Report: Medicaid wasting money on non-generics

The Generic Pharmaceutical Association immediately praised the new report.

“As our country works to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA), one of GPhA’s main goals this year is to provide educational materials to the public and policymakers showing that safe, effective and affordable generics are an integral part of the solution in reducing costs,” GPhA said in a statement. “Brill’s latest study illustrates that some state Medicaid programs unnecessarily spend large amounts of money by reimbursing pharmacies for costly brand products when generics with identical active ingredients, strengths, dosage forms, and therapeutic benefits are available at lower cost.”

Monday’s report also found that the most “wasteful” states were: California ($102 million), Texas ($31 million), Georgia ($25 million) and Ohio ($21 million). In spending per head, overspending was greatest for Vermont and Iowa ($31 per enrollee in each state), Maine ($18 per enrollee) and New Hampshire ($17 per enrollee).