The state comptroller's new effort to curb the skyrocketing
costs of controversial "compounded medicine" prescriptions has
prompted a labor-management dispute with state employee unions that is headed
for binding arbitration on Sept. 23.
Taxpayer costs for the mixtures of drugs — typically in the
form of a topical cream that's rubbed into the skin — have exploded from
$800,000 in 2012 to an estimated $24 million this year.