Publications

2013

Aspinall, Sherrie L, Kenneth J Smith, Chester B Good, Xinhua Zhao, Roslyn A Stone, Ivy Q Tonnu-Mihara, and Francesca E Cunningham. (2013) 2013. “Incremental Cost Effectiveness of Pharmacist-Managed Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agent Clinics for Non-Dialysis-Dependent Chronic Kidney Disease Patients.”. Applied Health Economics and Health Policy 11 (6): 653-60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-013-0057-6.
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BACKGROUND: Pharmacists successfully manage patients with anemia and chronic kidney disease (CKD), but the cost effectiveness of these programs is unknown.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the cost effectiveness of pharmacist-managed erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) clinics with that of usual care in patients with non-dialysis-dependent (NDD)-CKD.

METHODS: A Markov model was used to estimate the incremental cost effectiveness of pharmacist-managed ESA clinics compared with usual care in outpatient veterans receiving ESAs for NDD-CKD in 2009. The analysis was conducted from a US Veterans Health Administration perspective with a 5-year time horizon, and the year of valuation for cost results was 2012. The effect of parameter uncertainty was explored in one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses.

RESULTS: In the deterministic base case analysis, costs and effectiveness per patient over 5 years were US$13,412 and 2.096 quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) in the pharmacist-managed ESA clinics and US$16,173 and 2.093 QALYs in usual care; ESA clinics dominated usual care. In one-way sensitivity analyses, ESA clinics no longer dominated if their patients' probability of being in the target hemoglobin range fell to 52 % (base case 71 %) or if the mean cost/patient/month of epoetin or darbepoetin in ESA clinics increased to approximately US$382 (base case US$226) or US$477 (base case US$268), respectively. When all parameters were varied simultaneously in a probabilistic sensitivity analysis, ESA clinics were favored ≥80 % of the time at willingness-to-pay thresholds of US$0-$100,000 per QALY gained.

CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacist-managed ESA clinics were less costly and more effective than usual care in patients receiving ESAs for anemia and NDD-CKD. Results were robust to variation and support the use of pharmacist-managed ESA clinics.

Fowler, Nicole R, Yi-Fan Chen, Christiana A Thurton, Aiju Men, Eric G Rodriguez, and Julie M Donohue. (2013) 2013. “The Impact of Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage on the Use of Antidementia Drugs.”. BMC Geriatrics 13: 37. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2318-13-37.
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BACKGROUND: Cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine are prescribed to slow the progression dementia. Although the efficacy of these drugs has been demonstrated, their effectiveness, from the perspective of patients and caregivers, has been questioned. Little is known about whether the demand for cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine are sensitive to out-of-pocket cost. Using the 2006 implementation of Medicare Part D as a natural experiment, this study examines the impact of changes in drug coverage on use of cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine by comparing use before and after Medicare Part D implementation among older adults who did and did not experience a change in coverage.

METHODS: Retrospective analyses of claims data from 35,102 community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries in Pennsylvania aged 65 or older. Beneficiaries were continuously enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan from 2004 to 2007. Outcome variables were any use of donepezil (Aricept(®)), galantamine (Razadyne(®)), rivastigmine (Exelon(®)), tacrine (Cognex(®)), or memantine (Namenda(®)) each year and the number of 30-day prescriptions filled for these drugs. Independent variables included type of drug benefit pre-Part D (No coverage, $150 cap, $350 cap, and No cap as the reference group), time period, and their interaction. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to test if there are differences in use by drug class or if beneficiaries with a diagnosis of dementia pre-Part D experienced an increase in use post-Part D.

RESULTS: The No coverage group had a 38% increase in the odds ratio of any use of antidementia medications (P = 0.0008) post-Part D relative to the No cap group. All four coverage groups had significant increases in number of 30-day prescriptions (P < 0.001) over the study period. In adjusted models that included the sub-sample with any use pre-Part D, the No coverage group had a 36% increase in prescriptions (P = 0.002) and the $350 cap group had a 15% increase (P = 0.003) after adjusting for trends in the No cap group. Results from the sensitivity analysis for the sub-sample with a diagnosis of dementia pre-Part D show that each group had significant increases in 30-day prescriptions compared to the No cap control group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Use of cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine in our sample increased and a greater increase in use was observed among Medicare beneficiaries who experienced improvements in drug coverage under Medicare Part D.

