Author: Peter

A new partnership between savings program company Medical Security Card’s ScriptSave WellRx app and medication management company SinfoníaRx will bring on-demand pharmacist access to users of the savings program app...ScriptSave WellRx app users can use a click-to-call feature that will connect them to one of SinfoníaRx’s on-call pharmacist, who will answer patients’ questions about their prescriptions, medication interactions and OTC drugs...Our ability to help patients by leveraging the latest technology makes this partnership with MSC a natural fit...Our companies share the same goal — to ensure patients follow their prescribed medication regimens to achieve better health outcomes. The ScriptSave WellRx app also gives patients the ability to reduce their out-of-pocket drug costs, which can be a huge barrier to medication adherence and improved health...SinfoníaRx's pharmacists bring an important component to ScriptSave WellRx, offering medication information to our members if they have a question about drug interaction, dosage or alternatives...

Hepatitis C drugs are not the only part of California’s troubling drug spending picture. Despite recent cost-cutting measures, such as putting tighter controls on which patients get coverage for which drugs and when, California’s spending on pharmaceuticals has gone up, and so has the number of pricey drugs it is covering. It’s not clear state agencies have the means to balance drug cost pressures in a way that serves the best interests of patients, taxpayers and public health...California voters are expected to decide in November on a measure to put a ceiling on what the state pays for drugs, and lawmakers have proposed drug price transparency requirements on pharmaceutical manufacturers and health insurers...Medi-Cal (Medicaid) says pharmaceutical costs are kept under control by a strong push toward generic drug use for the 10 million enrollees who get health services through health plans. Up to 95 percent of the prescriptions dispensed by these plans are lower-cost generics...The Department of Health Care Services, which manages Medi-Cal, says it has a 20-year practice of controlling drug costs by negotiating deep discounts with drugmakers...Health consumer advocates and economists argue that paying a lot for some drugs that only treat a limited population may not serve larger public health interests, or be the best use of taxpayer dollars...Are we going to have a sustainable (pharmaceutical) industry where we are making sure the drug companies make enough money where they can bring great new products to the marketplace, yet we control cost well enough that people — all people, even the most vulnerable, have access to the drugs they need?...State Medi-Cal administrators say it’s too soon to assess the sustainability of current prescription drug spending trends. If more high-cost drugs come on the market and treat small populations, it won’t have a major budget impact...

Last month, a coalition of more than 300 medical societies, patient advocacy groups, and others asked Congressional leaders in a letter to help kill a proposal for changing how Medicare pays for drugs administered in clinical settings...They contend that under the less favorable terms of the new plan, many of their members would no longer be able to afford administering drugs in their offices that preserve a patient's eyesight, mobility, or life. As a result, those treatments would shift to a costlier hospital outpatient setting, and thus become unaffordable for many patients...Missing from the list of signatories, however, were societies for family physicians, internists, orthopaedic surgeons, and cardiologists. That might not be surprising: Their members stand to earn more money — for family physicians, more than 40% more — by administering drugs to Medicare patients...Medicare policy promises to make some physicians financial winners and some financial losers...

UnitedHealth Group Inc., which announced...it would limit its participation to a handful of Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges in 2017, will remain in Nevada’s exchange...so far is expected to halt participation in exchanges serving Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan and Oklahoma, had expanded its participation to 34 states this year...the insurer had unfavorable experiences and performances in the individual exchange market, citing the smaller overall market size and shorter-term, higher-risk profile of clients as indicators they couldn’t effectively service the market...UnitedHealthcare and OptumCare both fall under the UnitedHealth Group umbrella, and in Nevada, the former includes Health Plan of Nevada, Senior Dimensions and Sierra Health and Life...OptumCare...is a separate company that includes Southwest Medical Associates...Before the official announcement of a United Health Foundation grant to UNLV early this month, Robert McBeath, president and CEO of Southwest Medical, described United as having a "significant commitment" to Nevada.

London Drugs announced...that it would be holding 15 oral health screening clinics in the Vancouver metro area between April 25 and May 18. The clinic initiative follows a successful pilot...which featured what the chain said was the first oral cancer screening in a pharmacy..."What began as a three clinic trial with a dental professional in collaboration with our pharmacists in April 2015, quickly grew to 12 clinics in a matter of weeks, during our first ever attempt at this program,"..."There is clearly demand for the oral screening and continued need for awareness of oral cancer and oral cancer prevention."...the sixth most-common cancer in the world..."London Drugs' clinics bring incredible awareness to oral cancer screening and the importance of early detection,"..."The best way to monitor your oral health is to work with your dental care provider either at the dental office or at a screening clinic such as the one offered at London Drugs. This program is especially popular among individuals who might not regularly visit a dentist."...Screenings are done by appointment and cost $25, with $5 being donated to the BC Oral Cancer Prevention Program.

