Medicare beneficiaries spent the most on these drugs in 2014
New tool shows the drugs with the highest costs for Parts B and D
Medicare has created an online dashboard to show which drugs have the highest spending among Part B and Part D plans.
In the interest of transparency, CMS aims to make public the trends surrounding drug spending by Medicare and Medicare beneficiaries. They hope to start a discussion about the costs of drugs and how they could be changed.
If a drug ranks high for spending, cost increase or cost to users, it was considered for the dashboard. Overall, the dashboard represents a large portion of total spending by Medicare. The Part D drugs show 33% of overall spending. The Part B drugs show 71%.
Below are three Part D charts and information on the drugs included. See Part B charts on the online dashboard (link below).
Trends in Medicare Part D Total Spendingfor the Top 5 Drugs in 2014.
- Abilify: treats schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and others.
- Generic: Aripiprazole.
- Advair Diskus: treats asthma and COPD.
- Generic: None
- Crestor: treats high cholesterol and high levels of triglycerides.
- Generic: There is no generic version of Crestor, or Rosuvastatin Calcium. There are generic statin drugs, which are generic forms of other brand drugs, but no generic version of Rosuvastatin.
- Nexium: treats GERD.
- Generic: Esomeprazole Magnesium
- Sovaldi: treats hepatitis C.
- Generic: None
Annual Spending per User by Total Spending for Medicare Part D Drugs: 2014.
- Tracleer: treats pulmonary artery hypertension.
- Generic: None
- Gleevec: treats leukemia and other types of cancer.
- Generic: Sales of the generic imatinib mesylate will begin in February. The drug was approved in December.
- Olysio: treats hepatitis C.
- Generic: None
- Sovaldi: treats hepatitis C.
- Generic: None
- Copaxone: treats multiple sclerosis.
- Generic: Glatopa
- Humira: treats arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and others.
- Generic: Adalimumab
Medicare Part D Drugs with Large Increases in Cost per Unit, 2013 to 2014.
- Vimovo: PPI/ NSAID; treats arthritis, pain and other conditions.
- Generic: Esomeprazole/ Naproxen
- Captopril: ACE inhibitor; treats high blood pressure and kidney problems.
- Generic: Already generic
- Digoxin/ Digox: treats heart failure and heart rhythm disorders.
- Generic: Digoxin; (Digox is a brand drug)
- Prednisolone Acetate: treats eye conditions.
- Generic: Already generic
- Clobetasol Propionate: treats skin conditions.
- Generic: Already generic
To see the online dashboard, click here.
To learn more about the online dashboard, see this article from the Washington Post.