What Does The Medicare Drug Spending Dashboard Tell Us?

Lately drug spending has been a hot topic in the news. At the beginning of March, the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) reported that total U.S. drug spending reached $457 billion or 16.7% of total health expenditures – a rise of 12.7% over 2013 (see Observations On Trends In Prescription Drug Spending March 8, 2016).

And, like health care services, policymakers and payers are also focused on reducing spending on medications. For example, on March 8, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a new proposed rule to lower Medicare Part B drug spending . . .