Drug Use and Spending for Medicare Beneficiaries During Part A Qualifying Skilled Nursing Facility Stays and Non-Qualifying Long-Term Care Facility Stays

This Policy Brief helps fill an important gap in our understanding of medication patterns in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) by comparing use and spending for prescription and over-the-counter drugs during skilled nursing facility (SNF) stays and related non-qualifying long-term care facility episodes. Its first aim is to characterize Medicare-qualified SNF stays in relation to other episodes of long-term institutional care that beneficiaries may experience. The second aim is to learn more about patterns of medication use and spending during SNF stays. The third aim of this Brief is to compare drug use and spending during SNF and non-qualified LTCF stays for Medicare beneficiaries who experience both types of episodes. [26 PDF pages]