Employers pay more for top drugs than Medicare plans, report shows

Employer-sponsored health plans pay significantly more than Medicare for costly physician-administered drugs, threatening access to lifesaving treatments, according to a newly published analysis of claims data and Medicare files, reports Axios. Price markups increased between 2016 and 2020 for five of the top 10 drugs that account for the most spending and more than doubled for three: the white blood cell-booster pegfilgrastim and the cancer drugs trastuzumab and rituximab, according to a report by the Health Care Cost Institute published in JAMA Health Forum.