Medicare Costliest Drugs Revealed (1956 hits)

The Medicare Part D drug program spent more on sofosbuvir (Sovaldi, Gilead Sciences) for hepatitis C ($3.1 billion) than on any other drug in 2014, according to an online spending "dashboard" unveiled by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on December 21.

The interactive dashboard also shows that the pain reliever esomeprazole/naproxen (Vimovo, Horizon Pharma) posted the biggest price hike in 2014 in the Medicare Part D program. Horizon Pharma raised the unit cost from $1.94 to $12.46, a 543% increase, after it acquired the drug from AstraZeneca in late 2013, according to CMS.

The agency said in a news release that it introduced the dashboard, which also covers physician-administered drugs in Medicare Part B, to spotlight the hot-button issues of affordability and cost control. Driven in part by sharp price increases and $94,000 cures such as sofosbuvir, the nation's overall spending on prescription drugs jumped 12% in 2014, the highest increase since 2002. Part B and Part D drug spending represented 14% of total Medicare expenditures in 2014 compared with 11% in 2010, according to the agency.

The dashboard lists 40 drugs under Part D and another 40 under Part B. To compile each group, CMS selected the top 15 drugs in 2014 in terms of total program (Part D or B) spending, the top 15 in annual spending per patient, and the top 10 in unit cost increase from the prior year. However, drugs could not be chosen for the spending-per-patient category if they were among the top 15 in total outlays. Likewise, drugs in either of these two categories were not eligible for the third category of highest unit-cost increase.

Program expenditures for each drug include beneficiary payments in the form of deductible and coinsurance as well as government subsidies and other third-party payments.

The 80 drugs represent 38% of the Medicare's total spending of $143 billion on Part D and Part B drugs in 2014.

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Posted By: Jeni Fa
Friday, January 1st 2016 at 8:05PM
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