Pharmacy

A preliminary analysis by from the CVS Health Research Institute in fact shows that payers could save approximately $38 to $63 million per 100,000 members.

Overall, CMS said the amount it spent on drugs in 2014 grew by 17 percent year over year, driven by rising pharmaceutical costs.

Drug costs increased more than 17 percent from 2013 to 2014, compared to a 3.3 percent increase in the total cost of claims, according to Medicare Part D data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 6.7 million people who filled prescriptions in January 2012 and followed their patterns of medication use and out-of-pocket spending through December 2014.

In 1998, investors filed more than 20 lawsuits alleging the Birmingham-based MedPartners, a physician practice management company, made false and misleading statements to the public about its financial condition and prospects.

Aetna has sent a letter to over 900 physicians, telling them they fall within the top 1 percent of opioid prescribers.

In the absence of generic alternatives to these pricey biologics, biosimilar drugs hold great promise for U.S. patients and their wallets.

Despite the high cost of specialty drugs driving up expenditures, Medicare Part D prescription drug plan premiums are projected to rise by only about $1.50 over the average premium last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Friday.

Generic drug price hikes have come under close scrutiny lately, as reports continue to surface of significant and seemingly inexplicable increases, often for widely used drugs like levothyroxine or digoxin, a heart medicine, whose out-of-pocket costs to consumers have been modest for years.

Research letter published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry found Medicare beneficiaries had the highest and most rapidly growing rate of "opioid use disorder." Six of every 1,000 recipients struggle with the condition, compared with one out of every 1,000 patients covered through commercial insurance plans.