How to Take Care of Your Eyes as You Age: be aware of GMC: Glaucoma, Macular degeneration, Cataract
FromConsumer Reports:GlaucomaMore than 2 million Americans have glaucoma, but 50% know it. Glaucoma often goes undiagnosed because it causes no symptoms until vision declines, at which point treatment no longer helps.People aged 40-60 should be examined by an optometrist every 3-5 years; those older than 60 need an eye exam every 1-2 years.Many eye doctors screen for glaucoma with tonometry (measures eye pressure) but that ’s not enough. Relying only on intraocular pressure (IOP) when screening for glaucoma could miss up to 50% of all cases. Theexam should also include an ophthalmoscopy, which involves examining your opt...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 2, 2019 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Ophthalmology Source Type: blogs
Should Senator Menendez resign?
Just to make sure you know I ' m not a blind partisan -- which I hope has been obvious --Sen. Menendez of New Jersey is unworthy of his office. First let me back up a second to point out that conservative complaints about people defrauding public benefits programs are always about welfare queens in Cadillacs. In fact the main offenders are physicians.This particular schtickdreck, ophthalmologist Salomon Melden, has been convicted of defrauding Medicare of $190 million. You read that correctly. Along the way, he became BFF with Sen. Menendez, to whose campaigns he contributed $1 million (pocket change to him) and to whom he...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 5, 2017 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Updated Medicare and Medicaid Drug Spending Data Released
On November 15, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released updated Medicare and Medicaid drug spending data, to include information for calendar year (CY) 2015 through its online interactive dashboards for Medicare and Medicaid. The inclusion of the Medicaid drug spending data on the public dashboard is new this year, as is the addition of high-level (aggregated) Medicare drug rebate data.
CMS noted that “there is significant growth in spending on prescription drugs, representing a significant burden.” In CY 2015, total prescription drug costs amounted to roughly $457 billion – an estimated ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 14, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
New Study on Physician-Industry Relationships, This Time Focused on Ophthalmologists
This study, published by JAMA Ophthalmology, compared the use of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) intravitreal injections by United States ophthalmologists to industry payments those same physicians received.
Once again, the authors behind the study acknowledged that “Although the data can’t confirm a cause and effect, [they] found a positive association between reported pharmaceutical payments and increased use of drugs prescribed to treat problems of the retina.”
This study reviewed data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2013 Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data: Ph...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 6, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Saving billions of dollars in health care: The story of Avastin and Lucentis
I sometimes worry that my wife Paula won’t be able to see me grow old. Not that I expect to outlive her. She is four years my junior and has the blood pressure of a 17-year-old track star. It’s her eyesight I’m worried about, because she is at risk for a form of blindness called macular degeneration. Paula is the youngest in a long line of redheads, several of whom have been diagnosed with this illness. Her fair-haired grandmother developed macular degeneration and was eventually unable to see her bridge hand and had to give up her golf game, just when she was threatening to score below her age. Fortunately, Paula sh...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 17, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Peter Ubel, MD Tags: Meds Medications Source Type: blogs
A Controversial New Demonstration In Medicare: Potential Implications For Physician-Administered Drugs
According to an August 2015 survey, 72 percent of Americans find drug costs unreasonable, with 83 percent believing that the federal government should be able to negotiate prices for Medicare. Recently, Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Andy Slavitt commented that spending on medicines increased 13 percent in 2014 while health care spending growth overall was only 5 percent, the highest rate of drug spending growth since 2001.
Some of the most expensive drugs are covered under Medicare’s medical benefit, Part B, because they are administered by a physician. They are often admini...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - May 3, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Kavita Patel and Caitlin Brandt Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Medicare Payment Policy Quality Avastin CMMI Lucentis Medicare Part B oncology care model prescription drug coverage Source Type: blogs
We want access to safe and effective Avastin. Here’s a solution.
Recently, two states in India halted all use of Avastin for the treatment of eye disease following the report of 15 patients who underwent emergency surgery for potentially blinding infections at the C.H. Nagri Municipal Eye Hospital in Ahmedabad. Though further investigations are ongoing, there is worry that the cluster of infections centered around a tainted lot of compounded Avastin. This most recent event serves as a reminder of the risk that we take every time we inject Avastin into our patients eye.
Recent cluster infections have led to greater oversight: A good thing.
