Breakthrough Treatments, Fewer Doctor Office Visits, Reduced Use of Medicines Impact U.S. Healthcare in 2011, According to IMS Study

PARSIPPANY, N.J. -- The most medicines launched in a decade brought new, transformative treatment options to more than 20 million Americans in 2011, even as patients visited their physicians and used prescription drugs less often, according to a new report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.

The report, The Use of Medicines in the United States: Review of 2011, found that there were important variations across the country and by patient age in the use of healthcare services. Young people, age 19-25, increased their use of prescription drugs as many for the first time were able to remain on their parents’ health insurance, while seniors age 65 and over reduced their volume of prescriptions.
Additionally, the availability of new generic drugs in a number of chronic therapies contributed to a minimal increase in drug expenditures overall. Total healthcare system spending on medicines reached $320 billion in 2011, up 0.5 percent on a real per capita basis.

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