Datasets: CMS Releases Second Annual Prescriber-Level Medicare Drug Data Public Use Files, Online Lookup Tool Also Updated

From the Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS):

We are pleased to announce the second annual release of the Part D Prescriber Public Use File, a dataset that details information on the prescription drugs that were prescribed by individual physicians and other health care providers and paid for under the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program in 2014.

This dataset describes the specific medications prescribed and statistics on their utilization and costs.  It provides data on more than one million distinct health care providers who collectively prescribed $121 billion in prescription drugs under the Part D program in 2014.
The data are posted on the CMS website.
The Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data: Part D Prescriber Public Use File identifies providers using their National Provider Identifier (NPI) and the specific prescriptions that were dispensed at their direction, listed by brand name (if applicable) and generic name.  For each prescriber and drug, the dataset includes the total number of prescriptions that were dispensed (original and refills) and the total drug cost.
New in the 2014 data are prescriber-level summary variables with distinct beneficiary counts, total claim counts and total drug costs aggregated by drug category for opioids, antibiotics, antipsychotics, and high-risk medications among the elderly. In addition, a prescriber enrollment status field has been added to indicate whether the prescriber is enrolled, not enrolled or opted out of the Medicare program.
In addition, CMS has updated the Medicare Part D Prescriber Look-up Tool.
Data from the 2014 Medicare Part D Prescriber Public Use File can now be easily searched using this tool to find information on drugs prescribed by physicians and other practitioners for Medicare beneficiaries. Information available include drug name, number of prescriptions dispensed and drug cost.

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