Others titles
- Medicare Drug Spending Data
- Medicare Drug Cost and Drug Spending
- Medicare Part B Drug Cost and Utilization
Keywords
- Medicare
- CMS Drugs
- CMS Drug Costs
- Drug Utilization
- Medicare Spending
- Part B Drugs Cost
Medicare Part B Drug Cost and Utilization Data 2016-2020
The Medicare Part B Drug Cost and Utilization Dataset presents drug spending and utilization information on Medicare Part B drugs (drugs administered in doctors’ offices and other outpatient settings) and includes annual data for 2016 to 2020.
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Description
Medicare Part B claims (e.g. physician and other suppliers, durable medical equipment and other supplies, hospital outpatient data) contain information on drugs administered and billed directly by providers. Analyses of Part B drugs are possible for all Part B fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries, but exclude any beneficiaries in the Medicare Advantage program. Drug spending metrics for Part B drugs are based on total spending, which is derived from summing the three revenue center payment fields on the claim referring to Medicare payment, deductible, and coinsurance. This represents the full value of the product, including the Medicare payment and beneficiary liability.
Part B claims were summarized by Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes and limited to HCPCS codes listed in the publicly available Medicare Average Sales Price (ASP) quarterly files at any point in the prior 5 years. In addition to the HCPCS listed in the ASP drug lists, oral anti-cancer drugs identified by HCPCS beginning with ‘WW’ were included. Part B claims were excluded if Medicare was not the primary payer or if the drugs were billed using “Not Otherwise Classified” (NOC) codes (e.g. J3490, J3590, or J9999), since identification of NOC drugs are not specified on the claim. In addition, Part B institutional claims submitted by critical access hospitals (CAHs), Maryland hospitals, as well as claims with total spending amounts of zero associated with the drug, which is due to bundling in Ambulatory Payment Classification groups, were excluded.
Claims data were averaged across any applicable modifiers or place of service indicators associated with a single HCPCS. Drugs with multiple strengths (e.g. 20mg, 40mg, 80mg) were not combined when individual HCPCS codes exist for different strengths (e.g., methylprednisolone has different HCPCS codes for 20mg, 40mg, and 80mg).
**OUTLIER FLAGS**
Average Spending per Dosage Unit is a key measure in the Medicare Part B Spending by Drug dataset. Incorrect dosage unit values reported on a small percentage of records may result in a misrepresentation of the overall “Average Spending per Dosage Unit” and “Change in Average Spending per Dosage Unit”. To address this concern, potentially anomalous drugs are identified as outliers so that users can exercise caution when interpreting results.
In the full underlying data file, potentially anomalous drugs are identified using a yearly outlier flag variable, which is set to “1” when a drug’s Average Spending per Dosage Unit is substantially impacted by outlier records in a given year.
There are three methods by which drugs are identified as outliers within the Medicare Part B Spending by Drug dataset:
**1.5 IQR Outlier Identification**
– For each Medicare Part B Drug (HCPCS), lower and upper bounds for average cost per dosage unit are defined as:
– Lower Bound: 25th percentile – 1.5*Interquartile Range
– Upper Bound: 75th percentile + 1.5*Interquartile Range
– Claim lines that fall outside of these bounds are flagged. Additionally, claim lines associated with HCPCSs for which there are fewer than 30 claim lines in total are flagged.
– Average Spend per dosage unit are calculated with and without flagged claim lines; if these values differ by over 10% and $1, the drug is identified as an outlier.
**Physician vs. Outpatient Outlier Identification**
– Medicare Part B Drugs are comprised of both physician and outpatient claims. In some cases, billing units may differ between settings.
– If both the average physician spend per dosage unit and average outpatient spend per dosage unit differ from the overall average spend per dosage unit by > 10% and $1, the drug is identified as an outlier.
**Low Record Count Identification**
– Methods 1 and 2 require robust distributions of data to identify outliers (i.e. observations outside of an established norm). In cases where a drug has fewer than 30 observations, it is flagged since there is not enough data to identify outliers.
About this Dataset
Data Info
Date Created | 2020 |
---|---|
Last Modified | 2022-01-27 |
Version | 2022-01-27 |
Update Frequency |
Annual |
Temporal Coverage |
2016-2020 |
Spatial Coverage |
United States |
Source | John Snow Labs; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; |
Source License URL | |
Source License Requirements |
N/A |
Source Citation |
N/A |
Keywords | Medicare, CMS Drugs, CMS Drug Costs, Drug Utilization, Medicare Spending, Part B Drugs Cost |
Other Titles | Medicare Drug Spending Data, Medicare Drug Cost and Drug Spending, Medicare Part B Drug Cost and Utilization |
Data Fields
Name | Description | Type | Constraints |
---|---|---|---|
HCPCS_Code | Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code for the drug | string | required : 1 |
HCPCS_Description | HCPCS Description of the drug | string | required : 1 |
Brand_Name | Name of the drug furnished by the provider. This includes both brand names (drugs that have a trademarked name) and generic names (drugs that do not have a trademarked name). | string | required : 1 |
Generic_Name | A term referring to the chemical ingredient of a drug rather than the trademarked brand name under which the drug is sold. | string | - |
Total_Spending_2016 | Aggregate drug spending for the Part B program for 2016 | number | level : Ratio |
Total_Dosage_Units_2016 | The sum of the dosage units of medication dispensed across the calendar year 2016 (e.g. number of tablets, grams, milliliters or other units). For Part B, the quantity of a drug in a dosage unit is the same as the quantity of the drug in a HCPCS billing unit. | integer | level : Ratio |
Total_Claims_2016 | Number of Medicare Part B claims for the year 2016 for each drug. | integer | level : Ratio |
Total_Beneficiaries_2016 | Number of Medicare Part B fee-for-service beneficiaries utilizing the drug in the year 2016. | integer | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Dosage_Unit_2016 | Part B drug spending divided by the number of dosage units during the year 2016. | number | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Claim_2016 | Part B drug spending divided by the number of claims during the year 2016. | number | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Beneficiary_2016 | Total Part B drug costs divided by the number of unique beneficiaries utilizing the drug during the benefit year 2016. | number | level : Ratio |
Outlier_Flag_2016 | Set to 1 when outliers in data cause Average Spending per Dosage Unit to change by at least 10% and $1, or there are not enough records to identify outliers during the year 2016. The description of dataset contains additional details. | integer | level : Nominal |
Total_Spending_2017 | Aggregate drug spending for the Part B program for 2017 | number | level : Ratio |
Total_Dosage_Units_2017 | The sum of the dosage units of medication dispensed across the calendar year 2017 (e.g. number of tablets, grams, milliliters or other units). For Part B, the quantity of a drug in a dosage unit is the same as the quantity of the drug in a HCPCS billing unit. | integer | level : Ratio |
Total_Claims_2017 | Number of Medicare Part B claims for the year 2017 for each drug. | integer | level : Ratio |
Total_Beneficiaries_2017 | Number of Medicare Part B fee-for-service beneficiaries utilizing the drug in the year 2017. | integer | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Dosage_Unit_2017 | Part B drug spending divided by the number of dosage units during the year 2017. | number | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Claim_2017 | Part B drug spending divided by the number of claims during the year 2017. | number | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Beneficiary_2017 | Total Part B drug costs divided by the number of unique beneficiaries utilizing the drug during the benefit year 2017. | number | level : Ratio |
Outlier_Flag_2017 | Set to 1 when outliers in data cause Average Spending per Dosage Unit to change by at least 10% and $1, or there are not enough records to identify outliers during the year 2017. The description of dataset contains additional details. | integer | level : Nominal |
Total_Spending_2018 | Aggregate drug spending for the Part B program for 2018. | number | level : Ratio |
Total_Dosage_Units_2018 | The sum of the dosage units of medication dispensed across the calendar year 2018 (e.g. number of tablets, grams, milliliters or other units). For Part B, the quantity of a drug in a dosage unit is the same as the quantity of the drug in a HCPCS billing unit. | integer | level : Ratio |
Total_Claims_2018 | Number of Medicare Part B claims for the year 2018 for each drug. | integer | level : Ratio |
Total_Beneficiaries_2018 | Number of Medicare Part B fee-for-service beneficiaries utilizing the drug in the year 2018. | integer | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Dosage_Unit_2018 | Part B drug spending divided by the number of dosage units during the year 2018. | number | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Claim_2018 | Part B drug spending divided by the number of claims during the year 2018. | number | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Beneficiary_2018 | Total Part B drug costs divided by the number of unique beneficiaries utilizing the drug during the benefit year 2018. | number | level : Ratio |
Outlier_Flag_2018 | Set to 1 when outliers in data cause Average Spending per Dosage Unit to change by at least 10% and $1, or there are not enough records to identify outliers during the year 2018. The description of dataset contains additional details. | integer | level : Nominal |
Total_Spending_2019 | Aggregate drug spending for the Part B program for 2019. | number | level : Ratio |
Total_Dosage_Units_2019 | The sum of the dosage units of medication dispensed across the calendar year 2019 (e.g. number of tablets, grams, milliliters or other units). For Part B, the quantity of a drug in a dosage unit is the same as the quantity of the drug in a HCPCS billing unit. | integer | level : Ratio |
Total_Claims_2019 | Number of Medicare Part B claims for the year 2019 for each drug. | integer | level : Ratio |
Total_Beneficiaries_2019 | Number of Medicare Part B fee-for-service beneficiaries utilizing the drug in the year 2019. | integer | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Dosage_Unit_2019 | Part B drug spending divided by the number of dosage units during the year 2019. | number | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Claim_2019 | Part B drug spending divided by the number of claims during the year 2019. | number | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Beneficiary_2019 | Total Part B drug costs divided by the number of unique beneficiaries utilizing the drug during the benefit year 2019. | number | level : Ratio |
Outlier_Flag_2019 | Set to 1 when outliers in data cause Average Spending per Dosage Unit to change by at least 10% and $1, or there are not enough records to identify outliers during the year 2019. The description of dataset contains additional details. | integer | level : Nominal |
Total_Spending_2020 | Aggregate drug spending for the Part B program for 2020. | number | level : Ratio |
Total_Dosage_Units_2020 | The sum of the dosage units of medication dispensed across the calendar year 2020 (e.g. number of tablets, grams, milliliters or other units). For Part B, the quantity of a drug in a dosage unit is the same as the quantity of the drug in a HCPCS billing unit. | integer | level : Ratio |