Huskamp, Haiden A, James O’Malley, Marcela Horvitz-Lennon, Anna Levine Taub, Ernst R Berndt, and Julie M Donohue. (2013) 2013. “How Quickly Do Physicians Adopt New Drugs? The Case of Second-Generation Antipsychotics.”. Psychiatric Services (Washington, D.C.) 64 (4): 324-30. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201200186.
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OBJECTIVE: The authors examined physician adoption of second-generation antipsychotic medications and identified physician-level factors associated with early adoption.

METHODS: The authors estimated Cox proportional-hazards models of time to adoption of nine second-generation antipsychotics by 30,369 physicians who prescribed antipsychotics between 1996 and 2008, when the drugs were first introduced, and analyzed the total number of agents prescribed during that time. The models were adjusted for physicians' specialty, demographic characteristics, education and training, practice setting, and prescribing volume. Data were from IMS Xponent, which captures over 70% of all prescriptions filled in the United States, and the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile.

RESULTS: On average, physicians waited two or more years before prescribing new second-generation antipsychotics, but there was substantial heterogeneity across products in time to adoption. General practitioners were much slower than psychiatrists to adopt second-generation antipsychotics (hazard ratios (HRs) range .10-.35), and solo practitioners were slower than group practitioners to adopt most products (HR range .77-.89). Physicians with the highest antipsychotic-prescribing volume adopted second-generation antipsychotics much faster than physicians with the lowest volume (HR range .15-.39). Psychiatrists tended to prescribe a broader set of antipsychotics (median=6) than general practitioners and neurologists (median=2) and pediatricians (median=1).

CONCLUSIONS: As policy makers search for ways to control rapid health spending growth, understanding the factors that influence physician adoption of new medications will be crucial in the efforts to maximize the value of care received by individuals with mental disorders as well as to improve medication safety.

Horvitz-Lennon, Marcela, Julie M Donohue, Judith R Lave, Margarita Alegría, and Sharon-Lise T Normand. (2013) 2013. “The Effect of Race-Ethnicity on the Comparative Effectiveness of Clozapine Among Medicaid Beneficiaries.”. Psychiatric Services (Washington, D.C.) 64 (3): 230-7. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201200041.
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OBJECTIVE: Effectiveness trials have confirmed the superiority of clozapine in schizophrenia treatment, but little is known about whether the drug's superiority holds across racial-ethnic groups. This study examined the effectiveness by race-ethnicity of clozapine relative to other antipsychotics among adult patients in maintenance antipsychotic treatment.

METHODS: Black, Latino, and white Florida Medicaid beneficiaries with schizophrenia receiving maintenance treatment with clozapine or other antipsychotics between July 1, 2000, and June 30, 2005, were identified. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to estimate associations between clozapine and race-ethnicity and their interaction; time to discontinuation for any cause was the primary measure of effectiveness.

RESULTS: The 20,122 members of the study cohort accounted for 20,122 antipsychotic treatment episodes; 3.7% were treated with clozapine and 96.3% with other antipsychotics. Blacks accounted for 23% of episodes and Latinos for 36%. Unadjusted analyses suggested that Latinos continued on clozapine longer than whites and that Latinos and blacks discontinued other antipsychotics sooner than whites. Adjusted analyses of 749 propensity score-matched sets of clozapine users and other antipsychotic users indicated that risk of discontinuation was lower for clozapine users (risk ratio [RR]=.45, 95% confidence interval [CI]=.39-.52), an effect that was not moderated by race-ethnicity. Times to discontinuation were longer for clozapine users. Overall risk of antipsychotic discontinuation was higher for blacks (RR=1.56, CI=1.27-1.91) and Latinos (RR=1.23, CI=1.02-1.48).

CONCLUSIONS: The study confirmed clozapine's superior effectiveness and did not find evidence that race-ethnicity modified this effect. The findings highlight the need for efforts to increase clozapine use, particularly among minority groups.

