The AP, via NBC News, has reported that Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks, had a meeting with Sen. Patty Murray and Rep Adam Smith, both of Washington. The subject of the meeting is the rising cost of healthcare in the U.S. It’s now in the crosshairs of executives at Starbuck’s and almost all of the rest. Why? Because Obamacare made it mandatory that employers pay the healthcare costs for employees.

Look, 13% of all of the about $3 Trillion spent on healthcare in the U.S. each year is unnecessary. The issue is Medication Adherence. If all of the employees took their meds as directed it would save a ton of money… money that could eventually make its way back into the company treasury. The cost of healthcare totals approximately 20% of the country’s Gross National Product.

I’m thrilled that Mr. Schultz is looking at this. It makes me know that management is paying attention to profitablilty and that’s good. It makes me want to buy their stock. But let’s help Mr. Schultz find the path to Medication Adherence for his employees. It’s Medtexter; an online service that sends reminders to your employees so that they can remember when it’s time to take their meds. How would that be helpful? I’ll explain.
84% of healthcare spending is due ONLY to dealing with patients with a chronic disease, sometimes 2, 3 or more. Half the U.S. population has at least one chronic disease. 70% don’t take their medications as directed. For every chronic disease patient it costs an extra several thousands of dollars PER DISEASE, per year.

So, Mr. Schultz, statistically about 40,000 of your employees have at least one chronic disease. That would probably break down something like this if your employees are all fulltime and you’re paying their healthcare premiums:
32% of your employees are Hypertensive (probably from drinking all that coffee every day). The average savings for such an employee would be $6,000. If that patient was also a diabetic (probably from eating all of those fantastic breads you have there in the glass case) the average savings would be $5,200, but only if they are medication adherent. So, just that one employee is costing over $10,000 to the system and that’s ON TOP of the premium payments you make for them.

Your employee is Medication Adherent only when they take their meds as directed, on time, every time.
One more statistic. 69% of those medication takers simply forgot to. They need that reminder we were talking about:
Let’s say that the average savings for employees with only ONE chronic diseases is about $4,000 (that’s probably a little bit low) times 40,000 (50%) of your employee population, times 69% that forgot to take their meds… well, that’s, um… carry the 6… it’s a whopping $ 110,400,000 savings. And that doesn’t include the productivity that you’ll regain. That number is probably an even bigger.

So, Mr. Schultz, together we can make a big dent in your healthcare costs. Give us a call or go to the webpage… www.medtexter.com

By the way, Mr. Schultz, LOVE your coffee!