Drugs and formularies

VA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) drug prices

drug_silver.fact_drug_va_fss_price·live·silver·static·VA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) drug prices

Rows

N/A

Columns

History

2016-05-15 to 2026-03-02

Card

yesgrain, traps, filters

Typed tools

What it is

1VA Federal Supply Schedule drug price catalog: publicly posted federal government contract prices per drug package, in 3 price types (fss, big4 Federal Ceiling Price, nc national-contract).
2A federal low-water-mark benchmark vs commercial and Medicare drug prices.

Grain

Key	Grain
`ndc11contract_numberprice_type`	1One row per ndc11 per contract_number per price_type. 2That 3-col key is unique for all 21751 rows; ndc11 alone is 16283 distinct because a drug recurs across contracts and price types. price_start_date is redundant inside the key.

How to read it

1Filter by ndc11 and price_type, take the currently-effective row: select price_usd, package_description, vendor_name from drug_silver.fact_drug_va_fss_price where ndc11=70370106001 and price_type=fss and price_stop_date at-or-after 2026-05-16.
2Gives the current VA FSS price for Ingrezza 60mg per 30-count pack; price_type=big4 gives the lower Federal Ceiling Price, ratioable vs commercial/Medicare ASP on ndc11.

Traps

1Grain needs price_type: ndc11 alone is 16283 not 21751, and ndc11+contract_number is still not unique (up to 2 price types per contract). Include price_type or you double/triple-count. price_start_date is redundant in the key.
2price_type is load-bearing and not comparable across types: big4 (Federal Ceiling Price) sits at or below fss (5338 of 5341 pairs). Use fss for catalog price, big4 for lowest mandated price, nc for generic/standardization. Do not average across price_type.
3Single static snapshot, not a time series: is_current true for all rows; observed_period/asserted_at/source_url/sha256/bronze_object_key are constants (2026-05-16). The weekly/2016 history is the spread of price_start_date, not a refresh cadence.
4Aliases/dead: effective_period_start=price_start_date and effective_period_end=price_stop_date exactly; sub_item_identifier and drug_source_version_id are 100% NULL though drug_source_version_id is listed as a candidate key. vintage_tag=none, cms_vintage_sequence=2, parse_revision=1 are constants.
5Includes lapsed prices: ~2151 rows have price_stop_date before the snapshot; filter price_stop_date at-or-after your as-of date. covered_flag is text T/F not boolean; price_usd is per the free-text package size so cross-NDC compares need pack-size normalization.

Columns (33)

Column	Type	Meaning
`ndc11`	string	11-digit NDC drug package; 16283 distinct; join key to drug spine
`contract_number`	string	VA contract, 657 distinct; 36F797/V797D-=FSS, 36E797/36W797=nc
`price_start_date`	date	price effective start; equals effective_period_start; redundant in key
`vendor_name`	string	vendor, 520 distinct; one per contract
`contract_start_date`	date	umbrella contract start
`contract_stop_date`	date	contract end (to 2031); ~2097 already lapsed
`sub_item_identifier`	string	100% NULL, dead
`package_description`	string	free-text pack size (100, 10ML); unit for price_usd
`trade_name`	string	brand name, 9698 distinct
`generic_name`	string	generic name, 7811 distinct
`is_generic`	boolean	generic flag ~41% true
`va_class`	string	VA drug class code, 413 distinct, 13 nulls
`covered_flag`	string	text T/F covered-drug status; T=12517 F=9234
`prime_vendor_flag`	boolean	prime-vendor bool ~93% true
`price_usd`	double	package price USD; min 0.01 median ~157 max 3.48M; meaning depends on price_type
`observed_period`	date	snapshot date, const 2026-05-16
`asserted_at`	date	record date, const 2026-05-16
`effective_period_start`	date	alias of price_start_date
`effective_period_end`	date	alias of price_stop_date
`cms_vintage_sequence`	int	const 2
`parse_revision`	int	const 1
`parser_artifact_hash`	string	parser hash, const
`source_url`	string	VA vaFssPharmPrices.xlsx, const
`sha256_content_hash`	string	raw file hash, const (one file)
`source_id`	string	va_fss_pharm_prices, const
`is_current`	boolean	TRUE all rows; no-op (one snapshot)
`bronze_object_key`	string	S3 bronze key, const
`s3_version_id`	string	S3 version id, const
`vintage_tag`	string	literal none
`drug_source_version_id`	string	100% NULL, dead (listed as candidate key but empty)
`price_type`	string	fss(15417)=FSS price; big4(5343)=Federal Ceiling Price at-or-below fss; nc(991)=national-contract, mostly generics
`price_stop_date`	date	price end; alias of effective_period_end; ~2151 already expired
`non_taa_status`	string	TAA status Compliant(21332)/Non-Compliant(419)

Query it

describe_data_source(source_fqn="drug_silver.fact_drug_va_fss_price")     # the card, live
query_substrate(sql="SELECT * FROM drug_silver.fact_drug_va_fss_price WHERE ndc11 = '<value>' AND contract_number = '<value>' AND price_type = '<value>' LIMIT 100")

Item	Value
Typed tools that read it	none; raw SQL
Identity key	`ndc11`
Join	`how_to_join(source_fqn="drug_silver.fact_drug_va_fss_price")`
Raw door	Athena (read-only via query_substrate): drug_silver.fact_drug_va_fss_price

This page as markdown: /docs-md/data/drug_silver_fact_drug_va_fss_price.md · every page in one file: /llms-full.txt