Encouraging Mail Order Pharmacy Use to Improve Outcomes and Reduce Disparities

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The investigators propose a randomized encouragement trial to encourage use of the existing mail order pharmacy services among diabetes patients with poor adherence to CVD risk factor medications in 3 health care systems: Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Harvard Pilgrim, and Kaiser Permanente Hawaii.

Detailed Description
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Adherence to effective cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor medications is associated with improved CVD risk factor control, fewer hospitalizations, and lower mortality in patients with diabetes. However, many patients are poorly adherent to medications, and there are persistent racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in medication adherence. Traditional clinical trials of interventions to improve medication adherence are often resource-intensive, and focus exclusively on patient-level barriers to behavior change. Unsurprisingly, these trials have not led to sustainable, cost-effective approaches to improve adherence. Health system-level medication adherence interventions that can be implemented, scaled up, and sustained across a wide range of health care delivery settings are urgently needed. The investigators propose a randomized encouragement trial to encourage use of existing mail order pharmacy services among diabetes patients with poor adherence to CVD risk factor medications and who only use retail pharmacies in 3 health care systems: Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Harvard Pilgrim, and Kaiser Permanente Hawaii. These combined systems include approximately 300,000 patients with diabetes with diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Patients with no history of mail order pharmacy use will be randomized into 2 arms. In addition to examining the impact of the intervention on medication adherence and CVD risk factor control, the investigators will examine factors affecting the sustainability and dissemination of the intervention, assess the intervention's impact on utilization and health care costs, and determine whether the intervention's impact differs across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups. This research will provide a foundation for developing sustainable, system-level approaches to addressing medication adherence in diabetes patients that can be widely disseminated and implemented across a diverse array of health care systems.

Official Title
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Encouraging Mail Order Pharmacy Use to Improve Outcomes and Reduce Disparities

Conditions
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Diabetes Mellitus

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Standardized intervention
* Behavioral: Usual care


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Diabetes patients who are users of CVD risk factor medications (antihypertensive therapies, antihyperlipidemics therapies, and oral antihyperglycemic therapies), Diabetes patients considered to be poorly adherent to CVD risk factor medications within the prior 12 months Diabetes patients who have not used the mail order pharmacy to fill any prescribed medications at least once in the prior 12 months Exclusion Criteria: Pregnancy or Dementia/Traumatic Brain Injury diagnosis in the prior 12 months Hospitalized, in Skilled Nursing Facility, Hospice, or Home Health at the time of randomization.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Standardized intervention<br>Standardized intervention to encourage mail order use and provide easily accessible information on how to access the service | Behavioral: Standardized intervention<br>* Standardized intervention to encourage mail order use and provide easily accessible information on how to access the service<br>|
| Experimental: Usual care<br>Usual care | Behavioral: Usual care<br>* Usual care<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Percent of Participants Using Mail Order Pharmacy (MOP) After Intervention | users of the mail order pharmacy service - if they utilized the mail order system to deliver medications anytime in the 12 months following the date of outreach into the intervention | 12 months following the date of outreach into the intervention |