Community Pharmacists Team Up With Managed Care to Improve Med Adherence

A pilot program between a third-party payer, a local pharmacy organization, and an academic institution tapped community pharmacists on the front lines to carry out interventions to improve medication adherence among older adults, according to a study published online in the Journal of Pharmacy Practice. 

“This collaborative effort successfully implemented a community pharmacist-led adherence intervention in 25 independent pharmacies,” wrote researchers from the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and insurer Independent Health. “Our findings highlight increased interactions with patients and in some cases improved adherence measures.” 

Adherence-based interventions implemented at the more than 2 dozen community pharmacies focused on older adults who were Medicaid Advantage members and taking statins, oral diabetic medications, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and angiotensin receptor blockers. 

Among 1263 interventions completed during the pilot program, the most common were explaining a medication’s benefit (35.9%) and provider follow-up (8.6%), according to the study. 

Among older adults who had been nonadherent but became adherent to their medication regimens after pharmacist intervention, the average proportion of days covered increased by 14%, researchers reported. On the flipside, the study identified a 12% drop in the average proportion-of-days-covered score among older adult participants who had been—and remained—nonadherent. 

Forgetfulness (35.7%) and denial (6.7%) were common patient barriers to medication adherence. Common system and therapeutic barriers to adherence were complexity (12.3%) and adverse side effects (3.3%).

“Future research must include implementation outcomes,” researchers wrote, “in order to effectively implement these interventions in the community pharmacy setting.”  

—Jolynn Tumolo

Reference

Daly CJ, Verrall K, Jacobs DM. Impact of community pharmacist interventions with managed care to improve medication adherence [published online December 30, 2019]. J Pharm Pract. doi: 10.1177/0897190019896505