BALTIMORE, June 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Scene Health announces the release of its new guide, Transforming Rural Healthcare through Medication Adherence Support, designed for U.S. health leaders strengthening their medication adherence strategies as they pursue large-scale change for better rural health outcomes.
The guide arrives at a pivotal moment as states, providers, health systems, and community organizations respond to the Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program launched by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The program prioritizes sustainable access to care, chronic disease management, workforce development, innovative care delivery models, and technology-enabled healthcare solutions for the more than 46 million people living in rural areas.
Medication non-adherence is one of the most significant and addressable challenges in rural healthcare. Compared to urban areas, rural communities face disproportionately high rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and other conditions that require precise medication management. Yet up to 50% of patients do not take their medication as prescribed, leading to poor outcomes, avoidable hospitalizations, and rising healthcare costs. Medication nonadherence costs an estimated $528 billion in the U.S. annually.
Residents of rural communities face barriers such as transportation limitations, pharmacy access gaps, provider shortages, affordability concerns, and fragmented care coordination—all of which can further contribute to the unwanted health outcomes and costs.
“Breakthrough health outcomes for rural communities with high chronic disease burden starts with taking medication as prescribed. That’s a lesson we learned through our early work in sub Saharan Africa,” said Sebastian Seiguer, CEO of Scene Health. “We have to rethink how care happens in between visits and focus on getting the outcomes promised from these life-saving therapies.”
To advise rural health leaders, the new guide curates Scene Health’s decades of research, clinical validation, and experience in areas ranging from Uganda to Mississippi. The Scene Health approach achieves medication adherence rates averaging 80-90% on an observed basis. Most measurements of adherence rely on refill rate estimates. Only Scene Health provides adherence support leveraging the gold standard: video Directly Observed Therapy.
The comprehensive guide also shares insights and tools to assess the potential impact of medication adherence support and to make the case for scaling it in rural communities.
More specifically, the guide includes
- An overview of health burdens challenging rural communities
- What medication adherence support looks like in practice
- 5 ways medication adherence support drives value in rural communities
- 3 lessons learned, from Uganda to Mississippi
- 12 tips for making the case for a medication adherence support program
- A worksheet to assess the opportunity in rural communities
The guide is available for download at https://www.scene.health/resources/transforming-rural-healthcare.
Media Contact: [email protected]
About Scene Health
Scene Health is the industry leader in MedEngagement, a care model they pioneered to move beyond traditional medication adherence using technology, human support, and validated interventions—including the gold standard, directly observed therapy. Scene Health’s medication-centric care platform combines asynchronous video with AI-powered analysis of behavioral and clinical signals to deliver personalized interventions and pharmacist‑led support, achieving medication adherence rates of 80-90% on an observed basis. For more than a decade, Scene Health has partnered with public health departments, Medicaid and Medicare MCOs, and life science organizations across the U.S. to dramatically improve adherence rates, cost of care, and health outcomes for a wide range of diseases. With a mission to make every person feel seen and supported, Scene Health meets people where they are to help them take every dose of medication as prescribed. For more information, please contact [email protected].
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