Audible medication vials slowly gain momentum

Abstract

Although the federal government stated several years ago that recipients of new prescriptions must also receive useful written information from their pharmacist, no law or regulation requires that prescription drug labels be decipherable by blind or visually impaired patients. And without a mandate from the government, there is no compelling reason for health insurers and pharmaceutical firms to improve the use of medications by the blind and visually impaired, one purveyor of audible medical products has learned. “I had the right relationships,” said Barry Scheur, referring to insurance and drug company executives he met over the years as a managed care executive, venture capitalist, lobbyist, and lawyer. But, he said, nothing in his varied career prepared him for the negative reactions to his promotions for a reusable audible prescription-assistance device that his Massachusetts-based company, Talking Rx Inc., sells for about $10 apiece. Scheur said the executives told him they were not interested in the memo-recorder-like product unless Medicare—which covers the health care of the disabled and persons age 65 years or older—would pay or a law forced the firms to pay. Some executives even worried that all health plan enrollees, not just those with poor eyesight, would want the product if its cost were covered, he said.