Generic drugs offer big Medicare savings, but are not always dispensed
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* Kim Krisberg

The U.S. Medicare program could save more than $1 billion annually if generic prescriptions were consistently provided over brand-name ones, a recent study finds.

Published in March in *JAMA Network Open,* the study is based on 2017 prescription drug claims from Medicare Part D, which offers supplemental outpatient drug coverage and accounts for about one-third of prescription drug spending in the U.S. Of the 169 million filled prescriptions analyzed in the study, 8.5 million involved a brand-name drug when a generic was available.

Researchers found that the Medicare Part D program would have saved $977 million in one year if all branded drugs requested by clinicians had been generic instead. In addition, if patients had requested generics instead of brand-name drugs, the program would have saved $673 million in the same year, saving a total of $1.7 billion.

Laws are in place in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia that promote generic drug dispensing. But in cases where a brand-name drug was dispensed in 2017, clinicians and patients requested brand name prescription drugs 30% of the time.

“Even with laws in place, requesting a brand name drug happens way more frequently than it should,” study author Gerard Anderson, PhD, professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said in a news release. “This dispensing pattern results in exponentially higher costs for both the Medicare Part D program and patients.”

While some clinicians or patients mistrust generic drugs, research shows they are as safe and effective as brand-name drugs. Patients taking expensive brand-name drugs are also more likely to skip doses or split pills to try and save money, and less likely to fill their prescriptions.

“Policy initiatives aimed at containing prescription drug spending should consider discouraging prescribers and patients from requesting branded dispensing,” the study said.

Read the full study online at [https://bit.ly/3d4les8](https://bit.ly/3d4les8).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association