The concept of the pill bottle is good and can be helpful but the side of all of this are the profits that it creates for Health IT companies to sell your data. It is what it is. 
The Colbert Report did a funny video on the Glow Caps a while back too, funny.
The Colbert Report Takes On Vitality GlowCaps (Video) – Check Out the Privacy Issues Here As Medication Data is Created That Can Be Sold To Health Insurance Companies For Use With Underwriting Algorithms
Your medication information is used for insurance company underwriting and below you can see a couple of the companies that provide this service to include Ingenix, the wholly owned subsidiary of United Healthcare. You can read more about the pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts and their pilot program, again this bottle creates medication data for compliance and who knows where else it goes.
Express Scripts Pilot To Begin Testing the Glow Cap Wireless Pill Container – Wireless Medication Monitoring
Here are 2 companies that sell prescription data and profiling information.
“HIPAA does not give the Department of Health and Human Services the ability to directly investigate or hold accountable entities, such as pharmacy benefit managers or companies such as Ingenix and Milliman, who are not covered by HIPAA.”
The Pill Bottle That Talks To Your Cell Phone, Creates Data Reports and More…
Reminders = Data = Reports
Medical Device = Algorithms = Medical Data = Data Reports = PHR = EHR = _____.
The technology is great if used properly to help us, but we don’t want data and audit trails used to deny service if a pill was missed and risk management, insurance companies as we have seen in the past have denied claims for things like yeast infections, a case of acne not being reported so remember data is very powerful and if given and accessible to those who want it, it could in fact be used against you when you need it the most as they will create a series of reports to show where “you” the patient defaulted. Nothing personal, it’s all about risk management and showing a profit for the shareholders.
Many times companies use a wellness program that collect such data too and more and more, insurance companies are buying wellness companies so again do they get access to this information? We don’t really know as they say not, but again with the lack of full Health IT literacy and SEC rules, they kind of just tell us to “believe them” and say “trust me”. It’s up to you if you want to pay $10 to $15 a month to submit your data and the bottles even tell you when refills are due, so again the algorithms are in place for the pill bottle.
At any rate if you want to get signed up and buy one you can on Amazon and again I just write to inform here and tell the full story with the data side as best I can so consumers know the whole story about how the data comes into play with marketing convenience. BD
CAMBRIDGE, MA – Vitality, Inc. and AT&T announced Tuesday that wirelessly connected Vitality "smart" GlowCaps are now available on Amazon.com.
The intelligent pill caps are designed to help patients take medications regularly by sending reminder calls, weekly email reports and monthly updates sent to your physician.
Vitality's AT&T-connected GlowCaps fit on standard prescription bottles and use light then sound reminders, which can be followed by a phone call or text message so people don't miss a dose, according to David Rose, chief executive officer of Vitality.
The Vitality GlowCaps will be available for $10 per cap and $15 per month for AT&T service. Consumers can also sign up to receive a free GlowCap once they are available at their local and/or national pharmacy, Rose said.
Vitality and AT&T make smart Rx caps available on Amazon | Healthcare IT News
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