Unreported Antipsychotic Use Increasing in Nursing Homes: The Impact of Quality-Measure Exclusions on the Percentage of Long-Stay Residents Who Got an Antipsychotic Medication Quality-Measure.

OBJECTIVE

Excluded from reporting to CMS's Percentage of long-stay residents who got an antipsychotic medication quality-measure are antipsychotics prescribed to nursing home patients with schizophrenia, Tourette's, or Huntington's. Over the 4 years following its 2012 debut, the quality-measure calculated a 27% reduction in inappropriate antipsychotic use but also an 18.3% increase in exclusion claims. This study evaluated the impact of these exclusions on the measure's findings.

METHODS

Claims data for the years 2011-2016 retrospectively identified the prevalence of schizophrenia, Tourette's, and Huntington's in quarterly cohorts of Virginia long-stay residents prescribed antipsychotics. Annualized diagnoses in 2011 were compared with subsequent years using simple logistic regression.

RESULTS

In 2016, 29% of the antipsychotics prescribed in Virginia nursing homes were to residents with diagnoses of schizophrenia, Tourette's, and Huntington's, a significant 32% increase from 2011.

CONCLUSION

Almost 30% of the antipsychotics employed in Virginia nursing homes are excluded from CMS's long-stay antipsychotic quality-measure.