Highest Credit Score

Keeping Score on How You Take Your Medicine

Most people are well aware that companies compile credit scores on just about everyone. Now, one company is planning to rate how likely people are to take prescribed medication.

Nearly three in four Americans do not follow doctor’s orders for taking prescription drugs, a problem that is associated with 125,000 patient deaths each year, according to the National Consumers League . One in three patients never even fills the prescription. Others forget to pick up their drugs from the pharmacy, skip doses, take their pills at the wrong time or take too much or too little. And even for those who follow recommendations at the start, some eventually stop taking the medication altogether.

But which patients are likely to take their prescription medications correctly and which ones are likely to deviate from the plan? FICO , a company whose credit score is widely used to assess the credit worthiness of millions of consumers, is planning to answer that question. It has developed a new FICO Medication Adherence Score that it says can predict which patients are at highest risk for skipping or incorrectly using prescription medications.

“We started thinking about how do consumers behave as patients,” said Mark Greene, the chief executive of FICO, based in Minneapolis. “The problem, from a math standpoint, is not all that different from banking and other industries.”

FICO officials say insurance companies and other health care groups will use the score to identify those patients who could benefit the most from follow-up phone calls, letters and e-mails to encourage proper use of medication. By the end of the year, an estimated two million to three million patients will have been given a FICO medication adherence score and a total of 10 million patients are expected to be scored during the next 12 months, the company said. Those estimates are based on current negotiations with health care companies who plan to use the scoring system.

The FICO medication score is based on publicly available data, like home ownership and job status, and does not rely on a patient’s medical history or financial information to predict whether he or she will take medication as directed. So, like a credit rating, it can be compiled without a person’s knowledge or permission.

The score was created using data from a large pharmacy benefits manager that provided information for a random sample of nearly 600,000 anonymous patients with diabetes , heart disease and asthma . Using the data set, FICO was able to track the patterns of patients who filled and refilled prescriptions and those who didn’t. The company used the data to identify the variables most associated with medication adherence and developed a risk score on a scale of 0 to 500.

Making A Good Credit Score Even Better — Credit Expert Blog

People often wonder what number counts as a good credit score . According to Fair Isaac, the inventors of the FICO score, the average American credit score is 723. Surprisingly enough, however, this is not considered to be an average or good score but is actually an excellent one.

Most financial literature published since the year 2000 considers any score of 620 or above to be a good credit score. Since the financial crisis of 2009, however, this is not really an accurate statement any longer. Lending standards have tightened up considerably in practice, even if they remain the same on paper.

As a result, the answer to the question of is now something around 680 as the current baseline, and 700 is even more acceptable. Of course, credit gets used for multiple purposes. A score that is good enough to land a new car or a credit card may not be enough to qualify for a house. As a result, good credit is also somewhat situational in nature.

You may not even realize that your credit is substandard. It is possible to have a lower score and still get all the credit you have ever asked for. This may translate into higher rates, or it can also mean that you have had credit cards for years but never got around to using other types of credit, such as car loans or home mortgages.

If you do not meet the standards of an average credit user, seeking the advice of a professional credit expert can help you punch up your numbers. They are likely to recommend some variation of the following remedies.

•    The first step is to get hold of your credit report, and check for false information. This happens more often than you realize. Do it yourself.

•    Do not employ the services of a middleman. Your credit report is secret information that you should entrust to no one who does not absolutely need to see it. Identity theft is frequently a crime of opportunity. Give the fewest number of people an opportunity to rip you off.

•    Assuming that all of the information in the report is valid, the next step is to flag items that may be harming your score even though they are correct. One of the biggest detriments comes from using too much of the credit line on your card. Pay it down as far as you can manage.

•    A single late payment is not a huge issue, but multiple occurrences hurt a score considerably. Be on time with every payment. Take whatever drastic steps are necessary to keep your record clean. Not only are you more likely to be approved for additional credit, but it can also lead to lower interest rates.

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