FICO, the credit score company is trying to break into the business of medication compliance scores by evaluating people on their compliance with medications.

The New York Times reported in the June 20th issue that FICO is going to rate compliance with Medication Compliance Scores.  This program was started after learning from research that 3 out of 4 people are not taking their medications appropriately and that this is causing 125,000 people to die each year because of medication non-compliance.  The compliance scale ranges from 0-500.  People with a score above 300 are considered to be compliant with their medications.

While this may be a good idea on paper, tracking medication usage is fraught with inaccuracies and inconsistent data (like the FICO credit score).  Additionally, it adds another layer of complexity to healthcare and likely will increase the costs of healthcare as insurance companies will hire people to track these scores and make those with low compliance scores to either pay more for their health insurance or drop them for non-compliance.  I am all for improving medication compliance; I am not happy that this program is a “stick” rather than a “carrot”.

Medication treatment needs to be part of a team approach; the physician, pharmacist and especially the patient need to take a big role in choosing medication therapy.  I am afraid that many people don’t want to tell their doctor that they disagree with a medication therapy or perhaps they don’t feel their doctor listens to concerns about medication.  Furthermore, discussion to start a new medication is often in the hurried office and proper time is not given to discuss treatment alternatives, risks and benefits.

I entertain your thoughts on this issue.
-Jim