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Not taking your medicines as prescribed can hurt your wallet as well as your health and far outweigh any savings on your pharmacy bill.

Not filling prescriptions and even skipping doses can result in serious complications and lead to ER visits and hospital stays, even premature death.

Patients not taking medicine as prescribed cost the U.S. healthcare system roughly $290 billion a year in extra treatment and related costs, research shows. One study estimated those patients pay about $2,000 a year in extra out-of-pocket medical costs.

Nearly three in four Americans don't take their prescription medicine as directed. Even among those with serious chronic health conditions such as diabetes, about one in three don't.

To improve patients' health and rein in medical spending, the National Consumers League is running "Script Your Future," a three-year campaign with medical and other groups, to educate patients and get doctors and other health workers to discuss it with patients. Since it launched in the spring, more than 100,000 people have signed the league's online pledge to stick to their medication schedule.

For patients with chronic health conditions — nearly half the U.S. population — not taking medications as prescribed can bring serious consequences:

• Doctors may believe a drug they prescribed for the patient didn't work and switch to another one that has worse side effects or costs more.
• Deadly viruses such as hepatitis C and bacterial diseases such as tuberculosis, which require daily medicine for many months, can become resistant to the medicine. That can extend treatment for months, force the addition of more-toxic medicines or make curing the illness impossible.
• Patients who don't always take medicines for high blood pressure and cholesterol problems can suffer a heart attack or stroke, causing disability or death.
• Unintended pregnancy can occur from not using birth control as directed.

Despite the consequences, patient surveys show a variety of reasons for not taking medicines as prescribed, according to Script Your Future spokeswoman Rebecca Burkholder.

The most common reasons are:

• Financial problems/lack of health insurance.
• Complicated or confusing medication schedule.
• Forgetfulness.
• Problems with or fears of side effects.
• Belief the medicine isn't really needed. This is common with symptomless conditions such as high blood pressure.

Here are some strategies for addressing these problems:

• If you don't really understand why you were prescribed a drug and the consequences of not taking it, list your questions and talk to your doctor or pharmacist. If you do research on the Internet, stick to reliable websites run by government health agencies, patient advocacy groups, hospitals or universities.

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