This issue brief contrasts prescription drug access, affordability, and costs in the United States with six other high-income countries, drawing from Commonwealth Fund survey data of patient experiences as well as international spending and pricing data. The analysis reveals that Americans, particularly the relatively young and healthy, are more likely to use prescription drugs than are residen...

The long-awaited outpatient prescription drug benefit in Medicare began January 2006. Despite its importance, the drug benefit is controversial. Instead of paying directly for prescriptions, the program will operate through competing private plans. Although it is too early to assess the full impact of Part D on beneficiaries, health plans and providers, employers, and taxpayers, we can discuss ...

This chart is an update to the 2014 article published in Hospital Pharmacy on injectable drugs that require protection from light. To chart, online search of FDALabel database was performed inception through July 31, 2022 using terms “protect” OR “light.” After filtering out with non-injectable routes administration, list generic drug names combined and duplicates were removed. The resulting th...

Social science research on polydrug use among young adult college students is scant, adopts definitions of this practice that are often devoid of sociocultural context, and emphasizes a very narrow range of use patterns. This article, based on ethnographic interviews from a study of collegiate prescription drug misuse, expands this focus by offering a cultural analysis of polydrug use. Two spec...