Oral Parity And What Its All About

Oral parity is (in my non medical person, layman English with a touch of chemobrain and fibro fog) where an insurance company covers an intravenous medication as a hospital visit but in a pill form covers it as a pharmacy benefit and only covers a smaller portion -  $2300/month co-pay in one example.The insurance companies like it this way because its one less thing to cover. From the doctor and patient perspective its a barrier to patients receiving needed treatment. There is a big "who-haw" going on about this in the insurance world as well.I have never understood why pharmacy benefits are so different and so separate from other medical coverage. And don't get me started on vision and dental care. These aren't optional things in maintaining good health and should all be covered equally.But this oral parity thing should not be lumped into the same category as other medications. It highlights the problem with the pharmaceutical industry gouging over charging the American patient to 'cover their research costs and high salaries and huge employee perks still offered to all of their employees'.If you get a new brand name prescription drug, it comes in lovely little packaging, probably has a massive marketing campaign attached to it. I had one that came with the pills were color coordinated (or vice versa) with the bottle's labeling. Another one, have more designer time put into packaging that was needed. Finally, I have one that comes with a 20 minute instructional DVD on h...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - Category: Cancer Tags: insurance costs prescriptions medical costs Source Type: blogs