Trends and current drug utilization patterns of Medicaid beneficiaries

This study used national Medicaid data from 1994-2003 to investigate trends in noninstitutional drug utilization and expenditures in the Medicaid Program. We found that there was a substantial increase in both drug utilization and expenditures during this timeframe. Increased utilization resulted from increases in Medicaid enrollment, the mean number of prescriptions per enrollee, mean nominal and inflation-adjusted reimbursement per prescription, and the tendency for increased use of more expensive drugs. The top 40 drugs accounted for nearly $14.4 billion, roughly 43 percent of the total drug reimbursements for calendar year (CY) 2003.