Podcast

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Dealing With Drug Prices


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Medicare officials have preliminarily decided to restrict reimbursement for Aduhelm, the controversial Alzheimer’s drug, to only patients participating in approved clinical trials. The FDA approved the drug in 2021 over objections of the agency’s outside advisers, who complained the evidence of Aduhelm’s efficacy is thin. But the prospect of wide use of the drug — originally priced at $56,000 a year — helped prompt the largest-ever increase in Medicare Part B premiums. Now the Department of Health and Human Services is looking at whether it can reduce that increase before 2023.

Meanwhile, covid confusion continues, as the Biden administration belatedly seeks to expand testing and the availability of higher-quality masks, and the Supreme Court delays an emergency decision on the administration’s rules on vaccine requirements for workers.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Joanne Kenen of Politico and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Rachel Cohrs of Stat.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week that they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: The AP’s “Flush With COVID-19 Aid, Schools Steer Funding to Sports,” by Collin Binkley and Ryan J. Foley

Joanne Kenen: The New York Times’ “Covid Test Misinformation Spikes Along With Spread of Omicron,” by Davey Alba

Rachel Cohrs: KHN and Fortune’s “App Attempts to Break Barriers to Bankruptcy for Those in Medical Debt,” by Blake Farmer

Sarah Karlin-Smith: Stat’s “‘I’m Going to Prove You Wrong’: How a D.C. Power Couple Used an ALS Diagnosis to Create a Political Juggernaut,” by Lev Facher


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This story was produced by KHN (Kaiser Health News), a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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