The Medicaid program provides prescription drug coverage with minimal limits and copayments for just over 10 percent of Medicare beneficiaries. Although state Medicaid programs report to HCFA each year in the aggregate on spending for pharmacy benefits, little is known about spending levels for different types of dually eligible beneficiaries. With funding from the Kaiser Family Foundation, using data HCFA’s Dual Eligible Database, Mathematica Policy Research (MPR) is examining patterns of Medicaid pharmacy benefit use and spending among different types of beneficiaries. The database describes all Medicare and Medicaid service use and reimbursements during 1994 and 1995 for beneficiaries in ten states. The key dependent variables for the analysis are the number of prescriptions filled and reimbursement per month with full, fee-for-service coverage. The analysis includes bivariate tabulations and multivariate regression estimates of pharmacy use and spending for particular groups, controlling for characteristics such as demographics, the presence of certain serious health conditions, and nursing home residence.
Learning Objectives: Listeners will be able to identify the types of beneficiaries who are the major consumers of the Medicaid pharmacy benefit and those who may have problems accessing the benefit.
Keywords: Prescription Drug Use Patterns, Medicare/Medicaid
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: none
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.