Mylan Misrepresented EpiPen Profits To Congress By 60 Percent
The company said it used the standard 37.5 percent corporate tax rate to get the numbers it reported to Congress. But Mylan had a 7.4 percent overall tax rate last year.
The Wall Street Journal:
Mylan’s EpiPen Pretax Profits 60% Higher Than Number Told To Congress
Mylan NV on Monday clarified the profit it said it made from its lifesaving EpiPen drug, days after House members badgered the company’s CEO to justify the device’s steep price increases. Testifying before a congressional committee last week, CEO Heather Bresch said Mylan’s profit was $100 for a two-pack of the injectors, despite a $608 list price. But in response to questions from The Wall Street Journal, Mylan said Monday that the profit figure presented by Ms. Bresch included taxes, which the company didn’t clearly convey to Congress. (Maremont, 9/26)
In other national health care news —
The Wall Street Journal:
With Insurers On Board, More Hospitals Offer Transgender Surgery
Surgery is becoming more available for transgender people as a growing number of academic centers and hospitals offer the procedure and insurance companies provide coverage. Stacey Parsons, a 45-year-old from Kent, Ohio, had genital surgery in August at Cleveland Clinic, which last year launched a transgender-surgery-and-medicine program. For years the procedure was unattainable for Ms. Parsons because it costs upward of $20,000 and was rarely covered by insurance. (Reddy, 9/26)
Bloomberg:
Your Pet's Vet Bill Offers Insight Into Rising U.S. Healthcare Costs
Healthcare spending on pets has been growing strongly, and it offers some insight into what's happening in the U.S. human health system, Stanford University's Liran Einav and Atul Gupta and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Amy Finkelstein write. (Smialek, 9/27)
The Washington Post:
Pain Kept This Young Woman From Eating For 5 Years, And Doctors Didn’t Know Why
The medical team encircled Mackenzie Hild’s bed, their somber expressions reflecting the gravity of the news they were about to impart to the Harvard sophomore and her mother, newly arrived from California. “We’ve done all these tests, and they’re all normal,” Hild recalls one doctor at the renowned Boston hospital telling them. To treat Hild’s life-threatening weight loss, which the 19-year-old claimed was the result of searing abdominal pain triggered by eating, doctors were sending her to an inpatient center specializing in eating disorders. (Boodman, 9/26)