Slide Presentation of the 2007 Annual Meeting of AHRQ

Medicare Part D: Cost Implications of Switching to Cost-Effective Drugs January 2006

Screen shot of a bar chart comparing Medicare Part D costs for using Best Buy recommended drugs versus alternate drugs. The data shown is as follows:

Notes

Chart shows alternatives in Sacramento
Large potential savings for Medicare beneficiaries!
In this analysis, we looked at 5 common categories of drugs (e.g. NSAIDS, statins, CCB, ACE, anti-depressants
In 6 zip codes, compared the total annual costs for 2 sets of drug choices: 1 set used high-priced drugs in each category; 2nd set used BBDrugs.
Potential savings were huge—we found that Medicare beneficiaries could save in range of about $2300 to $5000 by switching to BBDs
Enough for these people to avoid the doughnut
Enough savings to pay premium—if just one category switch