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Medication nonadherence is a concern, and prior studies have shown that as many as 20% of new prescriptions are not collected at pharmacies. In this study, researchers obtained data on all prescriptions that were prepared for pickup — and then were either purchased or abandoned (i.e., never picked up) within 30 days — at a large retail pharmacy chain from July through September 2008 for patients enrolled with a national pharmacy benefits manager. During that time, >10 million prescriptions were filled for >5 million patients (mean age, 47); 59% of patients had employer-sponsored insurance, and 12% had Medicare or Medicaid coverage.
Only 3.3% of prescriptions were abandoned. Prescriptions with higher copayments were abandoned more often (i.e.…