- Never mind last week’s hikes. Pharma still puts pricing at the top of its worry list: report (fiercepharma.com)
It may not seem as if pharma companies are biting their nails over drug prices. After all, a cohort of drugmakers made headlines last week with an annual round of January hikes. But the issue is on the top of industry worries for 2019, a new report finds...Slightly more than half of respondents to a GlobalData survey tagged pricing and reimbursement as their biggest worry this year...As that pricing pressure rolls on, GlobalData analysts also expect "aggressive negotiation tactics to drive down drug prices."...
- Give it to us straight, doctors tell pharma advertisers—but being funny is OK, too (fiercepharma.com)
Want to catch doctors’ attention with flashy advertising and intellectual jargon? Don’t bother. A new study finds that physicians prefer simple and clear messages, with more than half (51%) admitting they don’t always understand what’s being communicated in pharma advertising...The survey of primary care physicians...revealed 76% of docs prefer simple language in advertising. Physicians understand how people could be confused by messages they see or read from marketers, because they themselves also get perplexed. More than one-third (39%) of doctors said they are sometimes confused by messaging, and another 35% reported being overwhelmed on occasion by the language used in the ads...That doesn’t mean ads have to be boring, however. Doctors like a good laugh in advertising, with 62% saying they liked funny ads. Another 51% gave the thumbs-up for creative work, and 49% said they liked “unique” ads.
- January 4 Pharmacy Week in Review: Study Links Obesity to Certain Cancers; More Valsartan Products Recalled (pharmacytimes.com)
Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.
- Las Vegas hospital raises awareness about Medicaid repayments (reviewjournal.com)
Babies requiring care in the neonatal intensive care unit...can cost the hospital thousands of dollars daily, depending on the equipment or medication required to keep them stable, said Sunrise CEO Todd Sklamberg...But Medicaid, the insurer for about 70 percent of the hospital’s NICU patients, only pays up to $1,487 daily per baby...The discrepancy left Sunrise Hospital with $77 million in uncompensated costs for intensive infant care last year...Without a bump in payments for the hospital with the most pediatric acute care beds in the state and the only dedicated pediatric cardiology unit in Nevada, Sklamberg said he worries some of the hospital’s highest cost services...will disappear...Nevada’s Medicaid program is one of just a few nationwide to pay on a per diem rate...Most states reimburse hospitals based on what’s called a diagnosis-related group — a code that ties a reimbursement rate to the level and type of services provided by the hospital. But Nevada uses a flat dollar amount of $1,487 to pay back high-level NICUs, no matter the level of care provided...
- EDITORIAL: When the government can’t afford health care (reviewjournal.com)
If you want a glimpse of how single-payer health care would work, look at what’s happening to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center...As the Review-Journal’s Jessie Bekker reported Wednesday, 70 percent of the families who use Sunrise’s neonatal intensive care unit are on Medicaid. Sunrise CEO Todd Sklamberg says that Medicaid pays the hospital a flat daily rate of $1,487 per baby. That’s around one-tenth of Sunrise’s average daily charge of $14,815...Mr. Sklamberg said the hospital’s deficit for uncompensated infant care was $77 million last year. If the Legislature doesn’t increase Medicaid reimbursement rates this session, he said, Sunrise will consider reducing NICU services for all patients. The hospital, he said, is on an “unsustainable trajectory.”...This is the aspect of single-payer health care that Bernie Sanders doesn’t talk about...
- Johns Hopkins, Bristol-Myers must face $1 billion syphilis infections suit (reuters.com)
A federal judge in Maryland said The Johns Hopkins University, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and the Rockefeller Foundation must face a $1 billion lawsuit over their roles in a 1940s U.S. government experiment that infected hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis...In a decision on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang rejected the defendants’ argument that a recent Supreme Court decision shielding foreign corporations from lawsuits in U.S. courts over human rights abuses abroad also applied to domestic corporations absent Congressional authorization...Chuang’s decision is a victory for 444 victims and relatives of victims suing over the experiment, which was aimed at testing the then-new drug penicillin and stopping the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases...
- Drugmakers open new year with price increases on dozens of medicines (biopharmadive.com)
Several major drugmakers, including Allergan, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly, increased prices on a number of their drugs Jan. 1, holding with typical industry practice despite continuing scrutiny of rising pharmaceutical costs...While raising prices in January has become the norm for pharma, this year has become a test of whether recent criticism by lawmakers and the Trump administration would spur companies to hold off on increases. Data cited by Raymond James suggests this could be playing out somewhat: Drugmakers overall have instituted fewer price hikes from Dec. 1 through Jan. 1 than the same period last year, according to a recent note from the investment bank...
- Rite Aid warned of risk of delisting from NYSE as shares fall below $1 (cnbc.com)
Rite Aid is at risk of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and considering a reverse stock split to prop its share price above $1 to comply with the exchange's trading rules...Shares of the drugstore chain have fallen 64 percent over the past year, down to 75 cents a share as of Thursday's close from $2.11 on Jan. 3, 2018 (2019). Rite Aid's stock has hovered under $1 per share over the past month, breaking the NYSE's rule. The exchange notified Rite Aid on Thursday that its average share price was too low and placed its stock at risk of delisting...Rite Aid has six months from the Jan. 3 notice to boost its average share price above $1 for a month.
- This Week in Managed Care: January 4, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- Joint PharmD/MBA programs offer students a differentiating factor (drugstorenews.com)
Wellman is a professor of pharmacy at Ferris State University College of Pharmacy, where he co-launched a dual PharmD/MBA concurrent program...Wellman believes that today a PharmD/MBA degree is essential in preparing students for leadership positions in a wide variety of industries, including retail chain pharmacy, managed care, hospitals and pharmaceutical firms...“Any of the principles that are part of business apply to being a pharmacist,” Wellman said. “We need to be a financial manager, a human resources manager and an operations manager since there are a lot of legal and regulatory components because we work in complex medication distribution systems.”...Pharmacists also have the responsibility to oversee pharmacy techs, which Wellman said means pharmacists need to understand labor laws and different aspects of managing employees equitably...the new crop of pharmacy students need more than just clinical expertise, thanks to changes in reimbursement models and the expansion by many pharmacy retail chains into health centers and clinics...Pharmacy schools are realizing that the traditional business overviews they provide students is simply not enough, and they are stepping up to the plate offering dual PharmD/MBA programs.