First Databank (FDB), the leading provider of clinical drug knowledge that helps improve medication-related decisions and patient outcomes, today announced it has begun publishing the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) pricing file recently released by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The NADAC prices, which are derived from invoices voluntarily provided by approximately 500 pharmacies, represent CMS's effort to arrive at a pharmacy's acquisition cost for drugs.
Acquisition cost-based standards for Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement were pioneered by the state of Alabama in 2010 and Average Acquisition Cost (AAC) has subsequently been employed by five other state Medicaid programs including Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana and Oregon.
"Because AAC is a value based on pharmacy and not manufacturer-reported information, it is a significant development in the drug pricing arena," said Patrick Lupinetti, senior vice president and editorial director, FDB. "While the NADAC is based on a self-selecting sample and does not take into account off-invoice rebates, it nonetheless suggests CMS's interest in a new pricing benchmark."
NADAC prices will be incorporated into the FDB MedKnowledge™ drug knowledge base and FDB MedKnowledge Framework™ software developer toolkit. FDB's clinical and drug pricing information is utilized by thousands of hospitals, payers and pharmacies across the United States, as well as by a majority of state Medicaid agencies, CMS, the Department of Defense, and the Veterans Administration.
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