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part-d_spending_2014.md

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Medicare Part D Spending, 2014

Data files (available at data.world)

  • Feather: spending-2014.feather
  • CSV: spending-2014.csv

Data types

  • string: a sequence of characters
  • integer: whole numbers
  • decimal: fractional numbers
  • money: fractional numbers representing currency

Field listing

Name Type Description
drugname_brand string Brand name of the drug
drugname_generic string Generic name of the drug
claim_count integer Number of Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Events (PDEs); includes original prescriptions and refills
total_spending money Aggregate drug spending for the Part D program (inc. Medicare, plan, and beneficiary payments)
user_count integer Number of Medicare Part D beneficiaries utilizing the drug
total_spending_per_user money total_spending / user_count
unit_count decimal Total dosage units of medication dispensed (e.g., number of tablets, grams, milliliters, etc.)
unit_cost_wavg money total_spending / unit_count; for drugs with multiple strengths, dosage forms, etc., this is a claim-weighted average unit cost
user_count_non_lowincome integer Number of beneficiaries using the drug who do not qualify for a low-income subsidy
out_of_pocket_avg_non_lowincome money Average amount that beneficiaries without a low-income subsidy paid out-of-pocket
out_of_pocket_avg_lowincome money Average amount that beneficiaries with a low-income subsidy paid out-of-pocket

Important notes

Data provenance

Drug information comes from Part D Prescription Drug Event (PDE) data and is available for a subset (~70%) of Medicare beneficiaries.

PDE records were summarized by drug by linking National Drug Codes (NDCs), which are available in the PDE data, to the First Databank MedKnowledge™ database and aggregating by brand name and generic name.

Data sources and calculation methods

Spending amounts are calculated based on the gross drug cost, which represents total spending for the prescription claim, including Medicare, plan, and beneficiary payments.

Data from all Part D organization and plan types were included in the analysis.

Data were aggregated across all strengths, dosage forms, and routes of administration.

Excluded data

Over-the-counter drugs are excluded from this data set.

To protect the privacy of Medicare beneficiaries, all drug records derived from 10 or fewer claims -- as well as records that can be used to calculate such data -- are also excluded.