Table 3.
Baseline Cholesterol-Lowering Medication Utilization
| Patients receiving cholesterol-lowering medications | Patients in a commercial plan, N (%) (N = 4,402,866) | Patients in a Medicaid plan, N (%) (N = 2,173,914) | Patients in a Medicare plan, N (%) (N = 7,537,720) | Total population, N (%) (N = 14,114,500) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statin users, by dosing intensitya | Low-intensity statin | 54,503 (13.20) | 18,684 (21.90) | 497,458 (14.60) | 570,645 (14.60) |
| Moderate-intensity statin | 287,968 (69.80) | 59,556 (69.70) | 2,377,955 (69.70) | 2,725,480 (69.70) | |
| High-intensity statin | 70,329 (17.00) | 7196 (8.40) | 535,758 (15.70) | 613,283 (15.70) | |
| Total | 412,800 (9.380) | 85,436 (3.93) | 3,411,171 (45.25) | 3,909,407 (27.70) | |
| Statin and nonstatin cholesterol-lowering medication usersb | Total | 45,327 (1.030) | 10,159 (0.47) | 364,656 (4.84) | 420,142 (2.98) |
| Nonstatin cholesterol-lowering medication users | Bile acid–binding resins | 10,285 (12.39) | 1629 (9.06) | 92,151 (15.89) | 104,065 (15.29) |
| Cholesterol absorption inhibitors | 13,800 (16.62) | 1573 (8.74) | 141,624 (24.43) | 156,997 (23.06) | |
| Fibrates | 42,835 (51.59) | 12,430 (69.09) | 279,033 (48.13) | 334,298 (49.10) | |
| Niacin | 10,300 (12.41) | 2120 (11.78) | 64,621 (11.15) | 77,041 (11.32) | |
| Omega-3 fatty acids | 15,204 (18.31) | 1899 (10.56) | 62,893 (10.85) | 79,996 (11.75) | |
| Total | 83,024 (1.89) | 17,990 (0.83) | 579,786 (7.69) | 680,800 (4.82) | |
| All cholesterol-lowering medication usersc | Total | 450,497 (10.23) | 93,267 (4.29) | 3,626,301 (48.11) | 4,170,065 (29.54) |
| Patients aged 40–75 years not receiving cholesterol-lowering medications | |||||
| With diabetes | 48,796 (3.00) | 15,211 (5.10) | 213,098 (8.70) | 277,105 (6.40) | |
| With hypertension claims but no diabetes | 230,743 (14.40) | 41,289 (13.90) | 761,533 (31.20) | 1,033,565 (23.80) | |
| Overall total | 1,605,973 (36.48) | 297,051 (13.66) | 2,442,821 (32.41) | 4,345,845 (30.79) | |
a
See Table 1 for statin dosing intensity definitions.
b
These patients are receiving a statin and a nonstatin cholesterol-lowering medication, and these counts are not mutually exclusive of the patients counted under the statin and the nonstatin cholesterol-lowering medication user groups.
c
Unique members who are receiving any cholesterol-lowering medications.