Evaluation of a Nationwide Pharmacist-Led Phone Outreach Program to Improve Osteoporosis Management in Older Women with Recently Sustained Fractures.

Background: Osteoporosis-related fractures are a considerable economic burden on the U.S. health care system. Since 2008, the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services have adopted a Medicare Part C Five-Star Quality Rating measure to ensure that a woman's previously unaddressed osteoporosis is managed appropriately after a fracture. Despite the effort to improve this gap in care, the 2013 CMS plan ratings fact sheet reported an average star rating of 1.4 stars for the osteoporosis measure, the lowest score for any measure across all health plans.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of conducting a pharmacist-led, telephone outreach program to members or their providers to improve osteoporosis management in elderly women after experiencing fractures. 

Methods: This was a prospective, randomized study to evaluate the effectiveness of 3 different intervention strategies within a nationwide managed care population. Women aged 66 years and older who experienced a new bone fracture between January 1, 2012-August 31, 2012, were identified through medical claims. Women who were treated with an osteoporosis medication or received a bone mineral density (BMD) test within a year of their fractures were excluded. Study patients were randomized into 3 intervention cohorts: (1) baseline intervention consisting of member educational mailing and provider educational mail or fax notification; (2) baseline intervention plus a live outbound intervention call to members by a pharmacist; and (3) baseline intervention plus a pharmacist call to members' providers to recommend starting osteoporosis therapy and/or a bone mineral density (BMD) test. An intent-to-treat and per protocol analyses were employed, and appropriate osteoporosis management (initiation of osteoporosis therapy and/or BMD testing) 120 days after the baseline intervention and 180 days after a fracture were measured.

Results: The study identified 6,591 members who were equally randomized into 3 cohorts. The baseline demographics in each cohort were similar. Results of the intent-to-treat analysis showed more members in cohort 3 receiving appropriate osteoporosis management (13.0%) compared with those in cohort 2 (10.3%, P  less than  0.005) or compared with those in cohort 1 (9.1%, P  less than  0.001). No difference was detected between those receiving additional member calls (cohort 2) and those receiving only the baseline intervention (cohort 1). Similar results were observed utilizing the 180 days after fracture time frame. 

Conclusions: The effectiveness of a pharmacist-led telephone intervention directed at providers or members was examined in this randomized study. Pharmacist calls to members did not improve osteoporosis management over member and provider mail and fax notifications. Greater impact was demonstrated by performing a pharmacist call intervention with providers rather than with members.