Prescription drug costs are rising rapidly across the nation and in all types of health care programs. To deal with these costs, many states have started negotiating lower prescription drug prices from the extremely profitable pharmaceutical companies – and they are already saving money. Larger volume purchasers can negotiate larger savings, so states are creating large purchasing pools. By using multi-agency and multi-state prescription drug purchasing pools and/or preferred drug lists, states have projected or realized savings of 5 to 15 percent of their total prescription drug costs.