WHY THESE DRUG PRICES MATTER
The government drug prices displayed (NADAC, WAAMP, ACA-FUL) are maintained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). They represent benchmarks to ensure the government is a prudent purchaser of ingredients for Medicaid-covered outpatient drugs and are also related to one another, as described below.
NADAC (see glossary for details) helps CMS determine payment instead of using manufacturer-reported “List” prices such as WAC or AWP. Additionally, individual State Medicaid agencies use NADAC to determine payment for drug ingredient costs instead of calculating their own Average Acquisition Cost (AAC). More than 40 states utilize NADAC pricing to compute, in part, the ingredient costs of Medicaid-covered outpatient drugs.
ACA FUL (see Glossary for details) is a government price category for the federal payment ceiling on multiple-source (generic), equivalent drugs. The ACA-FUL is calculated by CMS monthly, and our dashboard reflects the price. Calculations are based on EITHER 175 percent of the current WAAMP (see Glossary) OR the current NADAC price, whichever of the two prices, is GREATER.