Table 1.

Disease-Specific Criteria for Inclusion in the Study

Disease	Inclusion Criteria	Exclusion Criteria	Any Acceptable Medications
Asthma	Patents were included if they were ≥18 years of age and had at least 1 medical encounter with asthma (ICD-9 code 493.xx) as the primary diagnosis OR at least 2 outpatient encounters with asthma as a secondary diagnosis OR a diagnosis and an asthma medication fill.	Patents were excluded if they had any diagnosis of emphysema or COPD.	Any appropriate asthma medication included cromolyn, inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), ICS + long-acting beta agonists (LABA) fixed-dose combination, leukotriene modifiers (LTM), and xanthines.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)	Patients were included if they were ≥40 years of age and had at least 1 medical encounter with a primary diagnosis of COPD (ICD-9 code 491.xx, 492.xx, or 496.xx) or 2 with secondary diagnoses of COPD.	None	Any appropriate COPD medication included anticholinergics (AC), LTM, xanthines, LABA, and ICS + LABA, short-acting beta-agonist (SABA) + AC fixed-dose combinations.
Coronary artery disease (CAD)	Patients were included if they had a diagnosis of CAD (ICD-9 codes 410.x to 414.x or 429.2x).	None	Any appropriate CAD medication included angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB), beta-blockers, anticoagulants, antiplatelets, and any fixed-dose combination product of any of these.
Diabetes	Patients were included if they had at least 2 medical encounters for diabetes (ICD-9 code 250.xx), or at least 1 medical encounter for diabetes and a prescription fill for insulin, or an oral antidiabetic medication, or 1 prescription fill for insulin.	Patients were excluded if they had only 1 inpatient or outpatient encounter for type I diabetes and lacked a prescription fill for insulin or an oral antidiabetic medication.	Any appropriate diabetes medication included alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, biguanides, D-phenylalanine derivative, meglitinides, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinedione or any fixed dose combination of these. Insulin was included in any appropriate medication percentages and excluded in any appropriate oral medication percentage and adherence measures.
Heart failure	Patients were included if they had a diagnosis of heart failure (ICD-9 codes 398.91, 428.xx, 402.01, 402.11, 402.91, 404.01, 404.11, 404.91, 404.03, 404.13, 404.93)	None	Any appropriate cardiovascular medication included ACE inhibitors, alpha-beta blockers, ARB, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, digitalis, direct vasodilators, diuretics, nitrates, antiarrythmias, anticoagulants, antiplatelets, any appropriate lipid-lowering medication, or any fixed-dose combination product of any of these.
Hyperlipidemia	Patients were included if they had a diagnosis of hyperlipidemia (ICD-9 codes 272.0–272.4 or 272.9) or had a prescription fill for at least 1 antihyperlipidemic agent.	Patients were excluded if they had evidence of CAD (ICD-9 codes 410.x to 414.x, or 429.2x).	Any appropriate lipid-lowering medication included statins, bile acid sequestrants, or other antihyperlipidemic medications (clofibrate, gemfibrozil, nicotinic acid, ezetimibe, and fenofibrate).

Condition-specific inclusion criteria including diagnosis codes and medications were obtained from published literature and current treatment guidelines^{8,10–11,13–16} for each condition of interest.