January 21, 2022
The National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes has released its Antipsychotic Medicare Use and Data report for the second quarter of 2021. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is tracking the progress of the National Partnership by reviewing publicly reported measures. The official measure of the Partnership is the percentage of long-stay nursing home residents who are receiving an antipsychotic medication, excluding those residents diagnosed with schizophrenia, Huntington's Disease, or Tourette’s Syndrome.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, 23.9% of long-stay nursing home residents were receiving an antipsychotic medication. Since then, there has been a decrease of 39.6% to a national prevalence of 14.4% in the second quarter of 2021. Success has varied by state and CMS region, with some states and regions having seen a reduction of greater than 45%. CMS acknowledges that circumstances exist where clinical indications for the use of antipsychotic medications are present and does not expect that the national prevalence of antipsychotic medication use will decrease to zero.