Trends in prescription drug spending: 2016-2021
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- ASPE issue brief
- Author(s):
- Parasrampuria, Sonal, author Murphy, Stephen, (Of Office of Science and Data Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation), author
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Science and Data Policy, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, D.C. : Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office Of Science and Data Policy September 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Expenditures -- trends Prescription Drugs -- economics United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- In 2021, the U.S. health care system spent $603 billion on prescription drugs, before accounting for rebates, of which $421 billion was on retail drugs. Spending growth on drugs was largely due to growth in spending per prescription, and to a lesser extent by increased utilization (i.e., more prescriptions). Expenditure growth was larger for non-retail drug expenditures (25%) than for retail expenditures (13%). Between 2016 and 2021, the location where people received their drugs changed. Americans increasingly received their drugs from mail order pharmacies (35% increase), clinics (45% increase), and home health care (95% increase). During the same time period, there were decreases in drugs received through independent pharmacies (5% decrease), long term care facilities (17% decrease), and federal facilities (9% decrease). Drug spending is heavily driven by a relatively small number of high-cost products. The cost of specialty drugs has continued to grow, totaling $301 billion in 2021, an increase of 43% since 2016. Specialty drugs represented 50% of total drug spending in 2021. While the majority (80%) of prescriptions that Americans fill are for generic drugs, brand name drugs accounted for 80% of prescription drug spending in both retail and non-retail settings, with little change over time. The top 10% of drugs by price make up fewer than 1% of all prescriptions, but account for 15% of retail spending and 20%-25% of non-retail spending. Prescription drug spending trends have been less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than health care services. Several provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act address drug pricing, including allowing the Secretary of HHS to negotiate prices in Medicare Parts B and D for selected medications and introducing Medicare rebates for drug prices that rise faster than inflation. These provisions may impact future drug spending trends.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (13 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918540086206676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918540086206676