US Growth Hormone Use in the Idiopathic Short Stature Era: Trends in Insurer Payments and Patient Financial Burden.

The FDA ISS approval was not a watershed event in the steady increase in GH use by US youth. Progressive restrictions on coverage and formulary preference coverage strategies appear to have succeeded in lowering total expenditures and insurer burden of GH treatment per beneficiary. However, those savings were not passed on to patients who bore greater burdens financially and from brand switches.