CMS Updates Online Drug Spending Dashboard, Adds Year-Over-Year Price Changes

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a long-awaited update to its online dashboard, increasing drug price transparency for consumers by adding year-over-year drug pricing changes and price-hiking manufacturers.

“This time, you’ll actually be able to see the prices” for every drug in Medicaid and Medicare, said CMS Administrator Seema Verma at a healthcare forum hosted by The Washington Post.

Verma said that the year-over-year price increases show “whether there’s been a double-digit increase or a triple-digit increase, or in some cases, a quadruple-digit increase.” The goal of the dashboard, she said, is to provide transparency for patients, “but it could be used by a variety of individuals.”