AHRQ Stats

More than two-thirds of senior Americans with Medicare coverage purchased cardiovascular drugs such as calcium channel blockers and diuretics in 2010. (Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #411: Expenditures for the Top Five Therapeutic Classes of Outpatient Prescription Drugs, Medicare Beneficiaries, Age 65 and Older, U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2010).

STATISTICAL BRIEF #411:
Expenditures for the Top Five Therapeutic Classes of Outpatient Prescription Drugs, Medicare Beneficiaries, Age 65 and Older, U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2010

May 2013

Anita Soni, PhD and Marc Roemer, MS

Highlights

In 2010, the top five most costly therapeutic classes of prescription drugs ranked by total expense among Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older were: metabolic agents, cardiovascular agents, central nervous system agents, respiratory agents, and gastrointestinal agents.
Among the Medicare population age 65 and older in 2010, expenditures for the top five therapeutic classes totaled $63.4 billion and represented more than two-thirds (68.3 percent) of annual expenditures for prescription drugs.
Expenses for metabolic agents accounted for nearly one-quarter of total prescription drug expenses for the Medicare population age 65 and older in 2010.
More than two-thirds of the Medicare population age 65 and older purchased a cardiovascular agent in 2010.
In 2010, among the top five therapeutic classes of prescription drugs; respiratory agents had the highest average expense per prescription, more than three times the average expense for cardiovascular agents.