease, or palliative care)

Asking questions and learning about the risks versus benefits of medications can help you become a fully informed participant in your own health care plan. You should provide information to your healthcare provider so they can gain additional knowledge about your current medications or treatment plans. This information helps your provider to make the right choices for your health care going forward.

Here is a general outline of six actions you can take to ensure your treatment is as safe as possible and produces the expected outcome.

1. Talk to your healthcare provider

This seems so obvious, but it is very important to have face-to-face discussions with your healthcare provider. Write down your questions ahead of time, and be sure to take them with you to your appointment. Consider taking a trusted friend or family member to help make notes about the your discussion.

Things you might consider talking with your healthcare provider about include:

• your allergies to medications or foods
• your current medications, including vitamins, over-the-counter drugs, and dietary or herbal supplements
• your current and past medical history, including any pertinent family history and success or failure you have had with other medications
• if there are any drug interactions with your prescribed medications, including over-the-counter or herbal supplements
• possible side effects of your treatments
• how to start and stop any medication
• a frank discussion of medications costs and your ability to pay for medications

If you feel your appointment may not offer enough time for discussion, call your healthcare provider’s office and schedule additional time. Ask questions not only of your doctor, but also of your pharmacist, nurse, dentist, physical therapist, or other healthcare professional that you see.

2. Write down important information

Write down the information you discuss with your healthcare provider. It is easy to …

For many people, taking medication is a regular part of their daily routine, and these medicines are relied upon to treat disease and improve health.  Although medicines can make you feel better and help you get well, it’s important to know that all medicines, both prescription and over-the-counter, have risks as well as benefits

The benefits of medicines are the helpful effects you get when you use them, such as lowering blood pressure, curing infection, or relieving pain. The risks of medicines are the chances that something unwanted or unexpected could happen to you when you use them. Risks could be less serious things, such as an upset stomach, or more serious things, such as liver damage. Here are some tips from the Food and Drug Administration and some of its public health partners to help you weigh the risks and benefits when you make decisions about the medicines you use.

Managing Risk

When a medicine’s benefits outweigh its known risks, the FDA considers it safe enough to approve. But before using any medicine–as with many things that you do every day–you should think through the benefits and the risks in order to make the best choice for you.

There are several types of risks from medicine use:

• The possibility of a harmful interaction between the medicine and a food, beverage, dietary supplement (including vitamins and herbals), or another medicine. Combinations of any of these products could increase the chance that there may be interactions.
• The chance that the medicine may not work as expected.
• The possibility that the medicine may cause additional problems.

For example, every time you get into a car, there are risks. You could have an accident, causing costly damage to your car, or injury to yourself or a loved one. But there are also benefits to riding in a car: You can travel farther and faster than walking, bring home more groceries from the store, and travel in cold or wet weather in greater comfort.

To obtain the benefits of riding in a car, you think through the risks. You consider the condition of your car and the road, for instance, before deciding to make that trip to the store.

The same is true before using any medicine. Every choice to take a medicine involves thinking through the helpful effects as well as the possible unwanted effects.

Here are some specific ways to lower the risks and obtain the full benefits of medicines:

Talk With Your Doctor, Pharmacist, or Other Health Care Professionals

• Keep an up-to-date, written list of all the medicines (prescription and over-the-counter) and dietary supplements, including vitamins and herbals, that you use–even those you only use occasionally.
• Share this list with all of your health care professionals.
• Tell them about any allergies or sensitivities that you may have.
• Tell them about anything that could affect your ability to take medicines, such as difficulty swallowing or remembering to take them.
• Tell them if you are or might become pregnant, or if you are

Your health care needs are personal, and your Medicare choices should be too. Of course, you want a plan with the coverage you need. You also want one that’s kind to your pocketbook.

Use these tips to help sort through your choices and nail down what’s right for you.

Tip 1: It’s not just about the plan premium

Plan costs may include premiums, deductibles, copays and coinsurance. Premiums are often what people mistakenly focus only on – usually because this amount is paid monthly and can seem larger than your other costs. But you want to compare all the costs of plans, not just premiums. Why? Because while your monthly premiums are consistent, your other costs can vary and add up quickly! You pay towards your deductibles and for copays and coinsurance when you receive covered services, so the more services you use, the higher the other costs may be.

In general, low premiums often come with high deductibles, copays and coinsurance. This may suit you if you are generally healthy and use few health care services. The opposite is also true; you may choose to pay relatively high premiums and few or no other costs if you have a lot of medical needs.

The main point is to look at all your costs – not just premiums – when comparing and choosing plans. Also check the limits on annual out-of-pocket costs offered with Medicare Advantage plans (Part C).

Tip 2: Drug formularies are your friends

Medicare plans have a list of covered drugs called a formulary. Each plan creates its own formulary and can change it from year to year. Check each formulary when shopping and reject any plan that doesn’t list the prescription drugs you take.

Once you find a few plans that offer the medications you need, then compare costs and other factors (such as other offered benefits like vision coverage) for the remaining plans you’re interested in. Most plans have pharmacy networks that offer plan pricing to members, so you’ll want to find one that includes the pharmacy you like to use as well.

You can get prescription drug coverage through a standalone Medicare Part D plan or as part of a Medicare Advantage plan.

