title: State Medicaid officials battle drug firms in war to cut costs.
abstract: As state Medicaid agencies struggle to cut costs for prescription drugs, their main tool has been the use of drug formularies--a state-approved list of thousands of drugs that the agencies will reimburse for the treatment of Medicaid patients. Now, states are trying to use a second method that could reap big savings: requiring drug companies to bid to be included in the formulary. However, both cost-containment strategies have attracted the pharmaceutical industry's attention--and their lobbyists.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hudson
mesh_terms: D003164:Competitive Bidding; D003625:Data Collection; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics; D005569:Formularies as Topic; D008484:Medicaid / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States