Sempre Health CEO Anurati Mathur talks medication adherence on Regence podcast

Anurati Mathur, co-founder and CEO of Echo portfolio company Sempre Health, discussed Sempre's success in medication adherence on the most recent episode of the Regence HealthChangers podcast.

The HealthChangers podcast is produced by Regence health plans, whose parent company is Echo founding partner Cambia Health Solutions.

In her podcast episode, Mathur appeared with Dr. Shirley Reitz, director of clinical pharmacy sales and client services at Regence, to talk about how Sempre and Regence are working together to keep Regence members healthy by making it easier for them to fill their prescriptions on time. Regence began offering Sempre Health's text-message-based medication adherence program to Regence's commercial members this year.

"Sempre is an affordability solution at our core," Mathur said on the podcast. "We allow payers like Regence to distribute dollars to their members to offset the cost of life-saving medications…With our programs, you pay less when you're on time to fill [your prescription], slightly more when you're late to fill, and those discounts grow over time as you remain adherent…We are consistently unlocking dollars that [patients] can use for other healthcare expenses, rent, childcare, heating, gas, groceries. And this really has a compounding effect for a person and their community's health as well."

Dr. Reitz with Regence said she's excited about how Sempre will help Regence members.

"First and foremost, we want our members to be healthy, we want them to be taking their medications as prescribed and to live their healthiest lives. We don't want them ending up in the emergency room or in the hospital.

"These discounts are available for members through the Sempre program. It will cover important drugs for many of our members with chronic conditions. The medications for chronic conditions are high cost, so the discounts are even more important. And adherence is really critical for efficacy and to keep people healthy."