NCT05497999

Racial Inequality in Inhaler Fills for COPD - A Trial of Reduced Cost-Sharing

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 19,113 (actual)
• Sponsor: Harvard Medical School (HMS and HSDM) · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

In partnership with a large Medicare Advantage (MA) insurer (Humana, Inc.) and as part of a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation demonstration program of Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID), the investigators propose to study a randomized controlled quality improvement trial in which Humana randomized MA beneficiaries with COPD to receive proactive outreach for a VBID benefit that provided large reductions in cost-sharing for their maintenance inhalers and telephone-based COPD medication management services in 2020 and 2021. The investigators will analyze changes in racial disparities for inhaler fills, clinical outcomes, health care spending, and acute care utilization.

Conditions

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Proactive Outreach	The treatment is proactive outreach that sought to enroll individuals in a VBID program available to all enrollees that provided: 1) large reductions in cost-sharing for maintenance inhalers, and 2) telephone-based COPD medication management services. Proactive outreach for those randomized to the treatment arm included, at a minimum, a phone call and letter in the mail from Humana. Proactive outreach could also have included an email, text message, and/or provider referral.
OTHER	No Proactive Outreach	Control group participants received no proactive outreach but could call to enroll themselves in the VBID program if they learned about it through traditional means, such as the benefits description manual.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-01-07
• Primary completion: 2022-12-31
• Completion: 2022-12-31
• First posted: 2022-08-11
• Last updated: 2023-03-14

Locations

3 sites across 1 country: United States