WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- Medicaid outpatient drug spending more than doubled to $23.7 billion between 1997 and 2002, a federal report said Wednesday.
The increase reflects a rise in both the number of prescriptions written for Medicaid enrollees -- from 301 million in 1997 to 429 million in 2002 -- and the rapid uptake of newer classes of drugs, which are often more expensive, according to a report by Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The increase also reflected rapidly growing spending on behalf of disabled adults, including low-income persons with serious mental illnesses.
The most commonly prescribed newer classes of drugs included COX-2 inhibitors, proton pump inhibitors and cholesterol-lowering medications. Anti-depressant prescriptions rose from 2.5 million enrollees in 1997 to 3.7 million in 2002, which helped fuel a 130-percent rise in Medicaid spending for those drugs.
By 2002, anti-depressants and all other psychotherapeutic drugs constituted the largest category of drugs prescribed to Medicaid enrollees.
Annual Medicaid spending on drugs for disabled adults ages 19 to 64 grew 97 percent during the period of the study, jumping from $5.3 billion to $10.3 billion, while drug spending for all Medicaid enrollees 65 and older rose 81 percent, from $3.5 billion to $6.3 billion.
Other leading categories of drugs, by overall expenditures, were cardiovascular drugs, including ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, anti-hypertensive combinations and diuretics; hormones; respiratory drugs; analgesics; gastrointestinal drugs; and antibiotics.
