New Jersey Tops Country in Prescribing Brand-Name Drugs

New Jersey Medicare recipients are more 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.

ProPublica has also created a tool that makes it possible to search the Medicare database by doctor, city, and ZIP code to see the number of brand-name drugs that have been prescribed by individuals or by location.

Read more at NJSpotlight.com

NJ Spotlight is an issue-driven news website that provides critical insight to New Jersey’s communities and businesses. It is non-partisan, independent, policy-centered and community-minded.