The Trump administration has been talking tough on drug prices for many months and, of course, pharmaceutical companies and other organizations have pushed back because they mostly oppose controls on the free market for prescription drugs.
For health care journalists covering these proposals, it’s essential to remain skeptical of any group that offers support or opposition and, as always, follow the money. Continue reading
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Over the past six months, journalists for the Columbus Dispatch have written more than 40 articles about the murky world of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in Ohio. This week, they wrote one of the most important stories in this ongoing series, “Ohio firing pharmacy middlemen that cost taxpayers millions.”
In this article, they explained that the Ohio Department of Medicaid was changing the way it pays for prescription drugs by, “giving the boot to all pharmacy middlemen” because the Medicaid program wants to shift away from what’s called the “spread pricing” practice. Continue reading
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Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Director Seems Verma are crisscrossing the country to tout the Trump administration’s plan to combat prescription drug prices. They promise that America’s Patients First, released by the president and HHS on May 11, will address significant roadblocks to lowering drug costs.
People age 65 and older account for 34 percent of all prescription medication use and 30 percent of all over-the-counter drugs purchased, according to this Medscape article. Azar, a former drug company executive, recently spoke with reporters and other stakeholders to promote the plan, saying that high prescription costs seriously threaten too many Americans’ health and wellbeing. Continue reading
President Donald Trump has spoken about the cost of drugs frequently. Though not always clearly and consistently, he has called for government negotiation of prices. Drug prices also have caught Congress’s eye, although we’re not quite sure what (if anything) legislators are willing to do about it.
But patients are fed up, as David Mitchell, founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs reminded us last week during a Health Journalism 2017 session in Orlando. Continue reading
Paul Levy, former chief executive of Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, recently made a compelling argument in a blog post about why value-based pricing for hospital services ultimately will fail.
In “The Game That Shows Why Value-Based Pricing Is Doomed” on AthenaInsight, Levy argues that the incentives in value-based pricing are all wrong. As a payment model, value-based pricing promotes selfishness but at the same time requires all parties to cooperate, he writes.
It’s not often that anyone criticizes value-based care, and why would they? That would be like opposing the use of grocery coupons. Continue reading
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Many Americans think they pay too much for their prescription drugs, especially those who need life-saving medications for cancer and hepatitis C. Why are drug costs so high in the United States? How can reporters better explain the cost squeeze to their audiences?
These were among the questions that Sarah Emond, M.P.P., executive vice president at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) in Boston and Peter Bach, M.D., director of the Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Center for Health Policy and Outcomes in New York City addressed at the Feb. 15 meeting of AHCJ’s New York chapter. Dan Goldberg of Politico moderated the session. Continue reading