Prior-Authorization Programs for Controlling Drug Spending

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Abstract
Spending for prescription drugs represents more than 10 percent of the nation's health care costs and is currently the fastest-growing component of health care expenditures.1 The rapid increase in drug spending has resulted from the expansion of the volume of medications prescribed, as well as a shift toward the inclusion of more new and expensive drugs. Medicaid programs have been especially vulnerable to the skyrocketing spending on drugs, which has often exacerbated state budget woes. Increasing at more than twice the rate of overall Medicaid spending, Medicaid expenditures for prescription drugs rose 18 percent annually between 1997 and 2000.2 Medicaid . . .