Increases in Medicare prescription drug plan costs attributable to psychotropic medications

Zivin K, McCammon RJ, Davis MM, Halasyamani LK, Kales HC. Increases in Medicare prescription drug plan costs attributable to psychotropic medications. The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. 2008 Aug 1; 16(8):674-85.

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Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: Older patients may regard some medications, particularly psychotropic medications, as discretionary compared with what they perceive as more "essential " nonpsychiatric medications. Patients'' concerns about psychotropic medication costs under Medicare Part D may reinforce these impressions. DESIGN: The authors examined which Medicare prescription drug plans (PDPs) would be least expensive for beneficiaries considering the costs of 1) all medications; and 2) only nonpsychiatric medications. Setting: The authors collected data from the PDP online comparison tool provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). PARTICIPANTS: Hypothetical Medicare beneficiaries. MEASUREMENTS: The authors examined four clinical scenarios from older outpatients with both chronic medical and psychiatric conditions (including psychosis, bipolar disorder, depression, and dementia with behavioral disturbances). RESULTS: The authors examined data from all 160 plans available in CMS PDP regions in May 2007. There were frequent discrepancies in the least expensive PDPs within region, depending on considering the costs of all medications, or just nonpsychiatric medications. In the clinical scenarios, patients selecting a PDP based on nonpsychiatric medications alone would pick an unnecessarily more expensive plan 74%-100% of the time (when they took any brand name medication), suggesting that excluding psychiatric medications from PDP choices may be excessively costly. However, brand name psychotropic medications significantly increased the costs of the least expensive plans. The latter finding might persuade patients to avoid taking needed psychiatric medication due to cost. CONCLUSION: This research highlights the complexity that patients with psychiatric and cognitive disorders face when choosing a Medicare PDP. Policymakers and clinicians should be aware of the tradeoffs that beneficiaries with psychiatric disorders face when making PDP plan choices.