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Know Your Facts: DME Drugs

Published on Sun Aug 24, 2003

The feds have been sharpening their knives for durable medical equipment drug pricing cuts for years, and now the first cut appears to be just around the corner.

Here are some of the facts the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services cites in its proposed rule (see story, " Drug Pricing") as evidence that drug reimbursement rates must be slashed:

  • Medicare's overall drug spending increased from $3.3 billion in 1998 to $8.4 billion in 2002, an average of 27 percent per year. At the same time, Medicare's beneficiary population increased 1.4 percent per year.

  • Spending on nebulizer drugs ipratropium bromide and albuterol sulfate increased from $393 million in 1998 to $1 billion in 2002.

  • Ipratropium bromide's actual cost is 78 percent less than average wholesale price.

  • Albuterol sulfate's actual cost is 84 percent less than AWP.

  • Spending on ipratropium bromide and albuterol sulfate accounted for 13 percent of carrier drug spending in 2002.

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