Bags Cut ER Visits

A health insurer has cut emergency room admissions by sending brown paper bags to enrollees who take 5 or more drugs daily for chronic conditions.

Premera Blue Cross, Mountlake, Wash., says that the brown bag recipients must be 19 or older, and that they must have been taking a large number of prescription drugs for at least 3 months.

Premera asks bag recipients to put all of their prescriptions, over-the-counter medications and supplements in the bags, and then to take the bags with them the next time they see a physician for an appointment.