title: Trends and current drug utilization patterns of Medicaid beneficiaries.
abstract: This study used national Medicaid data from 1994-2003 to investigate trends in noninstitutional drug utilization and expenditures in the Medicaid Program. We found that there was a substantial increase in both drug utilization and expenditures during this timeframe. Increased utilization resulted from increases in Medicaid enrollment, the mean number of prescriptions per enrollee, mean nominal and inflation-adjusted reimbursement per prescription, and the tendency for increased use of more expensive drugs. The top 40 drugs accounted for nearly $14.4 billion, roughly 43 percent of the total drug reimbursements for calendar year (CY) 2003.
authors.affiliation: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850, USA. terry.lied@cms.hhs.gov
authors.forename: Terry R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Lied
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Taparanskas
authors.forename: Tejas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shukla
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D008484:Medicaid / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000191:economics*; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations