US Medicaid drug lists cost more, deliver less, claims news study

The USA’s Medicaid program is likely paying far more than necessary for medications and not offering patients the most effective ones available, by ignoring international evidence-based lists of safe and effective medications, according to a new study by researchers at University of California, San Francisco.

The study, which compared the Medicaid program's Preferred Drug Lists in 40 states nationwide against the World Health Organization's 2009 Essential Medicines List, found that the drugs that are automatically paid for by the state-run Medicaid programs vary widely from state to state, with few consistent protocols or rationales for their selection, including cost, safety or effectiveness of the medication.

Findings will be published in the American Journal of Public Health and are available on-line ahead of the print version, at www.ajph.org.