HSA 4321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Heart Failure, Copayment, Prescription Drug
Document Summary
Recent studies of prescription drug use: modern pharmacy benefits programs have one-, two-, three-, and sometimes four-tier copayments. Mail order (cid:862)e(cid:373)ployer drug be(cid:374)efit pla(cid:374)s a(cid:374)d pe(cid:374)di(cid:374)g o(cid:374) pres(cid:272)riptio(cid:374) drugs(cid:863: 15 large private-sector firms. C = f (copay by tier, coinsurance, mgs, plan characteristics, age, sex, active/retiree, urban/rural, median income in zip of residence, 26 chronic conditions, time dummies) Pharmacy benefits and the use of drugs by the chronically iii: study of 1997 2000 pharmacy benefits data from 30 employers and 52 health plans. 528,969 privately insured beneficiaries aged 18 to 64: two-part model of drug use, eight drug classes. Findings for chronic conditions: doubling copayments in a typical two-tier plan associated with significant reductions in use across all eight drug classes. Largest reductions were for drugs with close over-the-counter substitutes that primarily treat symptoms rather than the underlying disease. Antihistamines and nsaids by about 45 percent, but. Antihypertensives and antidepressants by only 26 percent.
