In an attempt to decelerate the growth of Medicare spending on drugs, the US government has announced to test new ways to cut cost of medicines. The efforts will be made while keeping in mind that they are also encouraging doctors and health experts to select the best and most effective treatments for their patients, as per a statement by the Obama administration on Tuesday.

The announcement by the government came as Hillary Clinton, candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election, and other presidential candidates called for immediate action to help patients against high drug prices in Medicare.

In 2015, under Part B of Medicare, the US government spent about $20 billion for drugs administered in hospitals and doctors’ clinics, announced federal officials.

Doctors in the country are getting ‘weak incentives’ as current payment formula is not beneficial for them. They are finding it difficult to choose an effective treatment that comes at low cost, as per the administration. “The current payment formula may encourage the use of higher-price drugs when lower-cost drugs of equivalent effectiveness are available”, it added.

The Obama administration has planned to test about six ways of paying for medicines under the Part B of Medicare, said Dr. Patrick H. Conway of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

As per one proposal, the government will set a standard payment rate for therapeutically similar drug products. On the other hand, the second proposal says Medicare will work with drug companies and pay them after checking how their drugs worked on a patient. Another alternative may eliminate an individual’s share of the bill for Part B drugs. Another option may reduce add-on payment to 2.5%, which is now 6%.