Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Sep 11;2(5):e000242.
doi: 10.1161/JAHA.113.000242.

Who enrolls in the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit program? Medication use among patients with heart failure

Zubin J Eapen  1 , Bradley G Hammill, Soko Setoguchi, Kevin A Schulman, Eric D Peterson, Adrian F Hernandez, Lesley H Curtis
Affiliations

Who enrolls in the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit program? Medication use among patients with heart failure

Zubin J Eapen et al. J Am Heart Assoc. .

Abstract

Background: Dispensing data from Medicare Part D standalone prescription drug plans are now available, but characteristics of enrollees with heart failure have not been well described.

Methods and results: We identified 81 874 patients with prevalent heart failure as of January 1, 2010, in a nationally representative 5% sample of Medicare beneficiaries. We classified patients according to enrollment in a Medicare Part D plan as of January 1, 2010. Demographic characteristics, comorbid conditions, and prescriptions were compared by enrollment status. A total of 49 252 (60.2%) were enrolled in a Medicare Part D plan as of January 1. Enrollees were more often women, black, and of lower socioeconomic status. Enrollees with heart failure more often filled prescriptions for loop diuretics than angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers, β-blockers, or aldosterone antagonists. During the first 4 months of 2010, 5444 (12.3%) reached the coverage gap, and 566 (1.3%) required catastrophic coverage beyond the gap.

Conclusions: Medicare beneficiaries with heart failure differ significantly according to enrollment in Part D prescription drug plans and represent a population underrepresented in clinical efficacy trials. Many face the coverage gap, and few select Medicare Part D plans that provide coverage during the gap. Linking Medicare Part D event data with clinical registries could help to determine whether eligible enrollees are undertreated for heart failure.

Keywords: Medicare Part D; heart failure; outcome assessment (health care).

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Stevenson LW. Projecting heart failure into bankruptcy in 2012? Am Heart J. 2011; 161:1007-1011 - PubMed
    1. Van Spall HG, Toren A, Kiss A, Fowler RA. Eligibility criteria of randomized controlled trials published in high‐impact general medical journals: a systematic sampling review. JAMA. 2007; 297:1233-1240 - PubMed
    1. Tinetti ME, Studenski SA. Comparative effectiveness research and patients with multiple chronic conditions. N Engl J Med. 2011; 364:2478-2481 - PubMed
    1. Curtis LH, Whellan DJ, Hammill BG, Hernandez AF, Anstrom KJ, Shea AM, Schulman KA. Incidence and prevalence of heart failure in elderly persons, 1994–2003. Arch Intern Med. 2008; 168:418-424 - PubMed
    1. Bonow RO, Bennett S, Casey DE, Jr, Ganiats TG, Hlatky MA, Konstam MA, Lambrew CT, Normand SL, Pina IL, Radford MJ, Smith AL, Stevenson LW, Burke G, Eagle KA, Krumholz HM, Linderbaum J, Masoudi FA, Ritchie JL, Rumsfeld JS, Spertus JAAmerican College of Cardiology, American Heart Association Task Force on Performance Measures, Heart Failure Society of America ACC/AHA clinical performance measures for adults with chronic heart failure: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Performance Measures (Writing Committee to Develop Heart Failure Clinical Performance Measures): endorsed by the Heart Failure Society of America. Circulation. 2005; 112:1853-1887 - PubMed

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources