State-level impacts of Medicare Part D

In recent research, we explored the impact of the Medicare Part D program on hospitalization rates for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs) among elderly Americans.1 Our results indicate that Part D reduced a summary measure of ACSC hospitalization by 20.5 per 10,000, a percentage change of 4.1 percent. This change represents approximately 42,000 admissions, roughly half of the overall reduction in admissions in our 23-state sample during our study period (2005-2007). In this brief, we explore the state-level implications of the findings from our paper, by estimating the number of avoided hospitalizations in each state. (October 17, 2011)