The Agency for Healthcare Research ...

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Medical Expenditure Panel measure and estimate (MEPS) has released a just discovered report on prescription drug use and expenditures. "Statistical Brief Number 21: turns in Outpatient Prescription Drug Utilization and Expenditures: 1997-2000" is available online at http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/ papers/st21/stat21.htm.

The MEP place a significant increase in total outpatient prescription expenditures between 1997 and 2000--from $723 to $103 billion. Outpatient prescription medications accounted for a greater proportion of total medical expenditures increasing from approximately 13 percent of total outlays in 1997 to more than 16 percent in 2000

Average out-of-pocket outlays for people 65 years and older were more than three times higher than for race less than 65 years of age each year of the study period. Between 1997 and 2000 the average cost for people 65 years and older with any prescription medicine outlay increased about 35 percent, from $819 to $1102 For the public younger than 65 years, the amount increased about 40 percent from $347 to $485

Finally, the average number of prescriptions for individuals age 65 and older was more than twice the average number of prescriptions for bodily forms under age 65 each year of the inquiry period.

COPYRIGHT 2004 American Academy of Family Physicians

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