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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Sep 9.
Published in final edited form as: J Am Board Fam Med. 2009 Mar-Apr;22(2):187–195. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2009.02.080059

Table 3.

Number of Dispensed Prescriptions, Percentage of Prescriptions Dispensed as Brand-Name, and Mean Cost Per Prescription*

Variable Oral Hypoglycemics
Long-Acting Insulin
Statins
ACE Inhibitors/ARBs
Medicare VA Medicare VA Medicare VA Medicare VA
30-d prescriptions or units, n 10 385 905 5 098 778 2 875 278 349 1 978 168 710 6 095 802 3 880 351 7 274 793 3 907 993
Mean prescriptions per patient
 per year, n
13.3 13.5 12 400 17 393 9.1 10.1 9.9 10.5
Prescriptions for brand-name
 drug, %
23.3 7.4 60.6 16.8 45.5 12.3 37.8 20.0
Mean cost per 30-d supply for
 brand-name drug, $§
156.2 79.6 0.12 0.03 100.6 32.5 74.3 16.2
Mean cost per 30-d supply for
 generic drug, $§
13.6 9.6 0.06 0.01 20.7 8.5 17.7 9.1

ACE = angiotensin-converting enzyme; ARB = angiotensin-receptor blocker; VA = Veterans Affairs.

*

“Medicare” refers to patients enrolled in fee-for-service Parts A and B and stand-alone Part D. “Statins” denotes 3-hydroxy-3-methyl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors.

Values are based on the number of units dispensed rather than the number of prescriptions. Mean costs are costs per unit for analogue (“brand”) and nonanalogue (“generic”) insulin.

The number of prescriptions (insulin units) dispensed is for a 40% random sample Medicare denominator, and for our spending calculations, we multiplied by 2.5 to represent potential savings if applied to the entire fee-for-service Medicare Part D program.

§

Because VA costs typically include only ingredient costs and Medicare costs include total reimbursements to the pharmacy (i.e., plan payment, consumer copayment, and dispensing fee), we added patient copayments and an average dispensing fee to the cost of each VA prescription.