High Part D Spending on Opioids and Substantial Growth in Compounding Drugs Raise Concerns

Since the Part D program went into effect in 2006, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) has had ongoing concerns about abuse and diversion of Part D drugs. In June 2015, OIG released a data brief, Questionable Billing and Geographic Hotspots Point to Potential Fraud and Abuse in Medicare Part D, which described trends in Part D spending and identified questionable billing by pharmacies. This data brief builds on that body of work. It updates information on spending for commonly abused opioids and provides data on the dramatic growth in spending for compounded drugs.