• Health & Wellness Home
• Fitness First & More
• Fitness First For Kids
• Health First (Wellness Discounts)
• Managing Your Health
  • Asthma
  • Behavioral Health
  • Diabetes
  • Health Appointment Planning
  • Hypertension
  • Living Well With Chronic Conditions
  • Lower Back Pain
  • Medication Adherence
  • Pregnancy & Childbirth
  • Tobacco Cessation
• Preventive Health
• Flu Information
• Interactive Tools
• Healthy Recipes
• Workplace Wellness
• Links & Resources

Medication Adherence

The Importance of Taking Your Medications as Prescribed

Taking your medications as prescribed by your healthcare practitioner helps prevent your condition from getting worse or helps your condition improve.

Examples of not taking medications as prescribed

• Not filling or refilling the prescription
• Taking a medication at the wrong time of day, or not spacing out the timing between doses as directed
• Taking the wrong dose- too much or too little
• Taking someone else’s medication
• Discontinuing the medication without talking with your healthcare practitioner
• Skipping doses

Common reasons why people don’t take their medications

• A belief that the medication isn’t helping
• Feeling that the symptoms are better or gone and the medication is no longer needed
• Concerns about side effects
• Concern of having to stay on the medication indefinitely
• Problem understanding the instructions
• Difficulty taking the medication as prescribed
• Difficulty taking medications for conditions without symptoms (example: high blood pressure)
• Feeling the medicine is too costly
• Forgetting to take the medicine

Ways to make sure you are taking your medications correctly

• Make a master list of your medications or daily schedule to help you keep track of your medicine.
• Know the names of the medications you are taking, what they are for, and any potential side effects.
• Keep a medication log with the day, time and dosage taken.
• Use a pill box that allows for the daily doses to be set up by day of the week and times per day.
• Talk with your healthcare practitioner about any questions or concerns you may have about taking the medication, length of treatment, other treatment options.
• Ask your prescriber if there is a generic version of the medication that you are taking.
• Notify your practitioner if you experience any uncomfortable side effects. There may be other options your practitioner can suggest to help with side effects.
• Learn more about Unity’s RX90 Extended Supply Program*. If your medication qualifies you may receive 3 months worth of prescriptions for 2 co-pays.
• Online refill service makes filling prescriptions easier.
• Go to mymedschedule.com to create your own medicine list and sign up for free text or email reminders.

*Please Note: Rx90 is not available for all Unity members. Members covered under the State of Wisconsin health insurance program should contact Navitus Health Solutions at navitus.com to learn more about their prescription drug benefits. BadgerCare Plus members should contact the State Medicaid program at 800-362-3002.