CMS unveils enhanced “Drug Dashboards” to increase transparency on drug prices
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a redesigned version of the Drug Spending Dashboards. For the first time, the dashboards include year-over-year information on drug pricing and highlight which manufactures have been increasing their prices.
The dashboards are interactive online tools that allow patients, clinicians, researchers, and the public to understand trends in drug spending. Data is reported for both Medicare and Medicaid. The new version of the dashboard reports the percentage change in spending on drugs per dosage unit and includes an expanded list of drugs.
Some of the most commonly used drugs across Medicare Part B, Medicare Part D, and Medicaid saw double-digit annual increases over the last few years. A few examples are highlighted in the tables below. Taking the 15 drugs with the highest total spending in each program, the drugs listed in the tables saw significant annual increases in spending per dosage unit from 2012 to 2016. Drugs were included if they experienced annual increases of at least 5% in Part B and at least 10% in Part D and Medicaid.
In 2012, Medicare spent 17% of its total budget, or $109 billion, on prescription drugs. Four years later in 2016, spending had increased to 23 percent, or $174 billion. In 2016, the drugs listed below accounted for $39 billion in total spending by Medicare and Medicaid.
