At 50, Medicare and Medicaid Face the Challenge of a New Generation of Super-Expensive Drugs
By STEVEN FINDLAY
Happy birthday Medicare and Medicaid! Fifty years old today. Middle age. Congratulations. You’ve survived a lot—and 76 million baby boomers and 60 million low-income Americans are mighty glad you’re still around, covering one in three Americans, with solvency until 2030 at last accounting.
Unfortunately, the challenges are not going to let up. In fact, they’re likely to get worse. Those challenges are discussed at length in several places that celebrate this milestone—most notably here, here, here, in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (s...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 30, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: suchandan roy Tags: THCB Steven Findlay Source Type: blogs
Entresto: Blockbuster, or Just Over Hyped? - Whatever, It Will Cost $4500 a Year
The newest drug for congestive heart failure, Entresto, a fixed combination of valsartan and sacubitril, has just hit the market at an elevated price. Like other drugs recently introduced as blockbusters, the high price does not seem clearly justified by clinical evidence about the drug's benefits and harms. Questions Raised by the One Big Published Controlled Trial Last year, we discussed the hoopla around a study of a new drug for congestive heart failure (CHF),(1) a fixed combination of valsartan and sacubitril. Also, on the now defunct CardioExchange blog, Dr Vinay Prasad discussed the same study (look her...
Source: Health Care Renewal - July 30, 2015 Category: Health Management Tags: CHF clinical trials Entresto evidence-based medicine manipulating clinical research Novartis sacubitril Source Type: blogs
Spending Growth Trends: Keeping An Eye On Spending Per Person
New health spending data for 2014 and spending projections over the next decade from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary were just published in Health Affairs. They show that total growth in health spending picked up in 2014; this was expected given the significant expansion of insurance coverage and the release of expensive new drugs for hepatitis C.¹
But all of the evidence points to continued modest growth in per capita/enrollee spending. This low growth in per enrollee costs is a strong signal that we may be in an era where the “new normal” is more restrained growth in the us...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - July 28, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Melinda Buntin Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Health Professionals Hospitals Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Medicare Altarum symposium CMS Office of the Actuary Consumers Health IT Melinda Buntin transparency Source Type: blogs
Health Affairs Web First: Health Spending Growth To Remain Moderate Compared To Pre-Recession Highs
New estimates released today from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) project a 5.5 percent rate of health spending growth for 2014, consistent with previous predictions. The average rate of longer-term projected growth is 5.8 percent for 2014–24, exceeding the expected average growth in gross domestic product (GDP) by 1.1 percentage points.
Expanded health insurance coverage for Americans through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), stronger economic growth relative to the recent past, and the aging of the US population are primary contributing factors to health spending growth fo...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - July 28, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Chris Fleming Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Featured Health Professionals Hospitals Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Medicare ACA aging population CMS Office of the Actuary Sean Keehan spen Source Type: blogs
FDA: "More Collaboration, Research Needed to Develop Cures"
In conclusion, he adds: "To encourage innovation, we also will continue to work with other government agencies and the healthcare community, including members of patient groups, academia, and industry. It will take a collaborative effort to improve our nation’s understanding of certain diseases and to translate any resulting scientific discoveries into cures."
Related StoriesFDA Communication Regulations Hurt CompetitionPatientsLikeMe Teams With FDA To Explore Patient-Reported Adverse EventsThe Importance of Private Investment into Research and Development ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - July 22, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Project ECHO: Force Multiplier For Community Health Centers
Even with the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans struggle to access health care when they need it. A huge part of the problem is a lack of both primary care and specialty providers in rural and other underserved communities. Without local providers who can meet patients’ needs, health care coverage does not necessarily translate to access to care.
Developing Health U.S., the GE Foundation’s signature health program, strives to help as many people as possible gain access to health care by partnering with community health centers around the country. Community health centers are the backbone of the health care saf...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - July 20, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: David Barash Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology Equity and Disparities GrantWatch Health IT Health Professionals Quality Access Community Health Centers Health Philanthropy Innovation Physicians Primary Care Safety Net Source Type: blogs
Bill Clinton, Paid to Speak to Biotech Conference, Extolled $1000 Pill to Prevent "Liver Rot," Despite Lack of Evidence that It Does
ConclusionHow distorted is health care these days. Misinformation, even disinformation seems to dominate evidence and logic. Concerns about health care dysfunction are suppressed by the anechoic effect. Perhaps inspired by the generic managers who now run health care organizations, everyone seems to have become a health care expert, and so the reach of viewpoints on health care seems to be more about the celebrity of their proponents rather than their knowledge, or the logic and evidence underlying their views.As a start, true health care reform has to somehow liberate good clinical evidence from where it...
Source: Health Care Renewal - July 1, 2015 Category: Health Management Tags: Clinton Foundation evidence-based medicine Gilead hepatitis C Sovaldi Source Type: blogs
Investigators vs. Industry In Clinical Research: Guiding The Hand That Treats Us
The objective was to determine whether the firm should adopt a new research strategy and invest corporate resources into the development of novel therapeutics in this area.
As the intense two-day meeting progressed, it was clear that there are a number of kidney diseases for which there is a pressing need for better treatments. The panelists, all of whom were full-time faculty at university-based medical centers and directly involved in patient care, had a broad array of expertise in the laboratory and clinical investigation of glomerular disease. They forthrightly recognized gaps in knowledge, the frequent lack of identi...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 17, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Howard Trachtman and Arthur Caplan Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Health Professionals Population Health genomics Industry Research Source Type: blogs
New In The Journal: GrantWatch Columns On Substance Use And Kids’ Health
The problem of heroin overdoses and other opioid addictions is frequently in the news these days. See this recent New York Times article on an innovative program in a Massachusetts city to get addicts into treatment.
My June 2015 GrantWatch column (free access) looks at some examples of foundation funding around the United States in the area of substance use prevention.
I start with some background information on the problem of drug overdose in the United States (see an alarming statistic), the heroin epidemic, and more. Here are just some of the foundation-funded projects included in the column.
The Conrad N. Hilton Found...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 12, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Lee-Lee Prina Tags: GrantWatch Insurance and Coverage Organization and Delivery Children Health Philanthropy Health Promotion and Disease PreventionGW Mental Health Oral Health Substance Use Prevention Telehealth Source Type: blogs
Debunking Myths About 'Big Pharma'
We recently wrote about the media’s coverage of the 2013 Open Payments data, noting the ease in which a government database emboldens journalists to imply misconduct. Although the Justice Department has not used information from the database to bring forward specific legal action in court, the media has not been as restrained, quickly moving to try their own cases in the “court of public opinion”. These stories create a chilling effect on industry-physician collaboration, as many interactions could subject either party to unwanted—and perhaps more importantly—unjustified attention.
These stories nearly universall...
Source: Policy and Medicine - June 10, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 53-year-old woman with swelling of the face, hands, and feet
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 53-year-old woman is evaluated for a 3-month history of swelling of the face, hands, and feet. She has untreated hepatitis C virus infection. She takes lithium for bipolar disorder. She has no additional symptoms.
On physical examination, temperature is normal, blood pressure is 134/93 mm Hg, pulse rate is 71/min, and respiration rate is 18/min. Bilateral periorbital edema and swelling of the hands and legs are noted. The remainder of the examination is unremarkable.
Laboratory studies:
Complete blood count...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 30, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Kevin Tags: Conditions Nephrology Source Type: blogs
Project ECHO GEMH: Disruptive Technology For Geriatric Mental Health
New York State is a leader on many health fronts, whether it be antismoking, obesity reduction, or insurance coverage. But our state is also a leader in another area: we are among the states with the greatest shortages in physician supply. According to the Healthcare Association of New York State, the deficits are especially large in rural areas, which lack both primary care physicians and specialists. This situation hits particularly hard in rural communities since primary care doctors may be their only source of health services, including those for mental health.
The prevalence of mental illness is not much different in ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - May 28, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Brian Byrd and Bronwyn Starr Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology GrantWatch Health IT Health Professionals Access Chronic Care Dementia Health Care for the Elderly Health Philanthropy Innovation Mental Health Primary Care Rural Health Care States Workforce Source Type: blogs
Cost of Treating Hepatitis C Is Soaring
Here is a fascinating picture from the Wall Street Journal, showing how much Medicare has been spending on hepatitis C treatments lately. You can see that the cost is rising dramatically: Keep in mind, however, that the new and expensive … Continue reading →
The post Cost of Treating Hepatitis C Is Soaring appeared first on PeterUbel.com. (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - May 26, 2015 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Peter Ubel Tags: Health Care healthcare costs Peter Ubel pharmaceutical companies syndicated Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
How hepatitis C treatment is a glimpse of health care’s future
Hepatitis C is one of the most common chronic infectious illnesses in the U.S. today and affects nearly 3.2 million Americans. Complications of hepatitis C infection include liver cancer as well as cirrhosis. Many patients with chronic hepatitis ultimately develop liver failure and will die without liver transplantation. In the last year, a new drug class has entered the market and can produce cure rates in excess of 90 percent.
These drugs — Sovaldi and Harvoni — are incredibly expensive, and some treatment courses cost more than $1000 a day. Typical treatment courses to achieve cure require 12 weeks o...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 22, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Kevin R. Campbell, MD Tags: Meds GI Medications Source Type: blogs
21st Century Cures Act Passes 51-0 in House Energy and Commerce Committee
This morning, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 51-0 to approve the 21st Century Cures Act. With the way the bipartisan bill sailed through, it appears the 21st Century Cures train has left the station.
The Act was authored by full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member DeGette, full committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA), and Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Gene Green (D-TX).
"This historic day marks a big bipartisan step forward on our path to cures,” said Upton. “We hav...
Source: Policy and Medicine - May 21, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
