Psychotropic Medication Use in the Foster Care Population in Arizona
Author | : |
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Total Pages | : 11 |
Release | : 2012 |
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ISBN | : |
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The GAO released a report in December 2011 comparing rates of psychotropic prescribing for foster children to non-foster children in Medicaid for calendar year 2008 by analyzing fee-for-service prescription claims for Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, and Texas. Results indicate that hundreds of foster and non-foster children studied were on five or more psychotropic medications, thousands of foster and non-foster children were prescribed doses higher than maximum cited in guidelines based on The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved labels, foster and non-foster children under 1 year of age were prescribed psychotropic medications, and psychotropic medications were prescribed at over two to four times higher for the foster care children compared to non-foster children. As the results of the GAO analysis cannot be generalized to Arizona, this paper evaluates Arizona data during this same period.