Impact of Pharmacy Technician Outreach on Medication Adherence for Medicare Advantage Patients
Research presented at the 2024 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting Medicare Advantage suggests that patients with historical medication adherence opportunities may see improved outcomes through successful pharmacy technician outreach.
Medication adherence quality measures are crucial for Medicare Star ratings, especially for patients with a history of adherence challenges that can impact chronic disease outcomes and health care costs. Pharmacy technicians play a key role in identifying and addressing adherence barriers through patient outreach. This study compared the outcomes of medication adherence gap closures for Medicare Part C patients when technician outreach was successful compared with unsuccessful. The retrospective cohort review included patients with a proportion of days covered <80% in adherence measures for hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and noninsulin diabetes.
In total, 590 adherence opportunities from 572 unique patients were analyzed. The intervention and comparator groups were matched based on demographic factors such as age, race, ethnicity, and sex. Both groups had a mean age of 72 years, with male patients representing 40%, and White and Black patients accounting for approximately 52% and 43% respectively.
After eliminating outcomes other than pass and fail, there were 309 adherence opportunities in the intervention group and 281 in the comparator group. The intervention group had 206 gaps passed (66.7%), while the comparator group had 166 passed (59.1%), resulting in a chi-square value of 3.63 (P = 0.057) after the measurement period.
“Successful pharmacy technician outreach resulted in a higher percentage of adherence gap closures in patients with historical adherence opportunities, but results were not statistically significant. There appears to be opportunities for technician outreach in addressing adherence barriers, but improved research design is needed,” the researchers said.
Reference
Cashwell B, Padgett L, Stamopoulos M. Impact of pharmacy technician-led outreach on medication adherence in Medicare patients with historical adherence opportunities. Presented at: ASHP Midyear 2024 Clinical Meeting and Exhibition; December 9, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana.
