Quantitative analysis of drug access & utilization rates
Secondary analyses will be conducted with the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), an ongoing panel survey of randomly sampled Medicare recipients conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
During the initial interview, a baseline survey is administered and the panelist is educated on how to collect information needed for subsequent surveys. Follow-up interviews over the next three years collect detailed information on health care utilization and expenditures.
Survey modules
Two survey modules are released for public use, and both are used in this project.
The Cost and Use module is used to track reported utilization of prescription medications (including number and type of medications) and out-of-pocket expenditures for these medications.
The Access to Care module is used in this study to track reported nonadherence to prescription regimens and causes of nonadherance, including drug costs and coverage limits.
Three dimensions of prescription drug use will be analyzed:
- Number and type of prescription medications used during the reference period;
- Out-of-pocket and total costs of prescription medication used during the reference period;
- Failure to obtain prescribed medications during the reference period (nonadherence).