Tip 3: Consider whether you want specific benefits

Original Medicare (Parts A & B) only covers hospital and medical services and items, respectively. And often some services or health care items you need come with a lot of conditions for them to even be covered. Moreover, Original Medicare doesn’t cover prescription drugs (you need either a Part D or Medicare Advantage plan), and it doesn’t offer coverage for some important things you may be used to getting such as dental and vision.

If you want specific health items like dental, vision or hearing coverage, you should make a list of what you want. Then after you have that list, start exploring plans that may offer these benefits in your area.

Tip 4: Take time to understand available Medicare plans

There are …

A large factor of medication nonadherence is a lack of information about the medication and how to take it. That’s why it’s important to make sure you get the answers to these questions whenever your doctor prescribes you a new medication:

1. What is the medication for?

Knowing what your medication is supposed to do and what condition it is meant to treat helps you better understand why it’s so important.

2. How am I supposed to take it?

Taking your medication as directed is critical to your health and safety. Some medications may make you sleepy, so it’s best to take it at night. Other medications can cause an upset stomach if you take them without food. Before you leave your appointment, make sure you understand:

• How often you should take your medicine (as needed or on a set schedule)
• When you should take your medicine (before bed, when you wake up, at mealtime, etc.)

3. How should I store the medication?

Proper medication storage helps ensure your medication is as safe and effective as possible. Heat, air, light and moisture can affect your medicine, so it’s important to follow your pharmacist’s recommendations. Some medicines—probiotics, for example—need to be refrigerated.

4. Why this medication? Are there alternatives?

There are many reasons why your doctor might prescribe one medication over the other. Some medications may interact differently with other drugs or produce certain side effects. If your doctor prescribes a brand-name drug, ask if there are any generic alternatives. Brand-name medications are usually more expensive and may not be covered by your insurance. Your out-of-pocket costs for brand-name prescriptions can be more than double the cost of generic alternatives.

5. How do I know if it’s working?

The timeframe in which your medication should start working varies for every drug. Talk to your doctor about how soon you can expect to feel a change and if there is anything you should pay attention to.

6. What side effects can I expect? Should I tell someone about them?

Some side effects are minor inconveniences, while others can be dangerous. Some are rare and some are common. For example, Warfarin, a medication frequently used to treat blood clots, can cause bleeding in the gums after your brushing your teeth. This a low-risk side effect; but Warfarin can also cause side effects that need immediate medical attention.

Ask your doctor what common side effects are and if there are any that would signal an emergency—and what to do if you experience dangerous side effects. If you are uncomfortable with the side effects your medication causes, DO NOT stop taking the medication without first consulting your doctor.

7. Does this affect over-the-counter medications?

Talk to your doctor about all medications you take, including over-the-counter medications like pain relievers, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, dietary supplements, etc. Some prescription medications can negatively interact with other medications. Your pharmacist can also help you identify adverse drug interactions.

8. What do I do if I miss a dose?

Sometimes a …

The prospect of buying a pharmacy is enticing to pharmacists for a variety of reasons. The items at the top of the list are; freedom and responsibility of ownership, the chance to practice pharmacy on your own terms, do more to improve the health of your patients, and improve your earning potential.  These are all realistic goals when you have your own location, however, the process of purchasing can be complicated and lengthy regardless of how well prepared you are.

1. Keep everything the same

When forming a corporation for your pharmacy, there are a lot of variables to keep in mind. You’ll have to hire an attorney, a CPA, and then choose a business structure: sole proprietor, LLC, S Corp, or C Corp. Your CPA and attorney will have their opinions on which way to go, but make sure to remember one thing: choose a good name! A good rule of thumb is to remember the name on your IRS paperwork will be your LBN, and the name on your state license will be your DBA.  We recommend keeping close tabs on how you register for accounts and order items so you don’t have name confusion.  We’ve witnessed too many facilities to count that had no idea what their name was! How is that possible? They use one name on their checks, a slightly different name on their signage, another variation on their bags, and a different one on their website.  To protect one of my favorite clients, I’ll use my last name in place of their name to show how problematic this was. Templeton Drug, Templeton Drugs, Templeton Drug Store, Templeton Drug Inc, Templeton Drug Co were all used on a variety of places.  Why was this an issue? In applying for their Medicare number we needed consistency in their name and nothing matched.  It took a lot of time, payroll dollars, and ordering a lot of new pharmacy bags, labels, checks, etc. to get this worked out.  So, keep your name the same wherever possible; signage, business cards, website, social media, merchandise accounts.

Once you choose your LBN, (without punctuation) you must apply for your Employer Identification Number (EIN). Once your EIN is set, it’s a pain to change and everything follows what is listed on your EIN. Keep in mind, in most states you can’t apply for your pharmacy license until you’re ready for your state board of pharmacy inspection. You can apply for your DEA license once you have your pharmacy license, but this can be a very slow process.  The bottom line is, opening a pharmacy is a complicated undertaking.  Any inconsistencies in naming can lengthen that process. Not knowing the proper name or having it listed in different ways between your NPI, NCPDP, state license, DEA checks, etc. will cause problems later.

Bonus thought: Did you know the United States Postal Service address verification tool is used to verify addresses by several entities?  Be sure to always list your business address the …