New Medicare Dashboard Allows Users To Analyze Drug Prices
Through the tool, researchers and the public will have access to a trove of prescription drug data, including overall spending, recent cost trends and the number of Americans who rely on it. And The Wall Street Journal points out that the rollout for the dashboard including information on drugs with prices that have increased dramatically for Medicare.
The Associated Press:
Medicare Unveiling Online Tool To Analyze Costly Drugs
Medicare officials say researchers and the public will now have an easier way to analyze spending on costly prescription drugs. The online Medicare Drug Spending Dashboard will allow users to compare 80 drugs from thousands of covered medications. (12/21)
The Washington Post:
HHS Creates New Way To Explore Medicare Prescription-Drug Spending
The interactive “dashboard” shows the overall spending in Medicare for each drug listed, along with recent trends in its price and the number of older Americans who rely on it — in essence, revealing in a new way which pharmaceuticals are driving up drug spending and the factors behind the increases. (Goldstein, 12/21)
The Hill:
New 'Dashboard' Shows High Cost Of Medicare Drugs
The release of the dashboard comes after a November forum the administration held to hear from the industry, advocates and others about drug prices and lay the groundwork for future action. “How do we make public the information that will allow us to understand prices and value?” CMS acting Administrator Andy Slavitt asked then. (Sullivan, 12/21)
In other news, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released information on Medicare spending in 2014 —
The Wall Street Journal:
Surge In Prescription Costs Hit Medicare In 2014
Hefty price increases for a number of prescription drugs contributed to higher spending by the U.S. Medicare program in 2014, according to new government data released Monday. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services identified at least five drugs that were covered under Medicare’s Part D drug benefit and had increases of 100% or more in cost per unit from 2013 to 2014. (Loftus, 12/21)
