This measure evaluates the proportion of older adults concurrently using three or more unique central-nervous system (CNS) active medications.

The number of member-years of beneficiaries in the denominator with concurrent use of 3 or more CNS active medications during the measurement period. Each medication must have at least 2 prescription claims with unique dates of service during the measurement period.

The number of member-years of enrolled beneficiaries, 65 years or older, with at least 2 prescription claims with unique dates of service of the same medication in the targeted drug classes of CNS active during the measurement period.

Contracts with 30 or fewer enrolled member-years (in the denominator) and beneficiaries enrolled in hospice or with a seizure disorder diagnosis during the measurement period are excluded.

Prescription Drug Event (PDE) data files submitted to CMS Drug Data Processing System (DDPS), Common Medicare Environment (CME) for enrolment information, the Minimum Data Set (MDS) for nursing home information, the Common Working File (CWF) ICD-10-CM codes to identify diagnoses, the Encounter Data Systems (EDS) used to identify diagnoses based on ICD-10-CM codes, and the PQA Medication Lists, which include the NDCs for this measure.

Reported on www.medicare.gov/plan-compare/

www.cms.gov/medicare/health-drug-plans/part-c-d-performance-data

www.cms.gov/files/document/2025-star-ratings-technical-notes.pdf