Lauren Harner Considers the Challenge of Measuring Primary Nonadherence

One of the biggest challenges with measuring primary medication nonadherence is coming up with a definition for it in the first place. Primary nonadherence might be very different depending on the condition, explained Lauren Harner, JD, senior manager of policy at PhRMA.

Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

What are some of the challenges with quality measures related to primary medication nonadherence?

I think even defining what primary nonadherence is is a problem in developing the measure. How many days out does a patient have to be or how many days late does a patient have to be in picking up their prescription before they're "nonadherent"?

For some acute conditions, I think, 5 or 7 days you could deem the person nonadherent. But there are other types of medications where a patient could not pick it up for 30 days and I think that would be fine. So I think there are some very basic problems with measuring but I think we have to start with defining what nonadherence is.