Medicare and most Medicaid programs and private insurers end up paying for compounded drugs administered in physicians鈥� offices, even though such drugs and some of their ingredients are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report released November 10 ().

Compounded drugs make up as much as 3% of the US prescription drug market, the GAO said. 鈥淢embers of Congress have questioned whether federal health care programs鈥� payment practices create incentives for providers to prescribe these drugs,鈥� according to the GAO.

Claims for drugs dispensed in pharmacies contain enough information for the public programs and private insurers to identify compounded drugs and their ingredients, enabling them to determine whether they are FDA-approved, the GAO said. But claims for drugs administered in physicians鈥� offices lack such information because most do not have specific billing codes, the GAO said.