Prescription Drugs

This Policy Brief offers an updated look at prescription drug utilization by Medicare beneficiaries residing in long-term care facilities and reports, for the first time, national estimates of prescription drug spending by this population. [23 PDF pages]

This paper examines by state variation in drug prices and drug spending. Variation in prices are found to be minimal but variation in spending (and utilization) are more substantial. Further work will explore the underlying reasons for the spending variation and whether patterns persist when analyzed for areas other than states.

As part of the Medicare Part D pharmacy benefit scheduled for implementation in 2006 by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA), beneficiaries will have a choice of private plans administering the benefit.? Although plans are required to provide access to needed drugs, the law does not require plans to provide equal coverage for all drugs.?

This paper describes the work NORC did to supplement the Federal Employee Health Benefits data (FEHBP) used to develop drug risk adjustment factors for over 65 individuals with a full drug supplement to Medicare. This data needed to be supplemented because the FEHBP data did not adequately represent, low-income, disabled, or non east Coast populations.

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The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was charged with setting regional market areas for the implementation of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA).

This report compares medication use in long-term care facilities and community settings for Medicare beneficiaries with heart conditions. The purpose of this comparison was to evaluate the utility of a new file of institutional drug use in the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), the premier source of health care information on the Medicare population.