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Affordable Care Act Projected to Drive Up Prescription Drug Spending in Coming Years
Specialty drugs expected to account for 40% of total prescription spending by 2016, according to Catamaran Corporation.
While the overall benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are still hotly debated, there is little doubt the landmark legislation will lead to a boon for the pharmaceutical industry and the specialty drug market, according to the latest drug trend update from the Catamaran Corporation.
Catamaran, which provides pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services and technology, recently released a trend report updated for the first half of 2014 that calls for an upward trajectory for pharmacy spending due to the combined impact of health care reform and a robust drug pipeline. Technological advances and a growing demand for specialty therapies is expected to drive specialty medications to account for approximately 40% of all pharmacy spending by 2016.
“The impact of health care reform will become readily apparent across pharmacy purchasing and benefits,” the report states. “US spending on prescription drugs is estimated to increase in the retail space by $227 billion between 2010 and 2020.”
Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/1uncrGT
Source: Specialty Pharmacy Times
New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
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Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
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Higher Weight-Adjusted Waist Index Tied to Greater Mortality Risk in Patients With Osteoarthritis
April 23rd 2025Researchers consider the weight-adjusted waist index a more precise predictor of mortality risk in patients with osteoarthritis than traditional obesity measures, like body mass index.
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