CMS’s Medicare Drug Spending Dashboard Notes Spending Spike
Prescription drugs are reportedly a huge driver of healthcare spending. Prescription drug spending is apparently rising and now tops $3 trillion, over $9,500 per person.
By - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a Medicare Drug Spending dashboard to address prescription drugs’ affordability. CMS aims to make drug spending trends more transparent for healthcare providers. CMS said this list of medications will hopefully promote more industry chatter about drug spending and rising drug costs.
CMS examined Medicare prescription drugs for both Part B and Part D. CMS also analyzed various categories, including drugs with a high per user spending rate, and increasingly high unit costs.
“The data can be used to spur research and public discussion of how these drug products are being used in Medicare and how they are affecting beneficiary costs,” CMS stated.
CMS used last year’s data to identify 80 drugs meeting a specific list of criteria. This included 40 drugs provided by the Medicare Prescription Drug Program under Part D and 40 drugs administered by physicians and other professionals in the Medicare fee-for-service program under Part B.
Prescription drug spending up, up, and away?
Prescription drug spending is on the rise, asserted CMS. Prescription drug spending allegedly increased by 12 percent last year. This is the highest reported annual increase since 2002.
"Prescription drugs are a major contributor to improving patient health as well as a major driver of health care spending,” said CMS.
Last year, prescription drug spending increased by over 5 percent. 2013 saw growth of nearly 3 percent – an amount that topped $3 trillion, or over $9,500 per person.
“The faster growth experienced in 2014 was primarily due to the major coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act, particularly for Medicaid and private health insurance,” CMS explained.
“The share of the economy devoted to health care spending was 17.5 percent, up from 17.3 percent in 2013.”
Medicare, Medicaid, out-of-pocket spending on the up and up
Medicare spending increased last year by a reported 5.5 percent to top $618 billion. This spike represents an alleged 3 percent increase from 2013. Medicare reportedly accounted for 20 percent of total healthcare spending.
“This increase was primarily attributable to faster growth in spending for prescription drugs, physician and clinical services, and government administration and the net cost of insurance,” CMS said.
Total Medicaid spending represents 16 percent of total national health expenditures, stated CMS.
This is a reported 11 increase from 2014. There was a smaller confirmed 0.9 percent increase for state and local Medicaid expenditures. Federal Medicaid expenditures, however, increased by over 18 percent in 2013.
“The increased spending by the federal government was largely driven by the newly eligible enrollees under the ACA, which were fully financed by the federal government,” CMS explained.
Out-of-pocket spending grew as well at a rate of 1.3 percent in 2014 to nearly $330 billion. This increase was reportedly a tad less than 2013’s annual growth spike of around 2 percent.
“The slowdown in 2014 was influenced by the expansion of insurance coverage and the corresponding drop in the number of individuals without health insurance,” asserted CMS.
