Televero spotlights polypharmacy risks for older adults

Televero Behavioral Health is using Healthy Aging Month to draw attention to polypharmacy in older adults, where layered psychiatric medications can raise the risk of falls, cognitive decline and hospitalization. The Seattle-based behavioral health provider says its physician-led, coordinated care model is designed to help identify and taper unnecessary prescriptions.

Why it matters: - Polypharmacy in older adults is a growing patient safety problem, especially for patients managing both physical and behavioral health conditions. - The risks include adverse drug interactions, cognitive impairment, falls and hospitalizations. - Televero Behavioral Health is positioning coordinated behavioral care as one way to reduce those risks through deprescribing.

What happened: - Televero Behavioral Health used Healthy Aging Month in September to highlight the buildup of psychiatric medications in older adults. - The company framed the issue as a common consequence of fragmented care, where no single clinician owns the full medication picture. - Televero said its physician-led model is built to review complex medication regimens and identify prescriptions that may no longer be needed.

The details: - Johns Hopkins Medicine research cited in the release found that about a third of Americans in their 60s and 70s regularly use five or more prescription drugs. - The release said that figure has nearly doubled over the past two decades. - It also said 40% of adults 65 and older now take five or more medications during any given 30-day period, up from roughly 20% in 1999. - A primary care physician may prescribe an antidepressant, and a specialist may later add a sleep aid, creating overlapping treatment layers over time. - Televero says every patient receives a thorough biopsychosocial evaluation at intake to identify all conditions contributing to symptoms, not just the referral diagnosis. - The company says that assessment supports deprescribing by showing why each medication was added and whether it still has value. - Televero Medical Director Victor Gonzalez, a geriatric psychiatrist, leads a structured process that includes a full medication review, an assessment of benefit versus risk for each drug and a careful taper when appropriate. - The process is coordinated with the patient and, when relevant, the referring primary care physician. - The care teams are led by psychiatrists and include nurse practitioners and licensed counselors. - Clinical notes return to the referring practice within 48 hours of every visit. - Televero says it is active in 44 states, accepts all insurance plans including Medicaid and Medicare, and has been ranked on the Inc. 5000 for a second consecutive year.

Between the lines: - The release argues that many older adults are not overmedicated because of an obvious prescribing mistake, but because disconnected clinicians never reassessed the full regimen. - That message positions deprescribing as an active clinical service, not just a medication cutback. - The company is also signaling to primary care physicians that behavioral health specialists can help manage time-consuming medication reviews that are hard to do in short visits. - Ray Wolf, Televero's CEO, called polypharmacy in older adults one of the most underaddressed patient safety issues in behavioral health.

What's next: - Televero says its model will continue expanding as it grows in more states. - The company is likely to keep emphasizing medication review, care coordination and deprescribing as part of its behavioral health pitch to patients and referring clinicians. - For older adults and caregivers, the practical takeaway is that medication lists should be reviewed regularly, especially when multiple providers are involved.

The bottom line: - Televero is betting that better coordination, not more prescriptions, is the fix for a common and risky medication problem in older adults.