State Medicaid Outpatient Drug Utilization and Spending for 2018

State Drug Utilization Data for 2018 reports on covered outpatient drugs paid for by state Medicaid agencies. The data includes state, drug name, National Drug Code, number of prescriptions, and dollars reimbursed since the start of the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. It is provided by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and was last updated on the platform in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze state-level prescription volumes and spending based on reported drug name and reimbursement data.
• Compare Medicaid drug utilization patterns across different states based on the state and prescription count fields.
• Track specific drug reimbursement trends using the National Drug Code (NDC) identifier.
• Assess the financial impact of outpatient drug coverage within the Medicaid program based on dollars reimbursed.

Strengths

• Data is reported by states for a major federal healthcare program (Medicaid).
• Includes key financial and utilization metrics: drug name, NDC, prescription counts, and dollars reimbursed.
• Covers a specific calendar year (2018), providing a defined temporal snapshot.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Collection Method

Reported by states for covered outpatient drugs paid for by state Medicaid agencies.

Time Range

2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-08 20:30:45.219833; freshness should be verified.

Geography

U.S. states