EVIDENCE LIBRARY
Quebec Medication-Cost Study Found That Expenditure Trends Did Not Necessarily Follow Benzodiazepine Use
A repeated cross-sectional study examined public-insurer costs of potentially inappropriate medicines. Lower spending did not necessarily mean fewer exposed patients or fewer injuries.
A repeated cross-sectional study examined public-insurer costs of potentially inappropriate medicines. Lower spending did not necessarily mean fewer exposed patients or fewer injuries.
The cost measure
The analysis covered sixteen classes among publicly insured adults aged sixty-five or older during 2012–2021. Costs included medication and professional fees, while excluding individual out-of-pocket payments.
Benzodiazepines were among the costliest classes. Total costs declined numerically, but the overall trend estimate was not statistically significant. Cost and prevalence trends did not always move together.
What the estimate leaves out
Prices, fees, substitution, and prescribing can affect expenditure independently of clinical benefit or harm. The study did not estimate all societal costs of adverse events or the cost-effectiveness of a specific deprescribing intervention.
Administrative data also lacked enough indication detail to establish that every flagged prescription was inappropriate. For an individual economic or prescribing opinion, separate a criteria-based claim, actual patient need, payer spending, and observed injury. The paper does not establish that any numerical cost reduction resulted from safer benzodiazepine care.
Source paper
Original analysis of the supplied journal article, identified as PMC12318379.