Thousands of Americans become prisoners each year to medical noncompliance, which many health care experts call the nation's second drug problem. Such problems account for an estimated 125,000 deaths a year, according to the Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council.

Healthbeat reports noncompliance raises healthcare costs by about $100 billion due to increased hospital and nursing home admissions. It may also be one of the reasons when medical treatment fails.

PageMinder offers a solution to help solve this problem. If you have a patient who struggles with inadvertent noncompliance, we may be able to help improve adherence to medication and medical routines.

There are two basic categories of patients who might benefit from PageMinder's services.

The first category includes patients who have complicated medical routines or are noncompliant with their medication schedule. When an individual is following a medication protocol for HIV/AIDS or diabetes, and there are numerous times each day to remember, the risk for missing a dose or confusing medications is high. The costs and health risks associated with this are significant.

Other individuals may only take one or two doses a day, but due to their busy lifestyle have difficulty being consistent. When patients with high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, organ transplants, or seizures are consistent and accurate with their medication schedule, the opportunity for symptom control is enhanced. For patients in this category, it is possible that using PageMinder's system for six months may help train the individual to incorporate their medication times into their lifestyle.

The second category includes individuals with memory deficits, whether from changes associated with normal aging, or as secondary symptom for a particular diagnosis, such as brain injury, dementia, ADHD, CVA, or Parkinson's. These patients may rely on PageMinder to provide reminders for appointments, daily living skills, and home management tasks, in addition to medication reminders.

To see a list of conditions and possible solutions provided by PageMinder click here.

Prerequisite Skills for Successful use ...

• The ability to respond to the pager when it alerts that a reminder is received.

• The ability to follow a simple command.

• The visual acuity to read a 12 to 14 point font.
  An adapted pager that transmits the reminder in a digitized voice is available to those who do not have sufficient visual acuity to read the text message.

Alternative Treatment ...

• It requires no initiation on the part of the user.

• It also functions as a pager, so can be used for work or family needs.

• There is no stigma attached to pager use, so patients are accepting of the system.

Cost Savings ...

• The need for attendant care is reduced.

• An individual can remain in an independent living situation, rather than supervised or long term care placement.

• Symptom control reduces the number of physician visits needed.

• Costly secondary symptoms are avoided.

• Hospital readmissions for noncompliance are reduced.

• The patient is able to return to work because reminders assist them with their schedules.

Payor Sources ...

• At the current time, Medicare will not pay for the service, since it falls under the category of preventive treatment. Insurance payment is dependent on the guidelines of each policy. Some specific treatment agencies are making funding available for covering the service (i.e., mental health, developmental disabilities, vocational rehabilitation). An alternate option for funding PageMinder's service is the use of grants.

Referrals ...

• If you would like to make a referral to PageMinder, please complete the services request form, or contact us by phone at (888) 882-7787 to provide the necessary information.

Price ...

• PageMinder's service is $20 per month for a single user, with a $25 activation fee. Paging or cell phone costs are not included in this price.

  If you are interested in purchasing PageMinder's service for multiple users, we offer discounted rates for volume accounts. Please call us at (888) 882-7787 or click here for more information.

  In order to help our customers find the most affordable paging service, we can advise them about paging companies in their local area. If insurance or another funding source will pay for PageMinder's service, we will work with them to arrange payment.