Sovaldi, Nexium, Crestor, Abilify top Medicare spending list

In the Medicare Part D program, more than one million health care providers prescribed nearly $121 billion in prescription drugs in 2014, according to data released by CMS.

The release covers prescription drug data for 38 million enrollees who make up 70% of all Medicare beneficiaries.

“With this data release, patients, researchers and providers can access valuable information about the Medicare prescription drug program,” Niall Brennan, CMS chief data officer, said in the release. “Today’s release joins a series of actions the Administration is taking to improve transparency around government data, including the cost of prescription drugs.”

Part of the release included the top drugs by both claim count and cost, with data showing a 17% increase over 2013 spending and a 3% increase in the number of claims.

In 2014, claim counts reached 1,415,145,159. The top ten drugs by claim count were:

Lisinopril, 38,278,860;
levothyroxine sodium, 37,711,869;
amlodipine besylate, 36,344,166;
simvastatin, 34,092,548;
hydrocodone-acetaminophen, 33,446,696;
omeprazole, 33,032,770;
atorvastatin calcium, 32,603,055;
furosemide, 27,133,430;
metformin HCl, 23,475,787; and
gabapentin, 22,143,641.

In 2014, drug costs reached $121,445,569,093. The top ten drugs by cost were:

Sovaldi, $3,106,589,192;
Nexium, $2,660,052,054;
Crestor, $2,543,475,142;
Abilify, $2,526,731,476;
Advair Diskus, $2,276,060,161;
Spiriva, $2,158,219,163;
Lantus SoloSTAR, $2,016,728,436;
Januvia, $1,775,094,282;
Lantus, $1,725,391,907; and
Revlimid, $1,671,610,362.