Rosuvastatin or Atorvastatin , Which is good and safe ?
Statins belong to a group of drugs, stolen and reengineered from the blueprint of natural Chinese red yeast rice (Monocoline K) in the late 1980s. The rest is the remarkable history in the pharma industry.
Statins directly interrupt the cholesterol synthesis by blocking HMG-CoA within the hepatocytes. It significantly lowers the LDL, fights human vascular atherosclerosis. It makes the plaque either regress, prevent progress, make it harder and in the process make them less vulnerable . There are innumerable studies that document the evidence. Statin has become a must-prescribe drug in any one with clinically establishe...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - November 10, 2023 Category: Cardiology Authors: dr s venkatesan Tags: Uncategorized acc aha atorvastatin vs rosuvastatin avert study bmj esc jamanetwork lancet lipid association lodestar study lodestar trial bmj nejm saturn trial simvastatin statins which statin superior Source Type: blogs
When Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company Says Your Prescription is " Out of stock "
My followers may recall that about a year ago (on August 22, 2023), I blogged about (see https://blog.sstrumello.com/2022/08/generic-crestor-pricing-insanity.html for the post) that I had made a conscious decision to simply disintermediate my own insurance pharmacy benefit to buy an inexpensive generic statin drug because my own pharmacy benefit manager was screwing me. Currently, I ' m covered by Aetna which is now owned by CVS Health, which also owns the PBM known as Caremark. Caremark was robbing me on the statin. It was overcharging me. They were trying to charge me $33.85 for a 90-day supply of a cheap...
Source: Scott's Web Log - August 1, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 cash pharmacy cash-only pharmacy Crestor Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company rosuvastatin calcium Source Type: blogs
Navitus 2022 Drug Trend Report
Its been many years since I posted news of a PBM Drug Trend Report. Once upon a time, PBM drug trend reports contained lots of interesting information. However, over time (in 2021, for example, when reports from the preceding year were published), CVS Caremark published only a bare-bones summary, while Prime Therapeutics, MedImpact, and other large PBMs all completelystopped publishing drug trend reports. The reason is basically because its becoming harder and harder for PBMs to present themselves as saving money when the biggest PBMs aren ' t saving any entities any money on prescription drugs anymore (I...
Source: Scott's Web Log - July 5, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2022 2023 Drug Trend Report Navitus Navitus Health Solutions PBM Source Type: blogs
Caremark's President Speaks at'Forum 2023 '
David Joyner is President& EVP of CVS ' Caremark PBM business. Caremark refers to that event and business as " Payor Solutions " whose website is athttps://payorsolutions.cvshealth.com/. Truth be told, CVS Caremark would rather patients whose insurance use Caremark as their PBM do not know what the PBM ' s executives say or do behind their veil of secrecy.On May 5, 2023, the Caremark PBM business of CVS Health hosted an event it called " Forum 2023 " , and Mr. Joyner gave a presentation on " What ' next for payors " . It was rather amusing that CVS Health said: " though the [PBM] system is working – from claim adjudi...
Source: Scott's Web Log - May 31, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Aetna Caremark CVS Caremark CVS Health David Joyner Payor Solutions Source Type: blogs
Costco Wholesale: What Is Its Pharmacy Strategy? It's Complicated.
Conclusion: Costco Pharmacy Manages Hybrid Cash/Insurance Payments for Rx Drugs Better Than Most Other Big Pharmacy Chains. Still, Costco Won ' tALWAYS Be the Low-Price Leader Because of How the U.S. Prescription Drug Market Functions.Costco Pharmacy ' s cash prices for many prescriptions may be low enough for people to simply bypass their insurance and pay out-of-pocket, which Costco welcomes, similar to how Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. or a number of other rapidly-growing, cash-only pharmacies which are popping up nationwide operate because their cash prices may be potentially even cheaper than by using insurance. Howev...
