Every year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services distributes billions of dollars in Quality Bonus Payments to Medicare Advantage plans based on a five-star rating system. In 2025, $12.7 billion is on the table. The plans that score well thrive. The plans that score poorly lose revenue, lose members, and in some cases lose their ability to operate.
The single highest-weighted clinical domain in that rating system is medication adherence. Not readmission rates. Not member satisfaction. Medication adherence — specifically adherence to medications for diabetes, hypertension, and cholesterol — determines 21% of the weighted Star Rating score.
What the Stars Actually Measure
CMS evaluates Medicare Advantage plans across five categories of measures. Within the Clinical Quality of Care category — the most heavily weighted — three of the highest-scoring individual measures are all medication adherence measures:
- Medication Adherence for Diabetes Medications
- Medication Adherence for Hypertension (RAS Antagonists)
- Medication Adherence for Cholesterol (Statins)
Each of these measures a simple thing: is the patient refilling their prescription on time? A patient who fills their statin prescription on time, every month, scores well. A patient who lets it lapse scores poorly — and drags the plan's rating down with them.
Plans with four or more stars receive Quality Bonus Payments. Plans below four stars do not. The difference between a 3.5-star plan and a 4-star plan can be tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue — driven almost entirely by whether members are taking their pills.
The Problem Is Not Complicated
Patients do not stop taking their medications because they want to. They stop because life gets in the way. They run out and forget to refill. They feel better and assume they no longer need it. They get confused about which pill is which, and when to take it. They move, change pharmacies, or lose track of their schedule.
None of these are clinical failures. They are logistical failures. And logistical failures have logistical solutions.
What RememberPills.com Does
RememberPills.com is a live medication adherence platform that sends automated text and email reminders when it is time to take medication. No app. No smartphone required. No IT integration. No clinical staff involvement. A patient enrolls, sets a reminder time, and receives a message every single day at that time for as long as they remain subscribed.
The cost is $1.99 per month per account. MyPillCircle™ allows one account to manage reminders for up to 20 people — meaning a single plan could enroll entire families for a cost that is negligible compared to the Star Rating revenue at stake.
For a Medicare Advantage plan managing 50,000 members, a one-point improvement in adherence scores across the three medication adherence measures can mean the difference between 3.5 stars and 4 stars. That is not a clinical intervention. That is a reminder. A daily text message that says: it is time to take your medication.
The Math Is Straightforward
A Medicare Advantage plan that achieves four stars or above qualifies for Quality Bonus Payments — currently worth approximately $500 per member per year in additional revenue. A plan with 100,000 members moving from 3.5 to 4 stars captures $50 million in additional annual revenue.
The cost of enrolling every one of those 100,000 members in RememberPills.com for a year is $2.4 million — assuming full retail pricing with no volume negotiation. The return on that investment, if it moves the needle even partially on adherence scores, is extraordinary.
SAM.gov Registered. Ready Today.
RememberPills.com is a SAM.gov registered entity, fully operational, and available for immediate partnership discussions with Medicare Advantage plans, pharmacy benefit managers, and health systems operating in the Medicare Advantage space.
We are not a pilot program. We are not a proof of concept. We are a live platform serving real patients today — at a price point that makes universal enrollment economically obvious.
The $12.7 billion in Quality Bonus Payments is not a distant policy abstraction. It is a concrete financial incentive that rewards plans for doing the thing RememberPills.com already does, at scale, for less than two dollars a month.
If your plan is below four stars, or if you are defending a four-star rating against erosion, medication adherence is where the score is won or lost. And we can help.