Total_Claims_2020 | Number of Medicare Part B claims for the year 2020 for each drug. | integer | level : Ratio |
Total_Beneficiaries_2020 | Number of Medicare Part B fee-for-service beneficiaries utilizing the drug in the year 2020. | integer | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Dosage_Unit_2020 | Part B drug spending divided by the number of dosage units during the year 2020. | number | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Claim_2020 | Part B drug spending divided by the number of claims during the year 2020. | number | level : Ratio |
Average_Spending_Per_Beneficiary_2020 | Total Part B drug costs divided by the number of unique beneficiaries utilizing the drug during the benefit year 2020. | number | level : Ratio |
Outlier_Flag_2020 | Set to 1 when outliers in data cause Average Spending per Dosage Unit to change by at least 10% and $1, or there are not enough records to identify outliers during the year 2020. The description of dataset contains additional details. | integer | level : Nominal |
Percent_Change_In_Average_Spending_Per_Dosage_Unit_2020 | The percentage change in average spending per dosage unit for the year 2020 from the year 2019. | number | level : Ratio |
Percent_Annual_Growth_Rate_In_Avg_Spending_Per_Dosage_Unit_2016_2020 | The constant average change in spending per unit over the most recent five years (2016-2020) of data availability, calculated using the compound annual growth rate (CAGR). | number | level : Ratio |
Data Preview
HCPCS Code | HCPCS Description | Brand Name | Generic Name | Total Spending 2016 | Total Dosage Units 2016 | Total Claims 2016 | Total Beneficiaries 2016 | Average Spending Per Dosage Unit 2016 | Average Spending Per Claim 2016 | Average Spending Per Beneficiary 2016 | Outlier Flag 2016 | Total Spending 2017 | Total Dosage Units 2017 | Total Claims 2017 | Total Beneficiaries 2017 | Average Spending Per Dosage Unit 2017 | Average Spending Per Claim 2017 | Average Spending Per Beneficiary 2017 | Outlier Flag 2017 | Total Spending 2018 | Total Dosage Units 2018 | Total Claims 2018 | Total Beneficiaries 2018 | Average Spending Per Dosage Unit 2018 | Average Spending Per Claim 2018 | Average Spending Per Beneficiary 2018 | Outlier Flag 2018 | Total Spending 2019 | Total Dosage Units 2019 | Total Claims 2019 | Total Beneficiaries 2019 | Average Spending Per Dosage Unit 2019 | Average Spending Per Claim 2019 | Average Spending Per Beneficiary 2019 | Outlier Flag 2019 | Total Spending 2020 | Total Dosage Units 2020 | Total Claims 2020 | Total Beneficiaries 2020 | Average Spending Per Dosage Unit 2020 | Average Spending Per Claim 2020 | Average Spending Per Beneficiary 2020 | Outlier Flag 2020 | Percent Change In Average Spending Per Dosage Unit 2020 | Percent Annual Growth Rate In Avg Spending Per Dosage Unit 2016 2020 |
90371 | Hepatitis B immune globulin for injection into muscle | HyperHEP B S-D | Hepatitis B Immune Globulin | 236577 | 2143 | 506 | 160 | 110.4 | 467.54 | 1478.6 | 0 | 261132 | 2408 | 405 | 167 | 108.44 | 644.77 | 1563.67 | 0 | 137212.26 | 1365 | 301 | 139 | 100.52 | 455.85 | 987.14 | 0 | 133840 | 1253 | 312 | 161 | 106.82 | 428.97 | 831.3 | 0 | 82203 | 856 | 147 | 83.0 | 96.03 | 559.2 | 990.4 | 0 | -10.1 | -3.42 |
90375 | Rabies immune globulin for injection beneath the skin and/or into muscle | HyperRAB | Rabies Immune Globulin/PF | 5715355 | 20332 | 2586 | 2534 | 281.1 | 2210.11 | 2255.47 | 0 | 6931941 | 24181 | 2757 | 2732 | 286.67 | 2514.31 | 2537.31 | 0 | 7722116.19 | 27773 | 3108 | 3070 | 278.04 | 2484.59 | 2515.35 | 0 | 9387992 | 33961 | 3395 | 3366 | 276.43 | 2765.24 | 2789.06 | 0 | 8250491 | 31501 | 3069 | 3021.0 | 261.91 | 2688.33 | 2731.05 | 0 | -5.25 | -1.75 |
