Outpatient Pharmaceutical Spending to Outpace Hospital Pharmaceutical Spending in 2025
A growing trend towards pharmaceutical outpatient treatment spending is driven by accessibility, according to Eric Tichy, Pharm.D., M.B.A., vice chair of pharmacy formulary at the Mayo Clinic Health System.
Pharmaceutical spending in outpatient clinics in 2025 is predicted to be nearly three times greater than spending at hospitals, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. In 2025, clinic spending is projected to increase 11% to 13%, while hospital spending is expected to increase 2% to 4%.
This rise can be attributed to the increasing popularity and accessibility of outpatient clinics when compared to more expensive hospital visits.
“Pharmacists are the most accessible health care professionals, if you think about the location of retail pharmacies in every community,” lead author Eric Tichy, Pharm.D., M.B.A., vice chair of pharmacy formulary at the Mayo Clinic Health System, said in a recent video interview with Managed Healthcare Executive. “If you can diagnose something in the pharmacy and then pair it up with the appropriate therapy, it improves the time to treatment and accessibility and it also reduces administrative burdens on other health care providers.”
Eric Tichy, Pharm.D., M.B.A.
The demand for accessibility was partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We wanted to keep people out of healthcare facilities, and we needed to treat masses of people,” Tichy said. “Giving pharmacists increased ability to give things like vaccines and other therapeutics, that really makes it a lot easier.”
Tichy also explained that this trend towards outpatient care could lead to more at-home treatment options and said that self-administered drugs have been a long-term focus of the pharmaceutical industry.
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