Projecting future drug expenditures--2012 (original) (raw)

Trends in annual drug expenditure – a 16 year perspective of a public healthcare maintenance organization

Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 2016

Background: Modern drug therapy accounts for a major share of health expenditure and challenges public provider resources. The objective of our study was to compare drug expenditure trends for ten major drug classes over 16 years at Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), the 2 nd largest healthcare organization in Israel. Methods: A retrospective analysis of drug expenditure per HMO beneficiary between the years 1998-2014. Trends in annual mean drug expenditures per MHS member were compared among 10 major drug classes. Results: Average annual drug expenditure per beneficiary increased during the study period from 429.56 to 474.32 in 2014 (10.4 %). Ten drug classes accounted for 58.0 % and 77.8 % of total drug cost in 1998 and 2014, respectively. The overall distribution of drug expenditure among drug classes differed significantly between 1998 and 2014 (p < 0.001), mainly due to the increase in expenditure for cancer drugs, from 6.8 % of total drug cost to 30.3 %. In contrast, expenditures for cardiovascular drugs decreased during the same period from 16.0 to 2.7 %. Moreover, the median annual increase in net drug costs per HMO member during 1998-2014 was largest for cancer drugs (NIS 6.18/year; IQR, 1.70-9.92/year), about twofold that of immunosuppressants, the second fastest growing drug class (NIS 2.81; IQR, 0.58-7.43/year). Conclusions: The continuous rise in anti-cancer drug expenditure puts a substantial burden on the medication budgets of public health organizations. Coordinated measures involving policy makers, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies will be required for efficient cost containment.

Hospital pharmacy decisions, cost containment, and the use of cost-effectiveness analysis

Social Science & Medicine, 2006

The key hypothesis of the study was that hospital pharmacies under the pressure of managed care would be more likely to adopt process innovations to assure less costly and more cost-effective provision of care. We conducted a survey of 103 hospitals and analyzed secondary data on cost and staffing. Compared to the size of the reduction in length of stay, changes in the way that a day of care is delivered appear to be minor, even in areas with substantial managed care share. The vast majority of hospitals surveyed had implemented some form of therapeutic interchange and generic substitution. Most hospitals used some drug utilization guidelines, but as of mid 1995 these were not yet important management tools for hospital pharmacies. To our knowledge, ours was the first survey to investigate the link between hospital formularies and use of cost-effectiveness analysis. At most cost-effectiveness was a minor tool in pharmaceutical decision making in hospitals at present. We could determine no differences in use of such analyses by managed care market share in the hospital's market share. One impediment to the use of cost-effectiveness studies was the lack of timeliness of studies, Other stated reasons for not using cost-effectiveness analysis more often were: lack of information on hospitalized patients and hence on the potential cost offsets accruing to the hospital; lack of independent sponsorship, and inadequate expertise in economic evaluation. ~~ 1997

Modelling strategies for reducing pharmaceutical costs in hospital

International Journal For Quality in Health Care Journal of the International Society For Quality in Health Care Isqua, 2001

Objective. To describe drug utilization and cost in a large hospital and to compare the impact of different strategies on cost associated with drug prescribing.

Clinical Pharmacy Services, Pharmacy Staffing, and the Total Cost of Care in United States Hospitals

Pharmacotherapy, 2000

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) were examined in 1,960,059 hospitalized Medicare patients in 584 United States hospitals in 1998. A database was constructed from the MedPAR database and the National Clinical Pharmacy Services survey. The 584 hospitals were selected because they provided specific information on 14 clinical pharmacy services and on pharmacy staffing; they also had functional ADR reporting systems. The study population consisted of 35,193 Medicare patients who experienced an ADR (rate of 1.8%). Of the 14 clinical pharmacy services, 12 were associated with reduced ADR rates. The most significant reductions occurred in hospitals offering pharmacist-provided admission drug histories (odds ratio [OR] 1.864, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.765-1.968), drug protocol management (OR 1.365, 95% CI 1.335-1.395), and ADR management (OR 1.360, 95% CI 1.328-1.392). Multivariate analysis, performed to further evaluate these findings, showed that nine variables were associated with ADR rate: pharmacist-provided in-service education (slope -0.469, p=0.018), drug information (slope -0.488, p=0.005), ADR management (slope -0.424, p=0.021), drug protocol management (slope -0.732, p=0.002), participation on the total parenteral nutrition team (slope 0.384, p=0.04), participation on the cardiopulmonary resuscitation team (slope -0.506, p=0.008), medical round participation (slope -0.422, p=0.037), admission drug histories (slope -0.712, p=0.008), and increased clinical pharmacist staffing (slope -4.345, p=0.009). As clinical pharmacist staffing increased from the 20th to the 100th percentile (from 0.93 ± 0.77/100 to 5.16 ± 4.11/100 occupied beds), ADRs decreased by 47.88%. In hospitals without pharmacist-provided ADR management, the following increases were noted: mean number of ADRs/100 admissions by 34.90% (OR 1.360, 95% CI 1.328-1.392), length of stay 13.64% (Mann-Whitney U test [U]=11047367, p=0.017), death rate 53.64% (OR 1.574, 95% CI 1.423-1.731), total Medicare charges 6.88% (U=111298871, p=0.018), and drug charges 8.16% (U=108979074, p<0.001). Patients in hospitals without pharmacist-provided ADR management had an excess of 4266 ADRs, 443 deaths, 85,554 patient-days, 11,745,342intotalMedicarecharges,and11,745,342 in total Medicare charges, and 11,745,342intotalMedicarecharges,and1,857,744 in drug charges. The implications of these findings are significant for our health care system, especially considering that the study population represented 15.55% of 12,261,737 Medicare patients and 5.71% of the 34,345,436 patients admitted to all U.S. hospitals.