| Louise S. Hadden |
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provides a public use dataset, the Part D Prescriber Public Use File which contains information on prescription drug events (PDEs) for Medicare beneficiaries with a Part D prescription drug plan, including information on prescribers, drug names, drug utilization, and drug costs. Although there is significant redaction in the data set to protect from prevent beneficiary identification, the Part D Prescriber PUF can be a helpful tool in planning analyses using identified data, and in constructing / testing analysis plans for using Medicare PDE data and/or private drug utilization data. This Hands On Workshop (HOW) demonstrates the process of acquiring and reconstituting the Part D Prescriber PUF, exploring helpful additional data sources such as NDC crosswalks and morphine milligram equivalent (MME) calculations. Preliminary analyses and exercises will be conducted, delving into spending and utilization data, as well as prescriber information, brand name and generic name, total number of prescriptions for each drug, 30-day standardized fill counts, total days' supply, and total drug costs. Using geographic information for each prescriber, prescriber locations will be geocoded and mapped using SAS PROC GEOCODE and SAS PROC SGMAP. Demonstrations will be conducted using SAS; however, participants are welcome to use the provided materials and exercises in the software package of their choice, such as R or Python. |