In the U.S., great measures have been taken...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 15, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Robert Wong, MD Tags: Conditions Medications Surgery Source Type: blogs
EFPIA Files Complaint Against French Law Promoting Off-Label Avastin Use
Earlier this week, EFPIA, Europe's pharmaceutical industry association, announced it had filed a complaint with the European Commission against the French “RTU Regime.” promoting the use of Roche's cancer drug Avastin for the off-label treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The decree allows the French medicines regulator (ANSM) to issue a temporary authorization for use of a product in an unauthorized indication, purely for economic purposes, notwithstanding the existence of an authorized alternative treatment. This development is troubling and contravenes European Community law and jurisprudence, wr...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 3, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
How Open Data Can Reveal—And Correct—The Faults In Our Health System
We examined sites of service for non-complex office visits across gastroenterology, cardiology, and oncology — three specialties that tend to deliver care across a range of sites. Medicare reimbursement is higher for hospital visits as compared to those in a physician office. Overall, we found that most doctors bill regular, level 3 evaluation and management visits in non-hospital settings. Oncologists have the highest percentage billed in hospital-type facilities — 15 percent of non-complex office visits. In this case, we were limited in our analysis because the dataset does not include the additional amount t...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 18, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Kavita Patel, Domitilla Masi, and Caitlin Brandt Tags: All Categories Big Data Health Care Costs Medicaid Medicare Payment Policy Research Spending Source Type: blogs
EFPIA Disapproves of French Off-Label Initiative
On July 8, 2014, the French National Assembly voted a draft law proposal that would potentially allow healthcare professionals to prescribe off-label drugs, even if there is an approved drug available for treatment. The draft law specifically references Avastin, a Roche cancer drug, as an alternative eye treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration, an indication for which the drug is not approved and for which two authorized alternatives exist.
EFPIA, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, harshly criticized the proposal. Richard Bergström, EFPIA Director General, said: "A worrying ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - July 17, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Novartis and Roche fined over 180 mn euros by anti-trust
Italy's Antitrust authority said Wednesday that it had fined Swiss pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Roche a total of over 180 million euros for alleged collusion to manipulate the market in Italy."The two companies made an illegal agreement to hamper the spread of the use of a very cheap pharmaceutical, (Roche's) Avastin, in the treatment of the most widespread eye pathology among the elderly and other serious eye diseases, to favour a much more expensive product, (Novartis's) Lucentis, artificially differentiating the two products," read an Antitrust statement. It added that this had cost the Italian national health ...
Source: PharmaGossip - March 5, 2014 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Literally gouging
In conclusion, we found no evidence of increased risks of mortality, myocardial infarction, bleeding, or stroke,” their research paper said.The other danger to using Avastin, however, has attracted a lot of publicity in recent years.The fact that the drug needs to be repackaged into smaller doses introduces an element of risk because it opens the possibility that the drug could be tainted during the repackaging process. (Genentech says because the FDA has not approved it for use in the eye, the company cannot legally distribute Avastin in doses appropriate for the eye.Indeed, in three cases that made the news — in Sout...
Source: PharmaGossip - December 16, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
A Fading Vertex Drug Was Also Fastest To Become A Blockbuster
How is this for irony? The same week that Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) cuts 15 percent of its workforce due to plunging sales of its Incivek treatment for hepatitis C, the drug has been identified as having achieved blockbuster status faster than any other medicine. Incivek was launched in 2011, by the way, and surpassed Celebrex, which is sold by Pfizer (PFE) but was launched in 1999 by Pharmacia.
The analysis was conducted by EvaluatePharma which reviewed quarterly US products sales and aggregated the first four full quarters after each drug launch in the region. Only five drugs have ever achieved blockbuster status in ...
Source: Pharmalot - October 31, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Pharmalot... Pharmalittle... The Weekend Nears
And so, yet another working week is drawing to a close. As you know, this is our treasured signal to daydream about weekend plans, although we are getting a headstart because, once again, we are rolling up the sidewalks early in order to enjoy another use-it-or-lose-it vacation day. In any event, our agenda is interesting, starting off with a birthday celebration for our shortest of short people, a book signing by a friend and a fresh installment in our 'Let's-see-them-before-they-die' concert series. But what about you? Anything special planned? How about catching up with old friends? Or shopping for a cozy autumn sweater...
Source: Pharmalot - October 25, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
