Prescriber Utilization & Demographics by Year

prescribers() allows access to information on prescription drugs provided to Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Part D (Prescription Drug Coverage), by physicians and other health care providers; aggregated by provider, drug and geography.

The Medicare Part D Prescribers Datasets contain information on prescription drug events (PDEs) incurred by Medicare beneficiaries with a Part D prescription drug plan. The Part D Prescribers Datasets are organized by National Provider Identifier (NPI) and drug name and contains information on drug utilization (claim counts and day supply) and total drug costs.

Usage

prescribers(
  year,
  type,
  npi = NULL,
  first = NULL,
  last = NULL,
  organization = NULL,
  credential = NULL,
  gender = NULL,
  entype = NULL,
  city = NULL,
  state = NULL,
  zip = NULL,
  fips = NULL,
  ruca = NULL,
  country = NULL,
  specialty = NULL,
  brand_name = NULL,
  generic_name = NULL,
  level = NULL,
  opioid = NULL,
  opioidLA = NULL,
  antibiotic = NULL,
  antipsychotic = NULL,
  tidy = TRUE,
  nest = TRUE,
  na.rm = TRUE,
  ...
)

prescribers_(year = rx_years(), ...)

Arguments

year

< integer > // required Year data was reported, in YYYY format. Run rx_years() to return a vector of the years currently available.

type

<chr> // required dataset to query, "Provider", "Drug", "Geography"

npi

<int> 10-digit national provider identifier

first, last, organization

<chr> Individual/Organizational prescriber's name

credential

<chr> Individual prescriber's credentials

gender

<chr> Individual prescriber's gender; "F" (Female), "M" (Male)

entype

<chr> Prescriber entity type; "I" (Individual), "O" (Organization)

city

<chr> City where prescriber is located

state

<chr> State where prescriber is located

zip

<chr> Prescriber’s zip code

fips

<chr> Prescriber's state's FIPS code

ruca

<chr> Prescriber’s RUCA code

country

<chr> Country where prescriber is located

specialty

<chr> Prescriber specialty code reported on the largest number of claims submitted

brand_name

<chr> Brand name (trademarked name) of the drug filled, derived by linking the National Drug Codes (NDCs) from PDEs to a drug information database.

generic_name

<chr> USAN generic name of the drug filled (short version); A term referring to the chemical ingredient of a drug rather than the trademarked brand name under which the drug is sold, derived by linking the National Drug Codes (NDCs) from PDEs to a drug information database.

level

<chr> Geographic level by which the data will be aggregated:

• "State": Data is aggregated for each state

• "National": Data is aggregated across all states for a given HCPCS Code

opioid

<lgl> type = 'Geography', TRUE returns Opioid drugs

opioidLA

<lgl> type = 'Geography', TRUE returns Long-acting Opioids

antibiotic

<lgl> type = 'Geography', TRUE returns antibiotics

antipsychotic

<lgl> type = 'Geography', TRUE returns antipsychotics

tidy

<lgl> // default: TRUE Tidy output

nest

<lgl> // default: TRUE Nest output

na.rm

<lgl> // default: TRUE Remove empty rows and columns

...

Pass arguments to prescribers().

By Provider

type ="Provider":

The Medicare Part D Prescribers by Provider dataset summarizes for each prescriber the total number of prescriptions that were dispensed, which include original prescriptions and any refills, and the total drug cost.

By Provider and Drug

type ="Drug":

The Medicare Part D Prescribers by Provider and Drug dataset contains the total number of prescription fills that were dispensed and the total drug cost paid organized by prescribing National Provider Identifier (NPI), drug brand name (if applicable) and drug generic name.

By Geography and Drug

type ="Geography":

For each drug, the Geography and Drug dataset includes the total number of prescriptions that were dispensed, which include original prescriptions and any refills, and the total drug cost.

The total drug cost includes the ingredient cost of the medication, dispensing fees, sales tax, and any applicable administration fees and is based on the amount paid by the Part D plan, Medicare beneficiary, government subsidies, and any other third-party payers.

Links

• Medicare Part D Prescribers: by Provider

• Medicare Part D Prescribers: by Provider and Drug

• Medicare Part D Prescribers: by Geography and Drug

• Medicare Part D Prescribers Technical Specifications

Update Frequency: Annually

Examples

if (FALSE) { # interactive()
prescribers(year = 2020,
            type = 'Provider',
            npi = 1003000423)

prescribers(year = 2019,
            type = 'Drug',
            npi = 1003000126)

prescribers(year = 2021,
            type = 'Geography',
            brand_name = 'Clotrimazole-Betamethasone')

prescribers(year = 2017,
            type = 'Geography',
            level = 'National',
            brand_name = 'Paroxetine Hcl')

prescribers(year = 2017,
            type = 'Geography',
            opioid = TRUE)

# Use the years helper function to
# retrieve results for every year:
rx_years() |>
map(\(x) prescribers(year = x,
                     type = 'Provider',
                     npi = 1043477615)) |>
list_rbind()

# Parallelized version
prescribers_(type = 'Provider',
             npi = 1043477615)

prescribers_(type = 'Drug',
             npi = 1003000423)

prescribers_(type = 'Geography',
             level = 'National',
             generic_name = 'Mirabegron')
}