The role of county-level socioeconomic status on brand-name prescriptions in Medicare part D: A cross-sectional Study

The objective of this study was to examine the association between county-level socioeconomic factors and brand-name drug prescription drug patterns among medical specialties with overall high brand-name outpatient prescription use. This cross-sectional study used data from 2 publicly available datasets. The 2015 Medicare Part D PUF data quantifies the prescription rates at the county-level and data from the US Census Bureau provides information on socioeconomic status at the county-level. We analyzed 3,821,523 brand-name claims and 14,088,613 generic claims reported by health providers from 40 specialties as provided by the 2015 Medicare Part D dataset. Internal Medicine, Family Practice, General Practice, Cardiology, and Ophthalmology accounted for 71% of the total amount of brand-name drugs filled under Medicare Part D in 2015. As the presence of individuals with an income ≥$100,000 increased in a given county, the likelihood of receiving a brand-name prescription claim increased. A county-level association exists involving socioeconomic factors and outpatient brand-name drug prescription patterns. Future interventions should consider these factors in order to reduce percentage of brand-name drugs filled and decrease health care expenditures.