Racial and ethnic disparities in prescription coverage and medication use
UMass Chan Affiliations
Meyers Primary Care InstituteDepartment of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2004-05-06Keywords
African AmericansAged
Aged, 80 and over
Chronic Disease
Diabetes Mellitus
Drug Prescriptions
European Continental Ancestry Group
Female
Health Care Surveys
Health Services Accessibility
Heart Diseases
Hispanic Americans
Humans
Hypertension
Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services
Male
Medicare
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
Regression Analysis
Socioeconomic Factors
United States
Health Services Research
Primary Care
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study compared drug coverage and prescription drug use by race and Hispanic ethnicity for Medicare beneficiaries with three chronic conditions: diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease. We found that among beneficiaries without any drug coverage black persons and Hispanics used 10 to 40 percent fewer medications, on average, than white persons with the same illness, and spent up to 60 percent less in total drug costs. Having drug coverage somewhat lessened these differences although the effect was consistent with only M + C prescription benefits. Substantially lower medication use remained for dually eligible black beneficiaries and Hispanics with employer-sponsored drug benefits.Source
Health Care Financ Rev. 2003 Winter;25(2):63-76. Link to article on publisher's websitePermanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/36934PubMed ID
15124378Notes
At the time of publication, Becky Briesacher was not yet affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Medical School.