Medicaid Drug Spending & NADAC Scraper

Retrieve official drug pricing and prescription spending data from the US Medicaid program. Look up the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) — what pharmacies actually pay per pill or unit — or browse State Drug Utilization data showing Medicaid prescription counts and reimbursement by state, drug, and quarter. No login or API key required.

What data you get

NADAC Mode (drug acquisition costs)

Field	Description
drugName	Drug description including strength and form
ndc	National Drug Code (11-digit)
nadacPerUnit	Average acquisition cost per unit in USD (per pill, mL, etc.)
pricingUnit	Unit type (EA=each, ML=milliliter, GM=gram)
effectiveDate	Date the NADAC rate became effective
asOfDate	Date the data was published
pharmacyType	C/I (Community/Independent), C, I, or M (Mail-order)
isOtc	Whether the drug is available over-the-counter
drugClassification	Brand or Generic
explanationCode	Code describing how the NADAC was calculated
explanationDescription	Human-readable explanation of pricing method
correspondingGenericCostPerUnit	Generic equivalent cost (for brand drugs)
scrapedAt	ISO-8601 scrape timestamp

State Drug Utilization Mode (Medicaid spending)

Field	Description
state	2-letter US state/territory code
drugName	Product name
ndc	National Drug Code
year	Program year
quarter	Quarter (1–4)
utilizationType	FFSU (Fee-for-Service Utilization) or MCU (Managed Care Utilization)
numberOfPrescriptions	Number of prescriptions reimbursed
unitsReimbursed	Units dispensed
totalAmountReimbursedUsd	Total Medicaid + non-Medicaid reimbursement in USD
medicaidAmountReimbursedUsd	Federal/state Medicaid share
nonMedicaidAmountReimbursedUsd	Non-Medicaid (e.g. MCO) share
suppressionUsed	Whether data was suppressed for privacy
scrapedAt	ISO-8601 scrape timestamp

Use cases

• Healthcare cost research — compare what pharmacies pay for generic vs brand-name drugs
• PBM transparency analysis — assess spread pricing between NADAC and reimbursement rates
• Policy analysis — track Medicaid drug spending trends by state, drug, and quarter
• Drug pricing journalism — identify the most expensive drugs by acquisition cost
• Healthcare economics — analyse brand-to-generic cost differentials
• Compliance research — review Medicaid utilization patterns for specific therapeutic areas

Input parameters

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
mode	Yes	nadac	nadac for acquisition costs, stateUtilization for spending data
dataYear	Yes	2024	Year of data: 2023 or 2024
drugNameQuery	No	—	Filter by keyword in drug name (case-insensitive, e.g., metformin)
pharmacyType	No	all	NADAC mode: C/I, C, I, M
otcOnly	No	false	NADAC mode: return only OTC drugs
state	No	all	State Utilization mode: 2-letter state code (e.g., TX)
quarter	No	all	State Utilization mode: 1–4
maxItems	No	100	Maximum records to return (up to 10,000)

Example input — NADAC drug pricing

{
  "mode": "nadac",
  "dataYear": "2024",
  "drugNameQuery": "metformin",
  "pharmacyType": "C/I",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example input — State Drug Utilization

{
  "mode": "stateUtilization",
  "dataYear": "2024",
  "state": "TX",
  "quarter": "4",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example output records

NADAC record:

{
  "dataType": "nadac",
  "drugName": "METFORMIN HCL 500 MG TABLET",
  "ndc": "00093108601",
  "nadacPerUnit": 0.02838,
  "pricingUnit": "EA",
  "effectiveDate": "2024-01-10",
  "asOfDate": "2024-01-17",
  "pharmacyType": "C/I",
  "isOtc": false,
  "drugClassification": "Generic",
  "explanationCode": "1",
  "explanationDescription": "National Average Drug Acquisition Cost",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-04T00:00:00+00:00"
}

State Utilization record:

{
  "dataType": "stateUtilization",
  "state": "TX",
  "drugName": "TRULICITY",
  "ndc": "00002143380",
  "year": "2024",
  "quarter": "4",
  "utilizationType": "FFSU",
  "numberOfPrescriptions": 108,
  "unitsReimbursed": 226.0,
  "totalAmountReimbursedUsd": 106607.76,
  "medicaidAmountReimbursedUsd": 103963.72,
  "nonMedicaidAmountReimbursedUsd": 2644.04,
  "suppressionUsed": false,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-04T00:00:00+00:00"
}

Data source

Data is sourced from data.medicaid.gov, the official open data portal of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Both datasets are public domain, freely accessible, and require no API key.

• NADAC is updated weekly by CMS and reflects actual pharmacy invoice costs surveyed from US pharmacies.
• State Drug Utilization is updated quarterly and covers all 50 states plus DC, Puerto Rico, and US territories.

FAQ

What is NADAC? NADAC (National Average Drug Acquisition Cost) is a weekly survey of what community pharmacies pay wholesalers and manufacturers for drugs. It is used as a reimbursement benchmark by many state Medicaid programs.

Does this require login or an API key? No. All data is publicly available on data.medicaid.gov with no authentication required.

How current is the NADAC data? The 2024 dataset contains weekly updates through the end of 2024. The most recent asOfDate in the data reflects the latest weekly survey.

What is State Drug Utilization data? It tracks the volume and cost of drugs reimbursed by each state's Medicaid program, broken down by drug NDC, state, year, and quarter. Both fee-for-service (FFSU) and managed care utilization (MCU) types are included.

What does "suppression" mean? When fewer than 11 beneficiaries used a drug in a state/quarter, the data is suppressed to protect patient privacy. These records still appear but with suppression flagged.

Can I search by NDC code? Use drugNameQuery with the drug name — NDC-level filtering can be applied after download. The NADAC dataset uses 11-digit NDC codes as primary identifiers.