title: Part D Plan Switching Among Medicare Beneficiaries With Schizophrenia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Most Medicare schizophrenia patients were randomly assigned in 2006 to one of 409 benchmark plans. This study examined plan switching and factors affecting switching among beneficiaries with schizophrenia.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data were 2006 Medicare pharmacy data for three groups of schizophrenia patients: those with Medicaid coverage ("dual eligibles"; N=93,705), Medicare beneficiaries with a low-income subsidy (N=56,148), and Medicare beneficiaries without the subsidy (N=36,107). Switching frequency and how patient and plan characteristics affected switching were examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Beneficiaries who switched their Part D plan at least once included 10.7% of the dual eligibles, 9.8% of those with a subsidy, and 5.5% of those without. Several factors affected likelihood of switching, including age, geographic region, and proportion of prescriptions filled by beneficiaries who were covered or whose prescriptions required utilization review in the original plan.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Plan switching among Medicare beneficiaries with schizophrenia was relatively infrequent but may be driven by the need for better drug coverage and less restrictive utilization policies.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Zhang and Dr. Baik are with the Department of Health Policy and Management and Mr. Talisa is with the Department of Biostatistics, all at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (e-mail: ytzhang@pitt.edu ).
authors.forename: Yuting
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Dr. Zhang and Dr. Baik are with the Department of Health Policy and Management and Mr. Talisa is with the Department of Biostatistics, all at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (e-mail: ytzhang@pitt.edu ).
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Talisa
authors.affiliation: Dr. Zhang and Dr. Baik are with the Department of Health Policy and Management and Mr. Talisa is with the Department of Biostatistics, all at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (e-mail: ytzhang@pitt.edu ).
authors.forename: Seo Hyon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Baik
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008484:Medicaid / Q000191:economics*; D054524:Medicare Part D / Q000191:economics*; D011897:Random Allocation; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States