Publications

BACKGROUND: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has implemented robust strategies to monitor prescription opioid dispensing, but these strategies have not accounted for opioids prescribed by non-VA providers. State-based prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are a potential tool to identify VA patients' receipt of opioids from non-VA prescribers, and recent legislation requires their use within VA.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate VA physicians' perspectives and experiences regarding use of PDMPs to monitor Veterans' receipt of opioids from non-VA prescribers.

DESIGN: Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews.

PARTICIPANTS: Forty-two VA primary care physicians who prescribed opioids to 15 or more Veterans in 2015. We sampled physicians from two states with PDMPs (Massachusetts and Illinois) and one without prescriber access to a PDMP at the time of the interviews (Pennsylvania).

APPROACH: From February to August 2016, we conducted semi-structured telephone interviews that addressed the following topics regarding PDMPs: overall experiences, barriers to optimal use, and facilitators to improve use.

KEY RESULTS: VA physicians broadly supported use of PDMPs or desired access to one, while exhibiting varying patterns of PDMP use dictated by state laws and their clinical judgment. Physicians noted administrative burdens and incomplete or unavailable prescribing data as key barriers to PDMP use. To facilitate use, physicians endorsed (1) linking PDMPs with the VA electronic health record, (2) using templated notes to document PDMP use, and (3) delegating routine PDMP queries to ancillary staff.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite the time and administrative burdens associated with their use, VA physicians in our study broadly supported PDMPs. The application of our findings to ongoing PDMP implementation efforts may strengthen PDMP use both within and outside VA and improve the safe prescribing of opioids.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about physicians' approaches to adopting new cardiovascular drugs and how adoption varies between drugs of differing novelty.

METHODS: Using data on dispensed prescriptions from IMS Health's Xponent™ database, we created a cohort of all primary care physicians (PCPs) and cardiologists in Pennsylvania who regularly prescribed anticoagulants, antihypertensives and statins from 2007 to 2011. We examined prescribing of three new cardiovascular drugs of differing novelty: dabigatran, aliskiren and pitavastatin. Outcomes were rapid adoption of each new drug, defined by early and sustained monthly prescribing detected by group-based trajectory models, by physicians within the first 15 months of marketplace introduction.

RESULTS: 5953 physicians regularly prescribed each drug class. The majority of physicians (63.8%) adopted zero new drugs in the first 15 months, 35.0% rapidly adopted one or two, and 1.2% rapidly adopted all three. Physicians were more likely to rapidly adopt the most novel drug, dabigatran (27.3%), than aliskiren (10.5%) or pitavastatin (8.0%). Physician specialty and sex were the most consistent predictors of adoption. Compared to PCPs, cardiologists were more likely to rapidly adopt dabigatran (Adjusted Odds Ratio 8.90, 95% confidence interval 7.42-10.67; P<0.001) aliskerin (2.05, CI 1.56-2.69; P<0.001) and pitavastatin (3.44, CI 2.60-4.57; P<0.001). Female physicians were less likely to adopt dabigatran (0.71, CI 0.59-0.85; P <0.001) and aliskiren (0.64, CI 0.49-0.83; P <0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Physicians vary in their prescribing of recently-introduced cardiovascular drugs. Though most physicians did not rapidly adopt any new cardiovascular drugs, drug novelty and cardiology training were associated with greater adoption.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the predictive validity of an adapted version of the Minimum Data Set (MDS) Mortality Risk Index-Revised (MMRI-R) based on MDS version 3.0 assessment items (MMRI-v3) and to compare the predictive validity of the MMRI-v3 with that of a single MDS item indicating limited life expectancy (LLE).

DESIGN: Retrospective, cross-sectional study of MDS assessments. Other data sources included the Veterans Affairs (VA) Residential History File and Vital Status File.

SETTING: VA nursing homes (NHs).

PARTICIPANTS: Veterans aged 65 and older newly admitted to VA NHs between July 1, 2012, and September 30, 2015.

MEASUREMENTS: The dependent variable was death within 6 months of admission date. Independent variables included MDS items used to calculate MMRI-v3 scores (renal failure, chronic heart failure, sex, age, dehydration, cancer, unintentional weight loss, shortness of breath, activity of daily living scale, poor appetite, acute change in mental status) and the MDS item indicating LLE.

RESULTS: The predictive ability of the MMRI-v3 for 6-month mortality (c-statistic 0.81) is as good as that of the original MMRI-R (c-statistic 0.76). Scores generated using the MMRI-v3 had greater predictive ability than that of the single MDS indicator for LLE (c-statistic 0.76); using the 2 together resulted in greater predictive ability (c-statistic 0.86).

CONCLUSION: The MMRI-v3 is a useful tool in research and clinical practice that accurately predicts 6-month mortality in veterans residing in Veterans Affairs NHs. Identification of residents with LLE has great utility for studying palliative care interventions and may be helpful in guiding allocation of these services in clinical practice. J Am Geriatr Soc 66:2353-2359, 2018.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of dual use of VA/Medicare Part D drug benefits on antihypertensive medication supply in older Veterans with dementia.

DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: National, linked 2007-2010 Veterans Affairs (VA) and Medicare utilization and prescription records for 50,763 dementia patients with hypertension.

STUDY DESIGN: We used inverse probability of treatment (IPT)-weighted multinomial logistic regression to examine the association of dual prescription use with undersupply and oversupply of antihypertensives.

DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: Veterans Affairs and Part D prescription records were used to classify patients as VA-only, Part D-only, or dual VA/Part D users of antihypertensives and summarize their antihypertensive medication supply in 2010: (1) appropriate supply of all prescribed antihypertensive classes, (2) undersupply of ≥1 class with no oversupply of another class, (3) oversupply of ≥1 class with no undersupply, or (4) both undersupply and oversupply.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Dual prescription users were more likely than VA-only users to have undersupply only (aOR = 1.28; 95 percent CI = 1.18-1.39), oversupply only (aOR = 2.38; 95 percent CI = 2.15-2.64), and concurrent under- and oversupply (aOR = 2.89; 95 percent CI = 2.53-3.29), versus appropriate supply of all classes.

CONCLUSIONS: Obtaining antihypertensives through both VA and Part D was associated with increased antihypertensive under- and oversupply. Efforts to understand how best to coordinate dual-system prescription use are critically needed.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence and consequences of receiving prescription opioids from both the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Medicare Part D.

METHODS: Among US veterans enrolled in both VA and Part D filling 1 or more opioid prescriptions in 2012 (n = 539 473), we calculated 3 opioid safety measures using morphine milligram equivalents (MME): (1) proportion receiving greater than 100 MME for 1 or more days, (2) mean days receiving greater than 100 MME, and (3) proportion receiving greater than 120 MME for 90 consecutive days. We compared these measures by opioid source.

RESULTS: Overall, 135 643 (25.1%) veterans received opioids from VA only, 332 630 (61.7%) from Part D only, and 71 200 (13.2%) from both. The dual-use group was more likely than the VA-only group to receive greater than 100 MME for 1 or more days (34.3% vs 10.9%; adjusted risk ratio [ARR] = 3.0; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.9, 3.1), have more days with greater than 100 MME (42.5 vs 16.9 days; adjusted difference = 16.4 days; 95% CI = 15.7, 17.2), and to receive greater than 120 MME for 90 consecutive days (7.8% vs 3.1%; ARR = 2.2; 95% CI = 2.1, 2.3).

CONCLUSIONS: Among veterans dually enrolled in VA and Medicare Part D, dual use of opioids was associated with more than 2 to 3 times the risk of high-dose opioid exposure.

BACKGROUND: Overlapping use of opioids and benzodiazepines is associated with increased risk for overdose. Veterans receiving medications concurrently from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Medicare may be at higher risk for such overlap.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between dual use of VA and Medicare drug benefits and receipt of overlapping opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional.

SETTING: VA and Medicare.

PARTICIPANTS: All veterans enrolled in VA and Medicare Part D who filled at least 2 opioid prescriptions in 2013 (n = 368 891).

MEASUREMENTS: Outcomes were the proportion of patients with a Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) measure of opioid-benzodiazepine overlap (≥2 filled prescriptions for benzodiazepines with ≥30 days of overlap with opioids) and the proportion of patients with high-dose opioid-benzodiazepine overlap (≥30 days of overlap with a daily opioid dose >120 morphine milligram equivalents). Augmented inverse probability weighting regression was used to compare these measures by prescription drug source: VA only, Medicare only, or VA and Medicare (dual use).

RESULTS: Of 368 891 eligible veterans, 18.3% received prescriptions from the VA only, 30.3% from Medicare only, and 51.4% from both VA and Medicare. The proportion with PQA opioid-benzodiazepine overlap was larger for the dual-use group than the VA-only group (23.1% vs. 17.3%; adjusted risk ratio [aRR], 1.27 [95% CI, 1.24 to 1.30]) and Medicare-only group (23.1% vs. 16.5%; aRR, 1.12 [CI, 1.10 to 1.14]). The proportion with high-dose overlap was also larger for the dual-use group than the VA-only group (4.7% vs. 2.3%; aRR, 2.23 [CI, 2.10 to 2.36]) and Medicare-only group (4.7% vs. 2.9%; aRR, 1.06 [CI, 1.02 to 1.11]).

LIMITATION: Data are from 2013 and cannot capture medications purchased without insurance; unmeasured confounding may remain in this cross-sectional study.

CONCLUSION: Among a national cohort of veterans dually enrolled in VA and Medicare, receiving prescriptions from both sources was associated with greater risk for receiving potentially unsafe overlapping prescriptions for opioids and benzodiazepines.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.