EpiPen payments by Medicare Part D have risen 1,000% since 2007, Kaiser Family Foundation finds

Total Medicare Part D spending for the EpiPen increased from $7 million in 2007 to $87.9 million in 2014, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, showing an increase of 1,151 percent at a time when the company that owns the life-saving device is under heavy scrutiny for its price hike.

Mylan, which acquired the EpiPen from Merck in 2007, recently increased the list price for a pack of two EpiPens nearly 550 percent. While the EpiPen cost $94 in January 2007, in May 2016 it boosted the price to $609. EpiPens contain epinephrine, which is an emergency treatment used to combat food allergies and other allergic reactions.

Kaiser researchers used data from a 5 percent sample of Medicare prescription drug event claims from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse.

[Also: Teva responds to Mylan backlash with planned launch of generic EpiPen]

They found that while the total number of Part D enrollees using the EpiPen increased over the seven-year study period -- from about 80,000 users in 2007 to more than 211,000 in 2014 -- that wasn't enough to account for the 1,151 percent spike in Part D spending. The increase in enrollees' usage amounted to only 164 percent.

Over the same time period, average total Part D spending per EpiPen prescription increased nearly five-fold, from an average of $71 in 2007 to $344 in 2014. That's a 383 percent increase.

Numbers provided by KFF indicate that out-of-pocket consumer prices for the EpiPen had been steadily rising from 2007 to 2014 -- even before the most recent spike that put the price at more than $600 for a double-pack of the auto-injectors.

To put EpiPen spending increases in context, the researchers compared annual growth in average total Part D spending per EpiPen prescription in each year from 2008 to 2014 to annual growth in average per capita costs for Part D overall, and in medical price inflation. The annual rate of growth for total Part D EpiPen spending per prescription was significantly higher each year.

[Also: EpiPen uproar puts spotlight on generic drug backlog]

For example, in 2008, Part D spending per EpiPen prescription increased by 7.4 percent, more than 3.5 times greater than the increase in total Part D per capita spending (2 percent) and twice the rate of medical care price inflation (3.7 percent). In 2014, Part D spending per EpiPen prescription increased by 34.0 percent, four times the rate of increase in Part D per capita spending (8.6 percent) and 14 times larger than the 2.4 percent increase in medical care price inflation.

When drug manufacturers raise prices for their products and insurers' costs increase as a result, these increases can translate into higher cost sharing and higher premiums for consumers, researchers said. Rising prices for the EpiPen in recent years, and the resultant increases in Medicare Part D spending, suggest the cost of prescription drugs is an ongoing concern for consumers, public and private payers and policymakers.

Twitter: @JELagasse