Becker's Healthcare November 27, 2024
Alexandra Murphy

Medicare beneficiaries are facing wide price discrepancies for prescription drugs, with the same medication costing vastly different amounts, depending on the plan and location, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 26.

Here are five key reasons why costs can vary significantly:

  1. Pharmacy benefits managers negotiate prices for Medicare, but they do so differently across health plans. For example, CVS Caremark has 643 different prices for generic versions of Zytiga, while Express Scripts has 500 and Optum Rx has 445. By comparison, Capital Rx, a smaller PBM, only has two prices for the same drug pegged to the U.S. government’s national average drug acquisition cost.
  2. The price for prescription drugs can also vary widely depending on...

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Topics: Biotechnology, Insurance, Medicare, Patient / Consumer, Pharma, Pharma / Biotech
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