Trends in Oral Anticoagulant Use and Individual Expenditures Across the United States from 2014 to 2020

Landmark clinical trials have expended the indications for the direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), but contemporary data on usage and expenditure patterns are lacking. This study aimed to assess annual trends in oral anticoagulant (OAC) utilization and expenditure across the United States (US) from 2014 to 2020. We utilized the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to study the trends of use and expenditures of warfarin, dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban, and edoxaban between 2014 and 2020 in the US. Survey respondents reported OAC use within the past year, which was verified against pharmacy records. Payment information was obtained from the respondent’s pharmacy and was categorized as third-party or self/out-of-pocket. Potential indications and medical conditions of interest for OAC therapy were identified from respondent-reported medical conditions. We estimated the national number of OAC users and total expenditures across age, sex, race, ethnicity, insurance, and medical condition subgroups. Trends of OAC users’ characteristics, expenditure, and number of prescriptions were evaluated using the Mann–Kendall test for trends. Between 2014 and 2020, the number of warfarin users decreased from 3.8 million (70