90376 | Rabies immune globulin for injection beneath the skin and/or into muscle | Imogam Rabies-HT | Rabies Immune Globulin/PF | 1645103 | 6085 | 796 | 786 | 270.35 | 2066.71 | 2093.01 | 0 | 2012949 | 6795 | 779 | 775 | 296.24 | 2584.02 | 2597.35 | 0 | 1874211.25 | 6252 | 704 | 696 | 299.78 | 2662.23 | 2692.83 | 0 | 1258403 | 4708 | 498 | 491 | 267.29 | 2526.91 | 2562.94 | 0 | 888330 | 3303 | 348 | 348.0 | 268.95 | 2552.67 | 2552.67 | 0 | 0.62 | -0.13 |
90586 | Vaccine for bladder cancer injection into urinary bladder | BCG (Tice Strain) (90586) | BCG Live | 25991 | 214 | 204 | 54 | 121.45 | 127.41 | 481.31 | 0 | 6871 | 60 | 60 | 18 | 114.52 | 114.52 | 381.72 | 1 | 6141.06 | 53 | 53 | 11 | 115.87 | 115.87 | 558.28 | 1 | 7824 | 60 | 59 | 27 | 130.41 | 132.62 | 289.79 | 0 | 3046 | 22 | 22 | 138.46 | 138.46 | 1 | 6.18 | 3.33 | ||
90632 | Vaccine for Hepatitis A injection into muscle, adult dosage | Havrix | Hepatitis A Virus Vaccine/PF | 11853 | 230 | 230 | 216 | 51.53 | 51.53 | 54.88 | 0 | 21346 | 430 | 430 | 409 | 49.64 | 49.64 | 52.19 | 0 | 98033.4 | 1901 | 1901 | 1765 | 51.57 | 51.57 | 55.54 | 0 | 80365 | 1408 | 1408 | 1318 | 57.08 | 57.08 | 60.98 | 0 | 38404 | 657 | 657 | 649.0 | 58.45 | 58.45 | 59.17 | 0 | 2.41 | 3.2 |
90653 | Vaccine for influenza for injection into muscle | Fluad 2017-2018 | Flu Vacc TS2017(65up)/Mf59c/PF | 13672667 | 377465 | 377427 | 377327 | 36.22 | 36.23 | 36.24 | 0 | 68005093 | 1509541 | 1509532 | 1503192 | 45.05 | 45.05 | 45.24 | 0 | 122198204.8 | 2426031 | 2426033 | 2402213 | 50.37 | 50.37 | 50.87 | 0 | 159206951 | 2934831 | 2934809 | 2915102 | 54.25 | 54.25 | 54.61 | 0 | 26328827 | 464569 | 464550 | 461237.0 | 56.67 | 56.68 | 57.08 | 0 | 4.47 | 11.84 |
90662 | Vaccine for influenza for injection into muscle | Fluzone High-Dose 2017-2018 | Flu Vacc TS2017-18(65yr Up)/PF | 332579408 | 8480768 | 8470237 | 8380754 | 39.22 | 39.26 | 39.68 | 0 | 395145719 | 8946913 | 8929660 | 8788267 | 44.17 | 44.25 | 44.96 | 0 | 461229753.7 | 9341592 | 9341367 | 9154064 | 49.37 | 49.37 | 50.39 | 0 | 428142180 | 8274040 | 8263719 | 8149724 | 51.75 | 51.81 | 52.53 | 0 | 473362244 | 8280216 | 8270049 | 8111879.0 | 57.17 | 57.24 | 58.35 | 0 | 10.48 | 9.88 |
90670 | Pneumococcal vaccine for injection into muscle | Prevnar 13 | Pneumococcal 13-Valent Vaccine | 667483118 | 4006449 | 3953861 | 3925000 | 166.6 | 168.82 | 170.06 | 0 | 477149945 | 2679110 | 2678876 | 2660076 | 178.1 | 178.12 | 179.37 | 0 | 432793749.8 | 2282737 | 2282657 | 2267575 | 189.59 | 189.6 | 190.86 | 0 | 389175951 | 1947666 | 1947580 | 1931368 | 199.82 | 199.83 | 201.5 | 0 | 282415079 | 1292799 | 1292762 | 1284782.0 | 218.45 | 218.46 | 219.82 | 0 | 9.33 | 7.01 |
90672 | Vaccine for influenza for nasal administration | Flumist Quad 2018-2019 | Flu Vacc Qv Live 2018(2-49yrs) | 21164 | 1142 | 1142 | 1123 | 18.53 | 18.53 | 18.85 | 1 | 8581 | 508 | 508 | 505 | 16.89 | 16.89 | 16.99 | 1 | 7756.99 | 367 | 367 | 366 | 21.14 | 21.14 | 21.19 | 1 | 10408 | 391 | 391 | 388 | 26.62 | 26.62 | 26.82 | 0 | 12967 | 396 | 396 | 394.0 | 32.74 | 32.74 | 32.91 | 1 | 23.01 | 15.29 |
90674 | Influenza virus vaccine, quadrivalent (ccIIV4) | Flucelvax Quad 2017-2018 (90674) | Flu Vac QS 17-18(4yr Up)cel/PF | 2004584 | 89883 | 89937 | 89900 | 22.3 | 22.29 | 22.3 | 0 | 20985203 | 909621 | 909588 | 906650 | 23.07 | 23.07 | 23.15 | 0 | 16619925.85 | 707689 | 707665 | 700308 | 23.48 | 23.49 | 23.73 | 0 | 21315220 | 810960 | 811017 | 804641 | 26.28 | 26.28 | 26.49 | 0 | 18665831 | 675086 | 674818 | 668057.0 | 27.65 | 27.66 | 27.94 | 0 | 5.2 | 5.52 |