Total Medicare Part D spending for Mylan's EpiPen increased 1,151 percent from 2007 to 2014, while the total number of Medicare Part D EpiPen users grew by 164 percent, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.
The analysis examined data from a 5 percent sample of Medicare prescription drug event claims from the CMS Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse between 2007 (the year after the drug benefit took effect, and the year Mylan acquired the product) and 2014 (the most recent year of data available). The analysis, based on retail claims data, does not account for manufacturer discounts to plans, Kaiser Family Foundation said.
Here are five other findings from the analysis.
1. Total Medicare Part D spending for the EpiPen increased from $7 million in 2007 to $87.9 million in 2014.
2. The total number of Medicare Part D enrollees using the EpiPen also increased — from nearly 80,000 users in 2007 to more than 211,000 in 2014, according to the analysis.
3. From 2007 to 2014, the average total Medicare Part D spending per EpiPen prescription increased 383 percent, from an average of $71 in 2007 to $344 in 2014.
4. Since 2008, annual total Medicare Part D EpiPen spending per prescription has increased at a much higher rate than average per capita Part D costs or medical care inflation, the analysis shows. For example, in 2008, Medicare Part D spending per EpiPen prescription increased by 7.4 percent, more than 3.5 times greater than the increase in total Medicare Part D per capita spending (2 percent) and twice the rate of medical care price inflation (3.7 percent).
5. Out-of-pocket spending by Medicare Part D enrollees who used the EpiPen increased from $1.6 million to $8.5 million between 2007 and 2014.
More articles on healthcare finance:
CRM is the new RCM: How a CRM platform can help hospitals accelerate growth and increase revenue
Ascension's expansion efforts pay off as operating surplus swells to $753M
7 hospitals receive credit downgrades in past month