As a clinician, I’ve seen prescription abandonment and the problems it causes firsthand. A patient comes in for their quarterly diabetes check. Their A1C is still climbing. You ask if they’ve been taking the new medication you prescribed 3 months ago. “I meant to pick it up, but the co-pay was $180,” they respond. “I wasn’t sure I could afford it.”

In my role in health IT, I see the data. This isn’t a one-off scenario; it happens every day.

Clinicians make careful diagnoses and prescribe appropriate therapies. But when patients can’t access those medications, that clinical expertise doesn’t matter. And with the staffing constraints every practice faces today, manual follow-up on every prescription isn’t possible.

But there’s a better way. Modern EHR capabilities can support patients automatically during that critical window after they leave your practice — amplifying your care and improving patient engagement without adding a single task to your team’s already-full plates.

In this article, we’ll explore why so many prescriptions go unfilled, the impact of prescription abandonment on patient outcomes, and how EHR-embedded engagement tools can help close the gap.

The IQVIA 2025 Use of Medicines report found that patients abandoned 96 million new prescriptions at pharmacies last year. That means that 27% of all written prescriptions never get filled.

Cost is the most obvious barrier with predictable patterns. When prescriptions cost under $10, only 7% of patients abandon them. But when the cost hits $250, abandonment jumps to 54%. Cost is not, however, the only contributor to non-adherence. 

Patients face confusion about how to take their medications, concerns about side effects they didn’t have time to discuss during the visit, logistical issues like pharmacy access, and plain forgetfulness as daily life takes over.

Timing matters: The window right after the appointment is critical. Patients may leave your office with good intentions, but that motivation fades fast — usually within 24 to 48 hours. Unfortunately, most practices don’t know that a prescription isn’t picked up until the next appointment, when the patient’s condition hasn’t improved.

A Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) 2025 survey found that 53% of medical group leaders name finding qualified candidates as their top staffing struggle. Even among practices that managed to maintain or increase staffing, 44% said their current levels still don’t meet patient demand. 

And the roles that would handle most patient follow-ups? Medical assistants and front desk staff have some of the highest turnover rates.

Meanwhile, physician burnout compounds the problem. A 2025 Tebra AI survey found that 31% of providers feel exhausted at the end of the day, and 64% of providers say documentation contributes to burnout.

You can’t hire your way around it. Manual prescription follow-up — making individual calls, checking on every medication, troubleshooting cost issues — doesn’t scale for a practice that prescribes dozens of medications a day.

You may have patient engagement tools already. Printed materials that patients tuck away and then forget about. Apps nobody downloads. A portal with a 30% log-in rate. 

The problem isn’t that the technologies don’t exist — it’s that most don’t fit into real clinical workflows or patient realities. They add steps for already overwhelmed staff and ask too much of patients.

Here’s what a patient engagement solution embedded in your EHR can do: 

Adopting these patient engagement solutions can help your patients feel seen, understood, and supported by your practice through the challenges they face. When patients understand prescribing decisions, they become active partners who support their provider’s clinical recommendations and can have more productive conversations about their treatment. 

DrFirst helps private practices optimize medication management through EHR-integrated e-prescribing. When you send a prescription, your patients receive a message within minutes, including: 

This isn’t about replacing the physician-patient relationship. It’s about augmenting it and giving patients the support they need exactly when they need it — all during that 24- to 48-hour window that makes the difference.

With the DrFirst and Tebra integration, you can prescribe medications exactly as you do now. No new documentation, no separate systems to manage. No training your staff on another platform. Patient engagement happens automatically in the background.

But the impact? Well-timed messages can boost first-fill rates up to 10%, according to DrFirst data. Patients will be more likely to start their medications and your clinical decisions have a better chance to work.

Patients get support and feel cared for, with 85% of those who receive personalized notifications engaging with the message, according to DrFirst data. When they do call your office, it’s about meaningful clinical questions — not, “Which pharmacy did you send this to?” 

Let’s return to that patient with the climbing A1C. What if, moments after you prescribed the medication, they received a message on their phone with clear information about what the medication does, details about a program that would drop their co-pay to $25, and a reminder to pick it up. The patient would already be moving toward a better health outcome. 

The prescription abandonment problem is solvable. The technology exists today, built into modern EHRs.

Learn more about enhanced patient engagement embedded in your EHR workflow through Tebra’s partnership with DrFirst. Arrange your free demo today.