If you thought drug makers might hunker down in the face of public outrage over pricing, think again...Given the clamor over the cost of prescription drugs, most manufacturers were expected to avoid drawing attention to themselves by boosting price tags. But several companies have been hiking prices for their medicines at a rate that one Wall Street analyst found surprising...Johnson & Johnson took cumulative price hikes on more than a dozen drugs ranging from 5 percent to 28 percent. The biggest boost was for Simponi, which is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Amgen raised prices on seven different drugs from 7.6 percent to 28 percent. The largest was for Enbrel, which is used to treat psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, among other ailments...Celgene increased price tags between 10.3 percent and 27.9 percent on four medicines, while Gilead Sciences raised prices between 10 percent and 16.5 percent on five drugs...Biogen boosted prices for five drugs anywhere from 9.8 percent to 18 percent; the biggest price hike was for the Tysabri multiple sclerosis treatment.

Lowe’s home improvement company, like a growing number of large companies nationwide, offers its employees an eye-catching benefit: certain major surgeries at prestigious hospitals at no cost to the employee...How do these firms do it? With "bundled payments," a way of paying that’s gaining steam across the health care industry, and that Medicare is now adopting for hip and knee replacements in 67 metropolitan areas, including New York, Miami and Denver...Here’s how it works: Lowe’s and other employers pay one flat rate for a particular procedure from any of a number of hospitals they’ve selected for quality, even if they are a plane ride away. And, under the agreement, the hospital handles all the treatment within a certain time frame — the surgery, the physical therapy and any complications that arise — all for that one price...It was Bob Ihrie, senior vice president for compensation and benefits at Lowe’s, who came up with the idea in 2010. When he told managers at other companies about it, he said, "The first question was always, ‘Oh, this is just for executives, right?’ And I said no, absolutely not, this is for any Lowe’s employee in the Lowe’s health care plans."

The last few months have witnessed the unraveling of the remarkable life sciences company Theranos, culminating in the latest news that federal regulators may ban founder Elizabeth Holmes from the blood-testing industry for at least two years. The company is also facing a federal criminal investigation into whether it misled investors about its technology and company operations...How has this widely acclaimed biomedical innovator fallen so far, so fast?...Theranos' revolutionary claim...wowed investors, journalists and even groups like the Cleveland Clinic and Walgreens with what you might call an "iMedicine" vision of blood testing...A few drops of blood from a fingertip are collected into a "nanotainer" collection tube and analyzed on the company’s proprietary machine, named after...Thomas Edison. How exactly the Edison devices work is unknown. But the claim was that many – possibly dozens – of tests could be run on those few drops of blood...Millions invested without any proof?...Why didn’t investors and journalists dig more deeply, such as by demanding a head-to-head comparison of Theranos' Edison machine to standard chemistry analyzers?...Part of the problem seems to have been the secrecy surrounding these types of startups...which means that there was...no peer-reviewed information out there about its technology...the leading explanation seems to be that they were enthralled by the company’s charismatic young founder...It still remains possible that Theranos has discovered a breakthrough technology...But even if this increasingly unlikely prospect is a reality, Holmes' erstwhile acolytes need to remember the lessons learned from the pantheon of past pied pipers and summed up by statistician W. Edwards Deming: In God we trust; all others must bring data.

Hospital groups and lawmakers hailed a federal agency's decision Wednesday to delay the release of its new star ratings until July...The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, bowing under industry and Congressional pressure, announced...that it would postpone the launch date, scheduled for today...until at least July...The ratings, which will measure hospitals on a five-star scale, are based on 113 measures of inpatient and outpatient quality derived from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare providers and Systems survey. Quality measures are grouped in seven categories, giving higher weight to mortality, safety of care, readmissions and patient experience than effectiveness of care, timeliness of care and efficient use of medical imaging...The overall star rating is meant to give consumers an easy metric that they can use to shop for the best care...many industry watchers worried that the data doesn't provide an accurate picture of hospital quality care because it fails to consider patients' socio-demographic status. As a result, some of the nation's most prestigious hospitals that treat lower-income patients may unfairly receive lower star ratings...The delay, he said, was necessary so that hospitals and health systems can work with CMS to improve the rating methodology by taking socio-demographic factors into account...

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