common procedure coding system codes; site of service codes; provider specialty codes; revenue codes ; and paid amounts. Claims for ambulatory services Imatinib submitted by individual providers used the HCFA 1500 format, and claims for facility services submitted by institutions used the UB 82 or UB 92 format. Typically, facility claims do not include any drugs administered in hospital. For medical data to be considered complete, an 6 month period following the delivery of services was required. Claims for pharmacy services were typically submitted electronically by the pharmacy at the time prescriptions were filled. Pharmacy claims data include drug name, dosage form, drug strength, fill date, days of supply, financial information, and deidentified patient and prescriber codes.
Pharmacy claims were typically added to the research database within 6 weeks of dispensing. raltegravir 871038-72-1 Patient selection. This study included commercial and Medicare Advantage health plan members with at least one medical claim for MM from January 1, 2001 through December 31, 2006. Additionally, to be included in the study, members were required to have at least one medical claim for malignant bone disease or for ZOL from January 1, 2001 buy Dorzolamide through December 31, 2006. The date of the first claim for bone metastasis or ZOL was set as the index date. To be included in the study, members were also required to be at least 18 years of age as of the index date and to have continuous health plan enrollment for at least 6 months prior to the index date.
Members whose index date was based on bone metastasis were excluded from the study if they initiated ZOL more than 30 days after the first claim for bone metastasis or had an SRE within 30 days of ZOL initiation. Also, members were excluded from the study if they had evidence of bone metastasis, purchase Clofarabine PAM, or monthly ZOL in the 6 months prior to the index date. Pamidronate and ZOL were identified by national drug codes or HCPCS codes . Members with evidence of oral tiludronate, intravenous ibandronate, oral or intravenous etidronate, or yearly ZOL, identified by national drug codes or HCPCS codes at any time during the study period were also excluded. Patient records included variable follow up periods, with a maximum follow up period of 7 years. The duration of follow up was calculated as the number of days from the index date until the earliest of disenrollment from the health plan , switch from ZOL to PAM, or the end of the study period .
Patients who died during an inpatient admission were identified from facility claims to distinguish disenrollment due to death versus disenrollment due to other factors that may not be observed in the data. Patient demographic pericardium and treatment characteristics. Age was determined as of the index year, and insurance type and gender were determined from enrollment data. A Charlson Quan comorbidity score was calculated based on the presence of diagnosis codes on medical claims in the preindex period. Use of oral bisphosphonates during the preindex period was identified from pharmacy claims. Chemotherapy received during the postindex period was identified by HCPCS and procedure codes. Treatment discontinuation of ZOL was defined as the first appearance of a gap greater than 45 days between treatments with ZOL. The date of discontinuation was defined as the service date for the last ZOL claim prior to the gap. Persistence was defined as the number of days from the first date of treatment .