New Medicare Findings from G.C. Alexander and Colleagues Discussed (Association Between Prescription Drug Insurance and Health Care Utilization Among…

Managed Care Weekly Digest

New Medicare Findings from G.C. Alexander and Colleagues Discussed (Association Between Prescription Drug Insurance and Health Care Utilization Among Medicare Beneficiaries)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Investigators publish new report on Medicare and Medicaid - Medicare. According to news originating from Baltimore, Maryland, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "Medicare Part D was associated with reduced hospitalizations, yet little is known whether these effects varied across patients and how Part D was associated with length of stay and inpatient expenditures. We used Medicare claims and the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey from 2002 to 2010 and an instrumental variables approach."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research, "Gaining drug insurance through Part D was associated with a statistically significant 8.0% reduction in likelihood of admission across conditions examined. Reductions were generally greater for younger, healthier, and male individuals. Across all conditions, mean length of stay decreased by 3.2% from a baseline of 5.1 days. Part D was associated with a 3.5% reduction in expenditures per admission, reflecting a decrease of $844 from a mean charge of $24,124 per admission prior to Part D."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Thus, Part D was associated with statistically and clinically significant reductions in the probability of admission and length of stay for several common conditions."

For more information on this research see: Association Between Prescription Drug Insurance and Health Care Utilization Among Medicare Beneficiaries. Medical Care Research and Review, 2016;():1077558716681920. Medical Care Research and Review can be contacted at: SAGE Publications, USA , 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, USA. (Sage Publications - www.sagepub.com/; Medical Care Research and Review - mcr.sagepub.com)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from G.C. Alexander, 1 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States. Additional authors for this research include C. Schiman and R. Kaestner (see also Medicare and Medicaid - Medicare).

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077558716681920. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

The publisher's contact information for the journal Medical Care Research and Review is: SAGE Publications, USA , 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, USA.

Keywords for this news article include: Maryland, Baltimore, United States, Health Policy, Drugs and Therapies, Medicare and Medicaid, North and Central America.