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This article is the latest in the Health Affairs Forefront series, Provider Prices in the Commercial Sector, featuring analysis and discussion of physician, hospital, and other health care provider prices in the private-sector markets and their contribution to overall spending therein.

In this cross-sectional analysis of the top 1000 generics in Colorado’s all-payer claims database in 2019, 45 high-cost generics that had lower-cost therapeutic alternatives of same clinical value were identified. Overall, high-cost generics were 15.6 times more expensive than their therapeutic alternatives (median values); if the lower-cost alternatives had been used, total spending would have been reduced by 88.3%.