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Weak patient admissions that plagued U.S. hospital operators in the June quarter are likely to persist through 2018, as patients fret about soaring out-of-pocket costs and the future of Obamacare remains uncertain...Companies including HCA Healthcare Inc, the largest for-profit hospital operator, and Tenet Healthcare Corp have reported dismal quarterly results and cut their forecasts for the year...High-deductible health plans - which shift initial medical costs to patients, but have lower monthly premiums - are becoming popular, resulting in patients pushing back non-emergency surgeries.

In response to the recent spike of many prescription drug prices, the AMA adopted several policies to provide patients with more information about the drugs that they are prescribed and a rationale for price increases…Taken together, these policies would bring much needed transparency to drug pricing and provide a clear benefit to consumers struggling with exorbitant costs…There seems to be no logic — or warning — to these price spikes…The AMA urged federal agencies to require that manufacturers list the suggested retail prices of medications on direct-to-consumer ads...In addition, AMA encouraged drug companies to notify the public of price increases of more than 10% for certain medications over a 12-month period...

China has updated its list of medicines covered by national medical insurance, adding some new drugs with a focus on pediatrics and major illnesses such as cancer, hepatitis, and renal and cardiovascular diseases…The overhaul, the first since late 2009, saw the number of "Western-style" and traditional Chinese medicines included in the list grow by 15% to 2,535, among which 1,297 are Western-style meds, an 11% increase...The additions include some blockbuster meds like tenofovir, an antiviral drug to treat hepatitis B and HIV...and cancer drug gefitinib...China’s own non-small cell lung cancer med icotinib…The ministry (Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security) also put 45 drugs on a “to-be-negotiated” list, half of which are targeted cancer therapies...inclusions of new drugs would reduce the financial burden on patients and help support innovations in China's pharmaceutical market...The National Reimbursement Drug List names all the drugs covered by the insurance program, some in full and others partially. Patients must pay the full price out of pocket for those drugs outside the list, which means a huge financial burden, especially when new but more effective drugs are not covered..

The Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed steps to streamline the process surrounding the disposal and handling of hazardous pharmaceutical waste for all health care facilities that dispense pharmaceuticals as set forth by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act...While the intent of the proposed rule is fundamentally solid, it raises several red flags with serious implications for the pharmaceutical supply chain and the patients it serves that must be addressed before EPA finalizes the rule...many organizations indicated during the comment period...the rule potentially may lead to unintended and extreme consequences for pharmacies, such as increasing costs, limiting inventories, possible product shortages and the need for pharmacists to take on additional back-office services...What are the red flags?

First...Excluding wholesale distributors from the requirements...means that distributors will no longer be allowed to send pharmaceuticals to reverse distributors to determine whether they are eligible for a credit from the product's manufacturer.

Second...EPA has introduced a new provision that all pharmaceuticals including unopened, unused and those that have not yet expired will now be considered waste when sent to a reverse distributor.

What can be done?...The Healthcare Distribution Alliance...is working with a group of interested parties and affected pharmaceutical supply chain companies to advocate for commonsense policies that protect the environment, while preserving the current supply chain efficiencies that control costs and ensure access...

After several years in which drug makers have been pressured to release clinical trial data, a new analysis finds many companies are still doing an incomplete or inconsistent job of being transparent...95 percent of the 42 companies reviewed – including the 25 largest drug makers, based on sales – had a publicly accessible policy...the specifics often varied wildly in terms of what is disclosed and even how to interpret some of the policies...not every drug maker committed to share results within 12 months of completing a trial...policies were found to be vague, ambiguously worded and internally contradictory...every element of best practice around transparency was committed to by at least one company, [which] strongly suggests that they are all deliverable, and that there are no practical barriers to all companies committing to meet all elements of best practice."...The findings follow years of tussling between drug makers, academics and consumer groups over the issue of transparency. A central concern is the ability for researchers to independently verify study results and, consequently, improve patient treatments that can lead to better health and lower costs...Drug makers, however, are not the only ones to have flaunted transparency...many leading medical research institutions flagrantly violated a federal law requiring public reporting of study results. The violations left gaping holes in a U.S. government database used by millions of patients and medical professionals to compare effectiveness and side effects of treatments.

Birth-control delivery services have understandably been on the rise, with each one trying to combine the best medical, financial and legal fit for patients in mobile form. A new app on the scene aims to streamline both process and cost for users by eliminating the pharmaceutical middleman and shipping wholesale medicine direct from its home base to patients' own...The Pill Club is on a mission to make getting birth control as easy and cost-effective as possible, and even fun...founder Nick Chang...these goals are made possible by a fundamental difference between his app and others on the market--namely, that it provides all prescriptions and products in-house, without needing to involve the pharmacies and pharmacy prices that many users are looking to avoid...serving as its own functional pharmacy is what will allow The Pill Club to make the difference for patients who want to acquire birth control but have faced all-too-common hurdles to getting it…I always saw that there were a number of hurdles facing women getting access to birth control. There are structural ones, such as needing to go to the doctor for a prescription, and visiting pharmacies again and again to fill that prescription...what we set out to do: to connect telemedicine with telepharmacy...

As high pharmaceutical prices strain budgets of payers and patients alike, Harvard Pilgrim is betting so-called pay-for-performance deals will help lower drug costs and improve patient outcomes...The...health insurer announced...it had inked two separate agreements with Amgen and Eli Lilly that tie the costs of Amgen's Enbrel (etanercept) and Lilly's Forteo (teriparatide) with either performance or patient adherence...a number of large drugmakers have begun pushing value- or outcomes-based payments as a potential solution to blowback on rising drug prices. Under these types of deals, insurers and other payers would pay less for drugs that fail to meet specified benchmarks. Drugmakers, on the other hand, would be rewarded for innovative medicines that improve outcomes.

Praxsyn Corporation is pleased to announce that it has purchased through a newly formed subsidiary, Nevada Health Rx, Inc., the pharmacy license and all of the assets of Meds Direct Rx, a pharmacy located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new pharmacy is about 8,000+ square feet of pharmacy and warehouse space, and includes a large loading dock and a secured yard to hold delivery vehicles...The total purchase price for the acquisition of the pharmacy was $120,000...This acquisition will allow us to sell a broader mix of products from a much larger facility than we have had in the past. Our focus is on filling prescriptions that have a 30 day pay cycle...Our focus...is on customer service to our patients, their doctors, the surgery centers and hospitals that will serve our patients...Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, Praxsyn Corporation is a holding company that finds solutions to fit the needs and goals of medical professionals and their patients...

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced...that Nevada will expand mental health care services with the implementation of new community-based behavioral health care clinics...The whole idea is to try to provide better integrative care to individuals that have both substance abuse and mental disorders...We’ve never done well in this state, and probably most other states, in coordinating so that patients are getting care by the same team…the two-year Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic...will offer 24-hour mobile crisis services, outpatient mental health and substance abuse treatment as well as recovery support.

 

A nip here, a tuck there — Las Vegas Valley’s medical industry has been evolving for years...And as the region continues to advertise to tourists as a destination for medical services, one sector in particular has blossomed: plastic surgery…Las Vegas has become an international hot spot for plastic surgery, with people traveling to find the doctor who best suits them. That means local doctors are working to keep up with international trends and the latest innovations...For procedures that don’t require hospitalization, patients often book vacations and consider surgery just one of the many activities they’ll do while in town...Another potential benefit of a Las Vegas procedure for tourists is privacy. Clients who don’t want friends or family to know about their procedures or see them with bandages and bruises can enjoy the city, stay for follow-ups and take in the sights without running into someone they know...