A recent JAMA study showed that a substantial proportion of 2016 Medicare Part D spending was for drugs with absent or low-quality cost-effectiveness analyses. This could present a challenge in efforts to develop policies addressing drug spending in terms of value. The study looked at 250 drugs with the greatest Medicare Part D spending in 2016. No cost-effectiveness analyses were available for 46 percent of those drugs, which represented 33 percent of Medicare Part D spending. For the remaining 54 percent, many did not meet minimum quality standards. In short, more cost-effectiveness research is needed to be sure that expensive drugs, where chapter alternatives exist, are worth their price
NCPA
