Report: Specialty meds cause 13 percent hike in 2014

A new report shows a 13 percent spike in drug spending in Massachusetts for the year 2014, with staggering prices for hepatitis C treatment and increases in costs for cancer and arthritis medication playing a key role.
“You really get into issues of access with such high-cost drugs,” said Sara Sadownik, senior manager of research and cost trends for the Health Policy Commission, who conducted the study. “There was a huge spike in drug spending, and the results in Massachusetts very closely tracked what was happening in the United States.”
Early results from the commission’s 2015 Cost Trends Report found a whopping 352 percent increase in spending for hepatitis C drugs from 2013 to 2014, which include Gilead Sciences Inc.’s hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, with an $84,000 price tag.
There was a 28 percent increase in medications for arthritis and a 12 percent increase in oncology drugs, Sadownik said.
“The biggest question is, what’s going to happen? Is this what we can expect in spending going forward?” she asked.
According to the report, specialty drugs — which are defined as those that cost more than $6,000 annually — represented 34 percent of all drug spending in Massachusetts in 2014. That number is up from 26 percent in 2010.
And standard insurance plans require a 35 percent cost-share for specialty drugs, she said.
“It’s created a real challenge,” Sadownik said.
The figures released are preliminary results from the report, which will be released in its entirety in mid-January.
The results mirror a national trend in drug increases, which according to the report was in line with Massachusetts spikes at 12 percent.
Along with the price of new high-cost drugs and increases in the cost of existing products, the report found that 2014 saw one of the lowest rates of off-patent drugs in the past decade.
The commission isn’t the only group taking a hard look at patient care and prescription practices.
The Massachusetts Joint Committee on Public Health will hold a hearing today to discuss a bill requiring physicians and pharmacists to disclose when they have received financial incentive from insurance companies to prescribe generics or cheaper alternatives.
“You’re never told that. You’re just given a prescription with no explanation,” said Christine Griffin, executive director of the Disability Law Center. “It’s important for patients to have this information.”
Bill 1219: An Act Requiring Disclosure of Financial Incentives to Prescribe or Dispense Certain Drugs is sponsored by state Sen. Karen Spilka.