Prescription drugs: recent trends in utilization, expenditures, and coverage.

This study provides an examination of the utilization of and expenditures on prescription drugs; the growth of these expenditures; and the sources of that growth. Considerable discussion is devoted to factors that influence the rate of growth in prescription drug expenditures. In addition, trends in prescription drug benefit plans (among both private and public sponsors) and efforts to control spending on drugs are discussed. These include tiered benefit structures, increased use of generic drugs, evidence-based drug effectiveness reviews, and prescription drug importation, among others. A brief discussion of the recently enacted Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 also is included.