{"id":4393,"date":"2016-09-21T09:29:34","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T13:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=4393"},"modified":"2016-09-21T09:29:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T13:29:34","slug":"how-much-has-medicare-spent-on-the-epipen-since-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=4393","title":{"rendered":"How Much Has Medicare Spent on the EpiPen Since 2007?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(By Juiette Cubanski, Tricia Neuman, and Anthony Damico for Kaiser Family Foundation)<\/p>\n<p>The latest example of high and rising prescription drug prices to attract significant media and public attention relates to the EpiPen, an auto-injector containing the drug epinephrine which is used to reverse the effects of severe allergic reactions. Since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/the-history-of-the-epipen-and-epinephrine-2016-8\/\">Mylan acquired the EpiPen from Merck in 2007<\/a>, the company has increased the list price for a pack of two EpiPens nearly 550%, from $94 in January 2007 to $609 in May 2016.<a id=\"endnote_link_198219-1\" class=\"footnote-link\" title=\"Dollars in nominal terms using the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 CPI inflation calculator, based on 2016 inflation-adjusted prices from Elsevier Gold Standard Drug Database; see Ike Swetlitz, \u201cHigh price of EpiPen spurs consumers, EMTs to resort to syringes for allergic reactions,\u201d STAT, July 6, 2016.\" href=\"http:\/\/kff.org\/medicare\/issue-brief\/how-much-has-medicare-spent-on-the-epipen-since-2007\/view\/footnotes\/#footnote-198219-1\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a> While the EpiPen can be a lifesaver for children with serious food allergies, it is also used to treat life-threatening allergic reactions experienced by the older adults and people with disabilities who are covered by Medicare. The EpiPen is covered under Medicare Part D, which provides outpatient prescription drug coverage to beneficiaries who enroll in private drug plans. <a href=\"http:\/\/kff.org\/medicare\/issue-brief\/how-much-has-medicare-spent-on-the-epipen-since-2007\/?utm_campaign=KFF-2016-September-Medicare-EpiPen-Spending&amp;utm_source=hs_email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=34618354&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz--vpIB3Z7jh-JMaY_bbrMEmxVNoh8OKWLWdXdWk_7NzIs9zet1UzfiUqaMY9CbvygSFD7Fvil9I8-1DAe_9UL3HdohMaw&amp;_hsmi=34618354\" target=\"_blank\">Continue reading here&#8230;..<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; color: #444444; text-transform: none; line-height: 1.6; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-stretch: inherit; background-color: #ffffff; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">Kaiser Health News\u00a0is\u00a0a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; color: #444444; text-transform: none; line-height: 1.6; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 1; font-stretch: inherit; background-color: #ffffff; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-899 \" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png\" alt=\"khn-logo1\" width=\"92\" height=\"48\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-1024x533.png 1024w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-390x205.png 390w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 92px) 100vw, 92px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<pre><strong>Notice<\/strong>: The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/pre>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Juiette Cubanski, Tricia Neuman, and Anthony Damico for Kaiser Family Foundation) The latest example of high and rising prescription<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medicare-general","category-part-dprescription-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4394,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393\/revisions\/4394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}