The hearings point toward medication monitoring as a potential solution for improving adherence to pain medication, preventing drug diversion and helping to lower national healthcare costs. The company cites several studies supporting this position, including one that found patients on chronic opioid therapy were more likely non-adherent and had a 14 percent higher healthcare cost as well as 35 percent more hospital days.
According to the report, published in The American Journal of Managed Care, the study also found that patients who were adherent to their opioid regimen had approximately 12 percent lower annual costs than non-adherent patients.
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