Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Number of Americans Spending $100,000 on Prescriptions Triples in One Year - Study

From Reuters summarizing a study from Express Scripts:
  • About 139,000 Americans used at least $100,000 worth of medication in 2014, nearly triple the 47,000 who hit that mark in 2013.  
  • Health insurance covered 97.4% of the drug expenses among patients prescribed at least $50,000 worth of medicines in 2014. 
  • Among baby boomers aged 51 to 70 in the high-cost category, 77% were being treated for hepatitis C, for which costly new cures were introduced last year. Fifty percent were being treated for cancer. 
  • Anti-depressant use among those also taking a specialty medicine was more than twice the national average.