Journal article
Effect of Medicare Part D and insurance type on Medicare beneficiary access to prescription medication and use of prescription cost-saving measures
Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, Vol.51(1), pp.72-81
01/2011
DOI: 10.1331/JAPhA.2011.09239
PMID: 21247829
Abstract
To examine how prescription drug access and use of prescription cost-saving measures changed after Medicare Part D was implemented and to determine their predictors in Medicare beneficiaries with different insurance types.
Repeated cross-sectional study.
United States in 2005 and 2007.
Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or older (n = 1,220 in 2005 and n = 1,024 in 2007).
Web-based surveys using nonprobability samples.
Access to prescription drugs and use of seven cost-saving measures.
Significantly fewer participants stopped taking a prescription because of cost, applied to an assistance program, received free prescription samples, and had limited prescription access in 2007 compared with 2005. Use of cost-saving measures by Medicare Part D patients was more comparable with that by uninsured participants than patients with employer-based drug coverage. One-third of all participants and almost one-half of Medicare Part D participants had requested a less expensive prescription. Among those participants, 70% received a less expensive prescription and most thought it worked about the same as the more expensive prescription.
Prescription drug access and use of cost-saving measures improved somewhat following the implementation of Medicare Part D, but some access problems continued to exist for Part D participants. Requests for less expensive prescriptions were common and frequently resulted in satisfactory switches.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Effect of Medicare Part D and insurance type on Medicare beneficiary access to prescription medication and use of prescription cost-saving measures
- Creators
- Julie M UrmieKaren B FarrisWilliam R DoucetteAmber M Goedken
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, Vol.51(1), pp.72-81
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- DOI
- 10.1331/JAPhA.2011.09239
- PMID
- 21247829
- ISSN
- 1544-3191
- eISSN
- 1544-3450
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/2011
- Academic Unit
- Pharmacy Practice and Science
- Record Identifier
- 9984065696402771
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