Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in a letter on Tuesday asked HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson to examine the use of antipsychotics in nursing homes, the possibility of payments to physicians who prescribe the medications and the drugs' cost to Medicare and Medicaid, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to a Journal article published on Tuesday, which Grassley cited in the letter, antipsychotics have become the most expensive class of medications for Medicaid. Nursing homes often administer the medications to dementia patients to quiet their symptoms.
In 2005, Medicaid spent $5.4 billion on atypical antipsychotics, not including rebates that the federal government might receive. Grassley also asked CMS for information about how the agency responds to nursing homes that misuse antipsychotics, a practice he called "disturbing and alarming."
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