National Health Spending In 2006: A Year Of Change For Prescription Drugs

Pharmaceutical Technology Assessment: Perspectives from Payers

“…Our attempts to identify and for drugs. 1 These developments may have prompted payers to implement additional health technology assessment and costcontainment strategies.…”

Pharmacy Students Teaching Prescribers Strategies to Lower Prescription Drug Costs for Underserved Patients

“…In addition, the issue of cost-related nonadherence is not routinely addressed during patient encounters. 4,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] This study demonstrated that a single lecture given by pharmacy students to other health care professional students and current prescribers can improve knowledge of prescription drug cost-containment strategies targeting vulnerable patient populations and can increase the likelihood of collaboration between prescribers and pharmacists. While future studies should determine if this intervention changes clinical practice and reduces patients' actual OOP prescription drug costs, these results show that this lecture format is an efficient way to disseminate important and timely information to health care professionals as they begin to practice in the new health care delivery models outlined in health care reform.…”

“…6 Even if the provider is aware of the prescription costs, the skill of helping patients manage OOP prescription drug costs is not consistently taught in health professional educational programs and is not routinely addressed during patient encounters. 4,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] While a more informed, cost-conscious health care workforce is one step toward improvement in patient adherence with prescription drug therapy, recent health policy legislation is changing the way the health care workforce engages patients. Medical institutions have attempted to keep pace so that future health care providers are prepared and can effectively adapt to the evolving changes in health policy.…”

National Health Spending In 2007: Slower Drug Spending Contributes To Lowest Rate Of Overall Growth Since 1998

“…Prescription drug prices, as reflected in the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA), grew 1.4 percent in 2007, much slower than the 3.5 percent growth in 2006. 8 This lower price growth was driven in part by increased use of generics and the introduction of generic drug discount programs by large retail chain stores. 9 Increased safety concerns for certain prescription drugs in 2007 also likely influenced the drug spending trend, as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued sixty-eight "black box" warnings, compared to fifty-eight in 2006 and twenty-one in 2003.…”