After a single session with a Humana phone-based program, inhaler misuse among Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease dropped from 39.4% to 6.9%, according to a study.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation published the study earlier in 2026. The analysis was conducted by researchers at UChicago Medicine and Humana and included 1,876 beneficiaries. The education program targeted beneficiaries with a fill-related adherence of less than 80% based on days covered. The efforts also included reduced cost-sharing for maintenance inhalers under a broader value-based insurance design initiative.
Participants underwent two phone sessions. Through the intervention, Humana pharmacists called COPD patients and used a “teach-to-goal” technique to give proper guidance on inhaler use. With this approach, pharmacists assess how a patient currently uses their inhaler, provide instructions and reevaluate technique. If needed, they provide additional instructions and carry out another assessment.
“The biggest finding is really that this remote education can have an impact,” Emily Boudreau, PhD, a director of research at Humana who worked on the study, told Becker’s. “COPD is a highly prevalent disease where appropriate inhaler use can make a huge difference in terms of downstream health consequences.”
While misuse was down to 6.9% after the first session, there was a retention issue going into the second session 60 days later, with misuse at 35.6%. After that session, the misuse rate was down to 5.1%.
Among beneficiaries using the metered-dose inhaler, the reduction between sessions was the only one to reach statistical significance and was more than a 10 percentage point difference.
“Now that we know that phone-based inhaler education can improve appropriate inhaler use among COPD patients, we and other payers can develop programs to impact that,” Dr. Boudreau said.
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