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Comparison shopping for drugs.


Trying to save money on your state's prescription drug prescription drug Prescription medication Pharmacology An FDA-approved drug which must, by federal law or regulation, be dispensed only pursuant to a prescription–eg, finished dose form and active ingredients subject to the provisos of the Federal Food, Drug,  costs? Confused about which drugs are most effective--and cost-effective? Go to www.ohsu.edu/drugeffectiveness. That's the address of the Web site for the Drug Effectiveness Review Project The Drug Effectiveness Review Project (DERP) is an Oregon-based collaboration of public and private organizations, including fifteen states, that have joined together to provide systematic evidence-based reviews of the comparative effectiveness and safety of drugs in many widely  at the Center for Evidence-Based Policy Evidence-based policy is public policy informed by rigorously established objective evidence. It is an extension of the idea of evidence-based medicine to all areas of public policy. , Oregon Health Sciences University.

The project compares the efficacy of drugs that are used to treat the same condition and produces reports that reveal which drugs are most effective. The results are then posted on the Web site for all to use, free of charge.

"We need to know which drugs work better and are worth the money we're spending--and which ones do not," says Dr. John Kitzhaber, director of the Center for Evidence-Based Policy. States can add information on prices to the reports and use them to com pile preferred drug lists for Medicaid, to decide when switching to generic or over-the- counter medications is appropriate, to negotiate for lower bids from drug companies, and to assess medical decision-making for patients in nursing homes or correctional facilities.

The reports help states make decisions on drug coverage that are clinically sound, says Wisconsin Medicaid Director Mark Moody. Wisconsin Medicaid's preferred drug list and prior authorization prior authorization,
n See predetermination.

prior authorization Health insurance A cost containment measure that provides full payment of health benefits only if the hospitalization or medical treatment has been
 policies are expected to save the state $86 million over the biennium bi·en·ni·um  
n. pl. bi·en·ni·ums or bi·en·ni·a
A two-year period.



[Latin : bi-, two; see bi-1 + annus, year; see at-
 of June 2003 to July 2005. The project reports have contributed to those savings, although they are not solely responsible, he says. The three-year, $4.2 million project is supported by 12 states and two organizations (Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures


Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop.
, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, as well as the California Healthcare Foundation and the Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology). So far, the center's researchers have reviewed more than 13 classes of drugs, ranging from drugs for migraines to those for diabetes and urinary incontinence Urinary Incontinence Definition

Urinary incontinence is unintentional loss of urine that is sufficient enough in frequency and amount to cause physical and/or emotional distress in the person experiencing it.
.
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Title Annotation:Trends And Transitions
Publication:State Legislatures
Article Type:Brief Article
Geographic Code:1USA
Date:Jan 1, 2005
Words:300
Previous Article:Van Tran became the nation's first Vietnamese-American legislator when he was elected to the California Assembly Nov. 2.(People & Politics)(Brief...
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