Penn study: Pay patients to take their pills

Statins are proven to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, yet as many as half of patients with prescriptions eventually stop taking the pills.

A possible solution, says a team of University of Pennsylvania researchers:

Pay the patients.

...

The fact that cholesterol levels dropped in all four patient groups was especially encouraging, said Melissa Y. Wei, a University of Michigan Medical School researcher who has studied why many patients stop taking statins.

That suggests factors besides money were helping to encourage patient compliance, she said.