{"id":3586,"date":"2011-03-15T14:18:02","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T18:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=3586"},"modified":"2011-03-15T14:18:02","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T18:18:02","slug":"4-generics-could-save-the-u-s-6-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=3586","title":{"rendered":"$4 Generics Could Save the U.S. $6 Billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2172\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2172\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Pills_USAgov.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2172\" title=\"Pills_USAgov\" src=\"http:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Pills_USAgov.jpg\" alt=\"Pills (USA.gov)\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Pills_USAgov.jpg 200w, https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Pills_USAgov-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2172\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(USA.gov)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Researchers from University of Pittsburgh&#8217;s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.upmc.com\/MediaRelations\/NewsReleases\/2011\/Pages\/Use-of-4-Dollar-Drug-Programs-Could-Save-Society-Billions-Says-Pitt-Grad-School-Study.aspx\">calculated the savings<\/a> from using common discounted generic drug programs instead of full-priced generics or brand-name drugs. The team estimated those savings at nearly $6 billion. Their findings appear in the current issue of\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/archinte.ama-assn.org\/cgi\/content\/extract\/171\/5\/468\"><em>Archives of Internal Medicine<\/em><\/a> (paid subscription required).<\/p>\n<p>The study covered people who used generic medications or their brand-name counterparts that also were available for $4.00 per 30-day supply through a discounted generic drug program. The study found that among the patients taking these medications, less than six percent used the $4.00 generic medication programs in 2007. In contrast, the prescription drug coverage plans asked these patients to pay on average about $10.00 for a 30-day supply of generic drugs and about $25.00 per 30-day supply for brand-name medications.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers examined a nationally representative sample of nearly 31,000 people in the 2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and identified patients who could have saved money had they filled their medications through a discount generic drug program. The researchers calculated potential savings as the difference between the actual prescription payments recorded in MEPS and the $4.00 the patients would have paid through a discount program.<\/p>\n<p>Had all eligible patients used the discount programs in 2007, the team calculated the overall societal savings at $5.8 billion. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hpm.pitt.edu\/directory\/bios\/zhang.asp\">Yuting Zhang<\/a>, the GSPH faculty member who led the study, notes that individual patient would have saved some $22.00 a year. &#8220;This suggests the majority of savings comes from a small proportion of individuals,&#8221; adds Zhang.<\/p>\n<p>Read more: <a href=\"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=3014\">Survey: Workers Use Employer Health Plan for Medical Info<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers from University of Pittsburgh&#8217;s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) calculated the savings from using common discounted generic drug programs instead of full-priced generics or brand-name drugs. The team estimated those savings at nearly $6 billion. Their findings appear in the current issue of\u00a0 Archives of Internal Medicine (paid subscription required). The study covered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[53,27,129,26],"class_list":["post-3586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regulations","tag-economics","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-statistics","tag-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3589,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions\/3589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}