Millions of individuals receive prescription drugs through fed. programs. The increasing cost of prescription drugs has put pressure to control drug spending on fed. programs such as the Fed. Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), Medicare Part D, the VA, the DoD, and Medicaid. Prescription drug spending within the FEHBP in particular, which provides health and drug coverage to about 8 million fed. employees, retirees, and their dependents, has been a significant contributor to FEHBP cost and premium growth. This report describes approaches used by the FEHBP to control prescription drug spending and summarizes approaches used by other fed. programs. Illustrations.

The growing cost of brand-name prescription drugs (BNPD) -- FDA-approved drug products that typically have patent protection -- is a concern for patients, payers, and providers of health care -- particularly when price increases are large and occur suddenly. A 2008 congressional hearing drew attention to some small market prescription drugs that had an extraordinary price increase -- 100% or more at a single point in time. This report examined extraordinary price increases for BNPD. It examined the: (1) frequency of extraordinary price increases for BNPD from 2000 to 2008; (2) characteristics of the BNPD that had extraordinary price increases; and (3) factors that contributed to the extraordinary price increases experienced by these BNPD. Illustrations.

An unprecedented constellation of experts—leading cancer doctors, policymakers, cutting-edge researchers, national advocates, and more—explore the legacy and the shortcomings from the fifty-year war on cancer and look ahead to the future. The longest war in the modern era, longer than the Cold War, has been the war on cancer. Cancer is a complex, evasive enemy, and there was no quick victory in the fight against it. But the battle has been a monumental test of medical and scientific research and fundraising acumen, as well as a moral and ethical challenge to the entire system of medicine. In A New Deal for Cancer, some of today’s leading thinkers, activists, and medical visionaries describe the many successes in the long war and the ways in which our deeper failings as a society have held us back from a more complete success. Together they present an unrivaled and nearly complete map of the battlefield across dimensions of science, government, equity, business, the patient provider experience, and more, documenting our emerging understanding of cancer’s many unique dimensions and offering bold new plans to enable the American health care system to deliver progress and hope to all patients.