Patient education and compliance: how to make it cost-effective.

The current level of noncompliance with prescription medications exerts a tremendous burden on the healthcare system in terms of both cost and poor health. The process of developing a program to improve compliance for lipid therapy is twofold. First, patients must be met at their specific level of need. This involves enabling, reinforcing, prompting, and problem solving. Second, the delivery of treatment must be addressed. Large centers and groups should refer lipid patients to a central team of professionals specializing in lipid therapy; or groups of physicians should contract extra patient support out to other groups, such as pharmacies. The implementation of a compliance program will not be immediately cost-effective but will have the long-term benefit of reduced costs through improved health.