First-year Medicare Part D prescription drug benefits: medication access and continuity among dual eligible psychiatric patients.

Objective: This study provides national data on medication access and continuity problems experienced during the first year of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program, which was implemented on January 1, 2006, among a national sample of Medicare and Medicaid "dual eligible" psychiatric patients.

Method: Practice-based research methods were used to collect clinician-reported data across the full range of public and private psychiatric treatment settings. A random sample of psychiatrists was selected from the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile.

Medicaid prescription drug policies and medication access and continuity: findings from ten states.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to compare medication access problems among psychiatric patients in ten state Medicaid programs, assess adverse events associated with medication access problems, and determine whether prescription drug utilization management is associated with access problems and adverse events.

Methods: Psychiatrists from the American Medical Association's Masterfile were randomly selected (N=4,866). Sixty-two percent responded; 32% treated Medicaid patients and were randomly assigned a start day and time to report on two Medicaid patients (N=1,625 patients).