New Jersey Tops Country in Prescribing Brand-Name Drugs
Overuse of brand-name medications vs. generics costs Medicare Part D billions annually
likely to be prescribed brand-name drugs than their counterparts anywhere else in the country, putting the Garden State at the forefront of a national trend of what some say is a wasteful overprescribing of brand-name medication.
The public-interest watchdog ProPublica published an article on Monday detailing how Medicare fails to rein in prescribers’ overuse of brand names compared with generic drugs, which can be equally effective. That leads to higher costs, which are borne by federal taxpayers, who subsidize the Medicare program. (Kithcenman/NJSpotlight)