title: Effect of insurance on prescription drug use by ESRD beneficiaries.
abstract: In this article the author reviews the prescription drug coverage policy in the Medicare End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) program and examines the relationship between secondary insurance status and the number of medications prescribed for dialysis patients who had Medicare as their primary payer. Negative binomial models were used to examine this relationship. Findings in this study indicate that the number of secondary payers has a significant impact on the number of prescription drugs received by Medicare ESRD patients. Further research is needed to determine whether Medicare beneficiaries without secondary insurance are obtaining fewer prescriptions than needed or if those with greater coverage are obtaining more than needed.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy, USA. tshih@unc.edu
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Shih
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D003710:Demography; D003956:Dialysis; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000191:economics*; D004921:Erythropoietin / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007356:Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics*; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010361:Patients / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D004921:Erythropoietin