How Medicare Could Save Millions

Medicare's popular drug plan fills one of every four prescriptions in the U.S. But its lack of controls on heavy prescribing of name-brand drugs is wasting hundreds of millions every year. Check back here for our new investigation into how encouraging cheaper generic alternatives could cut costs. We'll also be updating our Prescriber Checkup with 2011 data on 364,000 medical providers, so you can see how often your doctor prescribes name-brand drugs – and how he or she compares to peers.

Subscribe to ProPublica to be notified when we publish this story.