These Charities Are Meant To Help Patients Pay For Drugs. But Critics Say They’re Just A Marketing Arm Of Pharma
The groups are being accused of driving up the cost of health care by masking the price of drugs and forcing higher costs on the insurance companies that pass them along to consumers and employers.
USA Today:
Drug Copay Assistance Keeps Patients Alive And Prices, Premiums High
Copayment assistance groups, created to help patients with the increasingly higher price of drugs to treat medical conditions, are under investigation by federal authorities for possibly skewing the cost of health care to favor drug companies. The probes, noted by several drug makers in their regulatory filings, are slowing contributions to at least two of these assistance groups, charities that sometimes pay top executives salaries of $300,000 or more. Critics of these groups, such as Patients for Affordable Drugs founder David Mitchell, say they drive up the cost of health care by masking the price of drugs and forcing higher costs on the insurance companies that pass them along to consumers and employers. (O'Donnell, Robinson, Alltucker and Freeman, 4/26)
The Washington Post:
Why Drug Companies See Rare-Disease Patients As Human Jackpots
The swelling attacks come on without warning. Loukisha Olive-McCoy’s lower lip puffs up; then her cheeks and jaw twist and pull, distorting her face into an involuntary grimace. Sometimes her tongue will fill up the back of her throat and choke off her breathing. Olive-McCoy, 44, has hereditary angioedema (HAE), a life-threatening disease so rare that many doctors have only read about it. Fortunately, there are cutting-edge drugs to keep the swelling at bay and treat the attacks that break through. (Johnson, 4/25)
California Healthline:
Dissecting The Rhetoric Vs. Reality Of Trump’s Tough Talk On Drug Prices
President Donald Trump has railed against the high price of prescription drugs and famously bemoaned how pharmaceutical companies are “getting away with murder.” Yet, many Americans aren’t seeing a change in what they pay out-of-pocket. Trump promised a speech on prescription drug prices, and it’s expected anytime. Here’s a look at the rhetoric thus far versus the results. (Tribble, 4/27)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
20 States Seek To Block Obama's Health Care Law
Twenty Republican-led states are seeking to temporarily invalidate former President Barack Obama's health care law while their larger lawsuit against it proceeds. In a February suit, Texas and Wisconsin led a coalition arguing that the Affordable Care Act is no longer constitutional after the Republican-backed tax overhaul eliminated fines for not having health care coverage.Sixteen states with Democratic governors later sought to intervene. They suggested that Democratic attorneys general will have to defend the law because President Donald Trump's administration won't. (4/26)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Million-Dollar Cancer Treatment: Who Will Pay?
The emergence of genetics-based medicines is pushing the cost of treating certain diseases to new levels, forcing hospitals and health insurers to reckon with how to cover total costs per patient approaching a million dollars. The therapies deliver new genes or genetically altered cells to tackle some of the hardest-to-treat diseases, including in children. They come at a high price: Novartis AG listed its newly approved cell therapy for cancer at $475,000, while Gilead Sciences Inc. priced its rival drug at $373,000. (Rockoff, 4/26)
The New York Times:
E. Coli Flare-Up Is Largest Multistate Outbreak Since 2006
A recent spate of infections linked to romaine lettuce is now the largest multistate food-borne E. coli outbreak since 2006, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 84 people were infected in 19 states between mid-March and mid-April, the C.D.C. announced Wednesday, adding more than two dozen cases to its previous count. Because of the time it takes for an illness to reach the agency’s attention, illnesses contracted after April 5 may not yet have been reported, the agency said. (Chokshi, 4/26)
