Medicare Releases Trove Of Data On Drug Spending, Doctor Prescribing
The release marks the most specific breakdown ever provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regarding the prescription claims of Medicare beneficiaries.
Kaiser Health News:
Medicare Itemizes Its $103 Billion Drug Bill
The federal government popped the cap off drug spending on Thursday, detailing doctor-by-doctor and drug-by-drug how Medicare and its beneficiaries spent $103 billion on pharmaceuticals in 2013. (Rau, 4/30)
The New York Times:
Medicare Releases Detailed Data On Prescription Drug Spending
The data was the most detailed breakdown ever provided by government officials about the prescription claims of Medicare beneficiaries. It included information about 36 million patients, one million prescribers and $103 billion in spending on drugs under the program’s Part D in the year 2013, the most recent year available. The data did not take into account rebates that the drug manufacturers pay to the insurers that operate the Medicare beneficiaries’ drug plans. (Thomas and Pear, 4/30)
The Wall Street Journal:
Small Number Of Drugs Drive Big Medicare Bill, Spending Data Show
Costly drugs for diseases, such as cancer and multiple sclerosis, account for more than a quarter of spending on prescriptions for America’s elderly and disabled, despite being used by relatively few patients, according to newly released data from Medicare’s prescription-drug program. (Walker and Wilde Mathews, 4/30)
The Associated Press:
Medicare Data Show Contrast In Generic, Brand Prescribing
The most-used medicines in Medicare’s prescription drug program are generics, but the program spends the most on brand-name drugs, led by the heartburn treatment Nexium, according to an unprecedented release of government data on Thursday. That contrast sheds light on prescribing practices and how they might be used to save money, specialists say. (Neergaard, 4/30)
Reuters:
Nexium, Advair Led Medicare Drug Spending In 2013 - Officials
Four brand-name medications accounted for almost one-tenth of the $103 billion in prescriptions filled by older or disabled Americans under Medicare's drug program in 2013, U.S. officials reported on Thursday. (Begley, 4/30)
Bloomberg:
AstraZeneca’s Nexium Tops Spending In Medicare Drug Program
AstraZeneca Plc’s treatment for heartburn attracted the most spending of any single drug under Medicare’s drug benefit program, making up 2.4 percent of expenses. Spending on Nexium was $2.53 billion in 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Thursday, followed by GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s asthma treatment Advair Diskus at $2.26 billion. (Tracer and Chen, 4/30)
ProPublica:
Government Releases Massive Trove Of Data On Doctors’ Prescribing Patterns
The federal government released detailed data today on nearly 1.4 billion prescriptions dispensed to seniors and disabled people in the Medicare program in 2013, bringing more openness to the medication choices of doctors nationwide. The data release comes two years after ProPublica reported that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had done little to detect or deter hazardous prescribing in its drug program, known as Medicare Part D. ProPublica analyzed several years’ worth of prescription data, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, and created a tool called Prescriber Checkup that lets users compare individual physicians to others in the same specialty and state. (Ornstein, 4/30)
Politico Pro:
Medicare Details $100B In Drug Spending
CMS opened up a trove of Medicare Part D prescription drug data for public inspection on Thursday, the agency’s latest effort to invite outside scrutiny of spending in the massive federal health care program. (Norman, 4/30)