An overview and study of beneficiaries' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of the medicare part d benefit.

Purpose: Medicare beneficiaries' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions (KAP) of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit have been under evaluation since the 2006 inception of the Part D benefit.

Objective: This study sought to examine beneficiaries' satisfaction with their Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, knowledge of the coverage gap, attitudes about the relative importance of certain insurance parameters, and overall perceptions of the Part D benefit.

Design: Cross-sectional, descriptive study design.

Cost variability of suggested generic treatment alternatives under the Medicare Part D benefit.

Background: The substitution of generic treatment alternatives for brand-name drugs is a strategy that can help lower Medicare beneficiary out-of-pocket costs. Beginning in 2011, Medicare beneficiaries reaching the coverage gap received a 50% discount on the full drug cost of brand-name medications and a 7% discount on generic medications filled during the gap. This discount will increase until 2020, when beneficiaries will be responsible for 25% of total drug costs during the coverage gap.

Assessing Medicare beneficiaries' willingness-to-pay for medication therapy management services.

Objectives: To assess Medicare beneficiaries' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for medication therapy management (MTM) services and determine sociodemographic and clinical characteristics influencing this payment amount.

Design: A cross-sectional, descriptive study design was adopted to elicit Medicare beneficiaries' WTP for MTM.

Setting: Nine outreach events in cities across Central/Northern California during Medicare's 2011 open-enrollment period.

Medicare Part D roulette: potential implications of random assignment and plan restrictions.

Background: Dual-eligible (Medicare/Medicaid) beneficiaries are randomly assigned to a benchmark plan, which provides prescription drug coverage under the Part D benefit without consideration of their prescription drug profile. To date, the potential for beneficiary assignment to a plan with poor formulary coverage has been minimally studied and the resultant financial impact to beneficiaries unknown.

Objective: We sought to determine cost variability and drug use restrictions under each available 2010 California benchmark plan.

Assessing quality of life in an ambulatory medicare population.

Objective: Medicare beneficiaries have unique health-related challenges causing significant impact on quality of life. This study examined the overall health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and differences in HRQOL between subgroups of an ambulatory Medicare beneficiary population.

Methods: Nine outreach events were held during the 2011 Medicare Part D prescription drug open-enrollment period, in which 397 beneficiaries were assisted with Part D plan evaluation and comprehensive medication therapy review.

Impact of an elective course on pharmacy students' attitudes, beliefs, and competency regarding Medicare Part D.

Objective: To determine the impact of an elective course on pharmacy students' perceptions, knowledge, and confidence regarding Medicare Part D, medication therapy management (MTM), and immunizations.

Design: Thirty-three pharmacy students were enrolled in a Medicare Part D elective course that included both classroom instruction and experiential training.

Assessment: Students' self-reported confidence in and knowledge of Part D significantly improved upon course completion.

Use of potentially inappropriate medications in an ambulatory Medicare population.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) use by applying the Beers criteria in an ambulatory population of Medicare beneficiaries, and to identify the most common PIMs/PIM classes taken by this population.

Design: Cross-sectional, observational study.

Setting: Nine community outreach events throughout central and northern California.

Potential opportunity cost of neglecting to annually reassess Medicare Part D standalone prescription drug plan offerings: the price of contentment?

Objectives: To determine the (1) potential cost difference (opportunity cost [OC]) to Medicare-eligible beneficiaries enrolled in the lowest-cost standalone prescription drug plan (PDP) in 2007 between the cost of such plan in 2008 and the lowest-cost plan in 2008 and the (2) percentage of PDPs with the lowest estimated annual cost (EAC) in both 2007 and 2008.

Design: Descriptive exploratory study.

Setting: United States during 2007 and 2008.

Analysis of national annual variation in total patient out-of-pocket Medicare Part D stand-alone prescription drug plan costs from 2007 to 2008.

Objective: This is the first study to compare total Medicare Part D (MPD) stand-alone prescription drug plan (PDP) estimated annual costs (EAC) between 2007 and 2008 in all MPD regions of the US using a patient cohort of Medicare-eligible patients.

Methods: A total of 50 patients were selected at random from a database of Medicare-eligible patients. Each patient profile, based on pharmacy claims data, was entered into the Medicare website and the EAC of each PDP in each of the 34 MPD regions was obtained.