Prescriber Checkup

Prescriber Checkup

The Doctors and Drugs in Medicare Part D

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Prescriber Checkup » Indiana » Valparaiso

SCOTT BUCK MD

Valparaiso | Indiana | 46383

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At A Glance: This Prescriber in 2016

Ophthalmology

Self-Reported Primary Specialty

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1,606Medicare Part D Prescriptions Filled, Including Refills

Rank: 86 out of 208 providers in this state and specialty

$181K Total Retail Price of All Prescriptions

Rank: 65 out of 208 providers in this state and specialty

377 Patients Receiving at Least One Drug in Part D
94% Patients 65 Years and Older

12% Subsidized Claims for Low-Income Patients

How Does This Prescriber Compare to Peers?

In the same specialty and state. Caveats »

Drugs That Present Special Risks
Costs of Prescribing
higher than average Average for
this specialty
in Indiana lower than average

Antipsychotics

0% of this provider’s 356 patients who are 65 and older filled at least one prescription for an antipsychotic drug, compared to an average of 0%.

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Antibiotics

7% of this provider’s 377 patients filled at least one prescription for an antibiotic drug, compared to an average of 3%.

More resources »

Opioids

0% of this provider’s 377 patients filled at least one prescription for an opioid, compared to an average of 2%.

More resources »

Brand Name Drugs

63% of this provider’s prescriptions were for brand-name drugs, compared to an average of 51%.

Prescription Price

$113 was the average price of a prescription from this provider, compared to $103 among peers.

Prescriptions per Patient

4 is the average number of prescriptions (including refills) per patient, compared to an average of 4.


How This Provider’s Patients Compare

Doctors often say their patients are sicker or more complex than those of their peers. The measure displayed below, used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, takes into account patients’ characteristics to estimate whether they are expected to have above-average Medicare spending. It considers patients’ age, sex, diagnoses from the past year and other factors. This provider’s score below takes into account all patients.

This Provider's Patients
Expected to have lower spending
Expected to have higher spending

This Provider's History

A comparison of this provider’s prescribing in Part D since 2014. All years may not be shown if there is insufficient data.

Cost of Claims

$137K

2014

$174K

2015

$181K

2016

Number of Claims

1,354

2014

1,530

2015

1,606

2016

This Prescriber's Drugs

The table below list this provider’s drugs, the number of prescriptions and how many went to seniors. Drugs are ranked by volume and compared with the rank for all providers in the same specialty and state. The list below includes only those drugs for which this provider wrote 50 or more prescriptions.

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O

An opioid drug. More » Prescription opioids (painkillers) can help alleviate certain kinds of pain in the short term but carry serious health risks.

A

An antibiotic drug. More » Used to treat bacterial infections but are often prescribed incorrectly to treat viral infections, such as chest colds or the flu.

P

An antipsychotic drug. More » Antipsychotics are frequently given to dementia patients, though it increases their risk of death.

10

This provider is among the top 10 prescribers of this drug in the country.

This provider’s prescriptions for this drug were for more days than those of peers. More » Because of this, his or her prescription count may be lower.

This provider’s prescriptions for this drug were for fewer days than those of peers. More » Because of this, his or her prescription count may be higher.

$

This provider received at least one payment from a pharmaceutical company related to this drug in 2016. More » This flag only appears for the top 50 most prescribed brand-name drugs in Medicare that year.

This Drug's Rank
Drug Name Total Prescriptions Filled with Refills Prescriptions
to 65+ 		Patients Receiving this Drug Category For this Prescriber For this Prescriber's Peers
LATANOPROST 263

prescriptions, 16% of all prescriptions

 252

prescriptions.

 63

patients, 17% of all patients

 1 1
DUREZOL 190

prescriptions, 12% of all prescriptions

 185

prescriptions.

 149

patients, 40% of all patients

 2 9
BESIVANCE 172

prescriptions, 11% of all prescriptions

 167

prescriptions.

 135

patients, 36% of all patients

 3 18
DORZOLAMIDE-TIMOLOL 114

prescriptions, 7% of all prescriptions

 114

prescriptions.

 28

patients, 7% of all patients

 4 5
TIMOLOL MALEATE 101

prescriptions, 6% of all prescriptions

 101

prescriptions.

 32

patients, 8% of all patients

 5 3
SIMBRINZA 95

prescriptions, 6% of all prescriptions

 90

prescriptions.

 22

patients, 6% of all patients

 6 29
PROLENSA 86

prescriptions, 5% of all prescriptions

 81

prescriptions.

 68

patients, 18% of all patients

 7 21
VIGAMOX 81

prescriptions, 5% of all prescriptions

 76

prescriptions.

 60

patients, 16% of all patients

 8 17
PREDNISOLONE ACETATE 67

prescriptions, 4% of all prescriptions

 62

prescriptions.

 51

patients, 14% of all patients

 9 2
TRAVATAN Z 53

prescriptions, 3% of all prescriptions

 48

prescriptions.

 16

patients, 4% of all patients

 10 6
About This Data

Prescribing data from Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, known as Part D, was compiled and released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that oversees the program. The data for 2016 includes more than 1.5 billion prescriptions written by 1.1 million doctors, nurses and other providers. This database lists over 460,000 of those providers who wrote 50 or more prescriptions for at least one drug that year. More than three-fourths of these prescriptions went to patients 65 and older; the rest were for disabled patients. Methodology »

Incorrect Info?

If you are a provider and you believe your address is incorrect, check the listing you created on the National Provider Identifier registry. If you change your listing, send a note to checkup@propublica.org and we will update your information. If you have other questions about this data, send a note to checkup@propublica.org.

Caveats
  • No comparisons are shown if there are fewer than 20 prescribers in the state share this specialty.
  • Comparisons do not take into account the medical conditions of patients. Medications for certain conditions do not have generic alternatives, so patients would receive more expensive brand name drugs.
  • This provider's address and specialty information was last updated on Aug. 4, 2008.
  • Comparisons are based on each provider’s current address, not necessarily where he or she worked during the time period covered in this database.
  • In rare circumstances, providers' prescription tallies may be inflated. Sometimes providers are credited with prescriptions written by colleagues (this happens in long-term care facilities) or are victims of fraud involving theft of their provider number.