News Briefs

✦ When the size, shape, color and markings on their prescription pills change without explanation, it can hamper patients’ medication adherence, according to a study published on Aug. 12 in the American Journal of Managed Care. The study outlined results of two 2016 surveys: one conducted on patients 50 years and older taking generic drugs for depression, diabetes, epilepsy, HIV, hyperlipidemia or hypertension, and one conducted on licensed pharmacists. The pharmacists acknowledged that pill appearance changes frequently in their pharmacies, and more than three-fourths of respondents reported notifying patients about those changes often, either verbally or through a sticker on pill bottles. Yet less than half of patient respondents reported being notified of pill-appearance changes — something 82% said they would prefer pharmacists do. “Among patients who reported experiencing a change, 12% reported stopping their medication or using it less frequently,” the study said. Read more at https://bit.ly/3aVUbxD.

✦ Humana Inc. is suing a Florida-based company called QuivvyTech and multiple doctors, alleging that they ran an “organized, elaborate telemedicine scheme” targeting Humana members. According to the suit, which was filed on Aug. 20, telemarketers cold-called Humana members and “tricked them into talking about common ailments,” then sent that information to doctors who electronically prescribed high-cost topical creams to the members without ever actually speaking to them. The fraudulent prescriptions were then wired to the co-conspirator pharmacies, which dispensed the medications to the targeted members and “billed Humana millions of dollars for these fraudulent prescription claims,” the complaint alleged. Humana members, meanwhile, “often were left confused, irate and in the possession of unwanted expensive creams.” View the lawsuit at https://bit.ly/34vL0Tx.

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