Background

The association between the Medicare Part D low-income subsidy (LIS), gap coverage, and outcomes such as medical expenditures, prescription fills, and medication adherence is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the LIS and these measures for patients within a large, national Part D plan in the United States.

Methods

In this cross-sectional, retrospective analysis, we compared total and plan expenditures, out-of-pocket costs, and medication fills and adherence for three categories of Medicare beneficiaries: non-LIS beneficiaries without gap coverage (non-LIS/non-GC), non-LIS beneficiaries with gap coverage (non-LIS/GC), and LIS beneficiaries (LIS).

Results

LIS beneficiaries, relative to non-LIS/non-GC and non-LIS/GC beneficiaries, had higher total expenditures ($1,887 vs. $1,360 vs. $1,341); lower out-of-pocket costs ($148 vs. $546 vs. $570); more expenditures exceeding the gap threshold (27.6% vs. 18.4% vs. 16.9%); and slightly higher adherence to blood pressure (65.6% vs. 64.2% vs. 62.4%); diabetes (62.5% vs. 57.7 vs. 57.4%); and lipid-lowering (59.6% vs. 57.0 vs. 55.6%) medications.

Conclusion

LIS beneficiaries had higher total expenditures, lower out-of-pocket costs, and modestly better adherence to diabetes medications than non-LIS/non-GC and non-LIS/GC beneficiaries.