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Editorial: Drug costs for the state are anything but generic
Chronically high medical inflation poses significant challenges to people who rely on medications, and governments trying to balance budgets, so it’s always encouraging to hear of successful efforts to curb costs.
The state of Washington recently announced that a program encouraging doctors to prescribe generic drugs has become a national leader. Growing out of the state Legislature’s passage of a bill in 2009, Generics First established a system for compiling prescription data, then using it to gently persuade doctors to prescribe cheaper alternatives to brand-name drugs.
As a result, state has increased – from 68 percent to 82 percent – the share of generic drugs prescribed for Medicaid patients. Even before these latest figures, the state trailed only Hawaii and Massachusetts in the use of generics, according to a 2010 study commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.
Because of this commitment to prescribing cheaper drugs, the state is saving millions of dollars without compromising patient care. In fact, lower prices encourage low-income patients to stay on their medications, rather than skip them or cut pills in half.
Prescription tracking gives the Health Care Authority insights into who is complying and who isn’t. In some cases, doctors change their prescribing practices when shown how they compare to others. But some doctors – and patients – remain attached to myths about brand name medications being more effective than generic alternatives.
It’s an expensive hurdle to overcome. A U.S. Health and Human Services report notes that the average retail price for a generic drug was 76 percent less than the brand-name version. So the education process must continue.
The good news is that patents on a wave of popular brand-name drugs are set to expire in the next five years, which should produce huge savings when competitors enter the market. In the next year alone, patients can expect to see generic alternatives for the top two sellers: cholesterol-limiting Lipitor and the blood thinner Plavix.
In addition, the Federal Trade Commission is urging Congress’ supercommittee to ban so-called pay-for-delay practices. Under these price-inflating arrangements, brand-name drug manufacturers persuade competitors to delay introducing generics by promising not to produce their own. This is a twist on the older practice of simply paying competitors to stay away.
And while the supercommittee is casting about for more ways to save money, it ought to allow Medicare to use its bargaining power to secure lower drug prices. Veterans Affairs does this and achieves significant discounts.
Government budgets are too sick to ban prospective “cures,” but at least the state of Washington is doing what it can to claw back some savings.