Impacts Of Generic Competition And Benefit Management Practices On Spending For Prescription Drugs: Evidence From Medicare’s Part D Benefit

On January 2, 2014, the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services (CMS) published a study in Medicare and Medicaid Research Review on the impact of generic competition and benefit management practices on spending for prescription drugs in Medicare Part D. The objective of this study was to estimate the effects of generic competition, increased cost-sharing, and benefit practices on utilization and spending for prescription drugs. Analysis of the first three years of Medicare’s Part D benefit showed shifts to generic drugs that reduced the growth of average prescription costs to only 4%, though the average drug price grew by . . .