Gellad, Walid F, Julie M Donohue, Xinhua Zhao, Maria K Mor, Carolyn T Thorpe, Jeremy Smith, Chester B Good, Michael J Fine, and Nancy E Morden. (2013) 2013. “Brand-Name Prescription Drug Use Among Veterans Affairs and Medicare Part D Patients With Diabetes: A National Cohort Comparison.”. Annals of Internal Medicine 159 (2): 105-14. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-159-2-201307160-00664.
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BACKGROUND: Medicare Part D and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) use different approaches to manage prescription drug benefits, with implications for spending. Medicare relies on private plans with distinct formularies, whereas the VA administers its own benefit using a national formulary.

OBJECTIVE: To compare overall and regional rates of brand-name drug use among older adults with diabetes in Medicare and the VA.

DESIGN: Retrospective cohort.

SETTING: Medicare and the VA, 2008.

PATIENTS: 1,061,095 Medicare Part D beneficiaries and 510,485 veterans aged 65 years or older with diabetes.

MEASUREMENTS: Percentage of patients taking oral hypoglycemics, statins, and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs) who filled brand-name drug prescriptions and percentage of patients taking long-acting insulins who filled analogue prescriptions. Sociodemographic- and health status-adjusted hospital referral region (HRR) brand-name drug use was compared, and changes in spending were calculated if use of brand-name drugs in 1 system mirrored the other.

RESULTS: Brand-name drug use in Medicare was 2 to 3 times that in the VA: 35.3% versus 12.7% for oral hypoglycemics, 50.7% versus 18.2% for statins, 42.5% versus 20.8% for ACE inhibitors or ARBs, and 75.1% versus 27.0% for insulin analogues. Adjusted HRR-level brand-name statin use ranged (from the 5th to 95th percentiles) from 41.0% to 58.3% in Medicare and 6.2% to 38.2% in the VA. For each drug group, the 95th-percentile HRR in the VA had lower brand-name drug use than the 5th-percentile HRR in Medicare. Medicare spending in this population would have been $1.4 billion less if brand-name drug use matched that of the VA.

LIMITATION: This analysis cannot fully describe the factors underlying differences in brand-name drug use.

CONCLUSION: Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes use 2 to 3 times more brand-name drugs than a comparable group within the VA, at substantial excess cost.

Price, Carter C, Julie M Donohue, Evan Saltzman, Dulani Woods, and Christine Eibner. (2013) 2013. “The Economic Impact of Medicaid Expansion on Pennsylvania.”. Rand Health Quarterly 3 (2): 5.
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The Affordable Care Act is a substantial reform of the U.S. health care insurance system. Using the RAND COMPARE model, researchers assessed the act's potential economic effects on Pennsylvania, factoring in an optional expansion of Medicaid, and found the state would enjoy significant net benefits. With or without the expansion of Medicaid, the act will increase insurance coverage to hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians, but the COMPARE model estimates that the expansion of Medicaid eligibility would cover an additional 350,000 people and bring more than $2 billion in federal spending into the state annually than if the state did not expand. Should the state expand Medicaid, the additional spending will add more than $3 billion a year to the state's GDP and support 35,000 jobs. But Medicaid expansion is not without cost for the state; the estimated cumulative effect on Pennsylvania's Medicaid spending will be $180 million higher with the expansion than without between 2014 and 2020. Substantial reductions in uncompensated care costs for hospitals are possible even without expansion, but savings to hospitals for uncompensated care funding are even larger with the Medicaid expansion, amounting to $550 million or more each year.

Lo-Ciganic, Wei-Hsuan, Robert M Boudreau, Shelly L Gray, Janice C Zgibor, Julie M Donohue, Subashan Perera, Anne B Newman, et al. (2013) 2013. “Changes in Cholesterol-Lowering Medications Use over a Decade in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.”. The Annals of Pharmacotherapy 47 (7-8): 984-92. https://doi.org/10.1345/aph.1S050.
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BACKGROUND: The impact of evidence-based guidelines and controlled trial data on use of cholesterol-lowering medications in older adults is unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether utilization patterns of cholesterol-lowering medications in community-dwelling older adults changed following the release of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines and results from the Prospective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk in 2002.

METHODS: Community-dwelling elderly individuals who were enrolled in the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study in 1997-1998 were followed for up to 11 years. An interrupted time series analysis with multivariable generalized estimating equations (GEEs) was used to examine changes in level and trend in cholesterol-lowering medication use before and after 2002, adjusting for sociodemographics, health-related behaviors, and health status.

RESULTS: Cholesterol-lowering medication use increased nearly 3-fold from 14.9% in 1997-1998 to 42.6% in 2007-2008, with statins representing the most common class used (87-94%). Multivariable GEE results revealed no significant difference in the level of cholesterol-lowering medication use after 2002 (adjusted OR 0.95; 95% CI 0.89-1.02). Multivariable GEE results revealed that trend changes in the rate of increase in cholesterol-lowering medication declined after 2002 (adjusted ratio of ORs 0.92; 95% CI 0.89-0.95).

CONCLUSIONS: The use of cholesterol-lowering medication increased substantially over a decade in community-dwelling elderly individuals but was not related to a change in level or trend following the release of the guidelines and evidence-based data.

Gallini, Adeline, Julie M Donohue, and Haiden A Huskamp. (2013) 2013. “Diffusion of Antipsychotics in the US And French Markets, 1998-2008.”. Psychiatric Services (Washington, D.C.) 64 (7): 680-7. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.004662012.
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OBJECTIVE: Second-generation antipsychotics captured most of the U.S. antipsychotic market shortly after their introduction. Little is known about how second-generation antipsychotics have diffused in other countries with different health systems. The study objective was to describe trends in antipsychotic use in the United States and France from 1998 to 2008.

METHODS: Pharmaceutical policies in France and the United States are briefly described, followed by descriptive data on quarterly prescriptions for oral antipsychotics dispensed between January 1998 and September 2008. Data are from Xponent for the United States and the GERS database for France. Trends in the use of first- versus second-generation antipsychotics and in ingredient formulations of second-generation antipsychotics used are reported.

RESULTS: Between 1998 and 2008, total antipsychotic use in the United States increased by 78%. Total use in France was consistently higher despite a 9% decrease during the period. By 2008, second-generation antipsychotics represented 86% of the antipsychotics sold in the U.S. market, versus only 40% of the French market. However, average annual growth rates in use of second-generation antipsychotics were similar in the two countries. In France, use of all but one second-generation antipsychotic steadily increased, whereas in the United States trends in the use of newer drugs varied substantially by drug. For example, use of olanzapine decreased after 2003, but use of quetiapine increased.

CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight markedly divergent trends in the diffusion of new antipsychotics in France and the United States. Some differences may be explained by differences in health systems; others may reflect physicians' preferences and norms of practice.

Bao, Yuhua, Andrew M Ryan, Huibo Shao, Harold Alan Pincus, and Julie M Donohue. (2013) 2013. “Generic Initiation and Antidepressant Therapy Adherence under Medicare Part D.”. The American Journal of Managed Care 19 (12): 989-98.
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OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of initiating antidepressant therapy with a generic prescription on adherence to antidepressant therapy among Medicare patients. A second objective is to assess how the effect might be moderated by the Medicare Part D coverage gap.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Adherence to antidepressant therapy was measured by (a lack of) disruption in medication use defined by a gap of 30 days or more in antidepressant possession and monthly days of possession, both measured over 180 days since antidepressant initiation. We used a 5% random sample of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who received a new depression diagnosis in the first half of 2007 and initiated antidepressant therapy within 60 days (n = 16,778). We estimated a Cox proportional hazard model for antidepressant disruption and a mixedeffects linear model for monthly possession. All analyses were stratified by 4 cohorts defined by Part D low-income subsidy (LIS) status and Medicare entitlement (aged vs disabled).

RESULTS: Generic initiation was associated with improved adherence among all 4 cohorts, with a stronger effect among the non-LIS patients. Hazard ratios for antidepressant disruption ranged from 0.71 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53-0.96) among non-LIS, disabled patients to 0.88 (95% CI, 0.79-0.98) among LIS, aged patients. Generic initiation was associated with increases in days of monthly possession in all 4 cohorts and an additional benefit during the coverage gap for non-LIS patients.

CONCLUSIONS: Generic initiation can be an important tool to improve adherence to antidepressant treatment among Medicare patients and to mitigate the negative effects of the Part D coverage gap.