The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) released new research on spending and utilization trends of Medicare Part B drugs, drugs administered in physicians’ office or hospital outpatient departments rather than being purchased at the pharmacy counter or by mail order. The report showed that Medicare Part B drugs had the fastest rate of spending growth among drugs in the Medicare program over the past few decades. Part B drug spending per enrollee in traditional Medicare (known as fee-for-service or FFS) grew on average at 9.2 percent annually over the 2008-2021 period. This spending growth was more than triple the rate in Part D (2.6 percent) and nearly 4 times as high as the rate of per capita annual prescription drug spending across all payers (2.4 percent) reflected in the National Health.
