title: Medication costs, adherence, and health outcomes among Medicare beneficiaries.
abstract: In a two-year period more than two million elderly Medicare beneficiaries did not adhere to drug treatment regimens because of cost. This poor adherence tended to be more common among beneficiaries with no or partial medication coverage and was associated with poorer health and higher rates of hospitalization. The risk for cost-related poor adherence was especially pronounced among lower-income beneficiaries with high out-of-pocket drug spending. We argue that this pattern of cost-related poor medication adherence should inform the design of Medicare prescription drug benefit legislation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York State Psychiatric Institute, USA.
authors.forename: Ramin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mojtabai
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Olfson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000145:classification / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000145:classification; D007356:Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D011336:Probability; D012646:Self Administration / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States