Source: Scott's Web Log - January 21, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Big pharma bypass insurance cash pharmacy cash-only pharmacy Costco Costco Wholesale Corp. PBM ' Source Type: blogs
Cigna-Express Scripts by InsideRx Strategy Modification, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Insulin Trial
Two years ago, I made a very well-informed decision to simply bypass our own healthcare insurance for a number of prescriptions used in my household because we were paying out-of-pocket until the deductible was satisfied anyway (which was about half the year), and our new insurance carrier Aetna and its PBM Caremark was obviously ripping us off by a fairly wide margin. In fact, the financial gamesmanship (or as the PBM ' s call it, " Price Arbitrage " ) was so overt, that it would have been financially foolish to stick with insurance under the presumption that it contributed toward satisfying the deductible (a falsehood; t...
Source: Scott's Web Log - November 21, 2022 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2022 CIGNA coupon-generating websites apps coupons Express Scripts InsideRx PBM Source Type: blogs
Podcast Recommendation: Global Healthy Living Foundation " Healthcare Matters "
Although I have considered the idea, I don ' t necessarily envision myself as a podcaster, but Ihave found a number of different podcasts rather informative (some are also entertaining).So I thought why don ' t I share some of the podcasts that I ' ve learned from here?First up is one from the Global Healthy Living Foundationhttps://ghlf.org/ which actually has several podcasts. The podcast I ' m referring you to today is the podcast they refer to as " Healthcare Matters "https://ghlf.org/healthcarematters/, and more specifically an episode of that podcast entitled " S3, Ep 2 entitled " A Failed Promise: Why Are Patients O...
Source: Scott's Web Log - October 20, 2022 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2022 podcast robert popovian Source Type: blogs
Generic Crestor Pricing Insanity
For a number of years, I ' ve used a statin drug (like 35 million Americans in the United States do). For more than a few years, these drugs were rather costly and protected by exclusive patent protection, although at the time, they were mostly covered by my insurance to prevent major heart attacks which could cost them even more (hundreds of thousands of dollars in claims).I ' ve used several different low-dose statins over the years, mostly for their preventative benefits. I initially began with Pfizer ' s Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium), but I experienced some pretty severe muscle aches which made it difficult for me to ...
Source: Scott's Web Log - August 23, 2022 Category: Endocrinology Tags: rosuvastatin calcium coupon-generating websites apps coupons Crestor generic generics PBM Source Type: blogs
How to Navigate Life with a Chronic Disease Like T1D and High-Deductible Insurance - Redux
Last February (2021), I wrote a blog post called " How to Navigate Life with a Chronic Disease Like T1D and High-Deductible Insurance Plans " (read my post athttps://blog.sstrumello.com/2021/02/how-to-navigate-life-with-chronic.html for details).I still stand by all of the recommendations I made in that blog post because I actually used (and still use some) the methods described effectively and saved a lot of money by doing so. But times change, and sometimes strategies need to evolve with changes that happen in the world around us.Intro of " Authorized Generic " Insulins, plus Branded/Unbranded BiosimilarsFor example, in ...
Source: Scott's Web Log - April 7, 2022 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2022 high-deductible insurance plans insulin Source Type: blogs
Welldyne's WellCardRx Discount Card/App: Another PBM-Powered Discount Card
In several recent posts during the past few years, I ' ve addressed the emergence of prescription drug discount cards and apps. Perhaps the most notable post on that can be seenHERE.Much of that began with the company known asGoodRx Holdings, Inc., but a downside to GoodRx is because it only has access to a single formulary (most PBM ' s typically a high-price/high-rebate formulary which benefits the PBM, and others demanded by big clients which tend to favor lower cost generic drugs) offered by each PBM it does business with, that also means it may not have access to the other formularies which mainly preference generic d...
Source: Scott's Web Log - February 7, 2022 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2022 coupon-generating websites apps coupons Discount Card GoodRx PBM prescriptions Source Type: blogs
How We Wrested Control of Our Rx Drug Spending. Maybe You Can, too.
This week, we ' ve heard reporting that the big Congressional bill which was supposed to include a provision for Medicare, which is the taxpayer-funded senior insurance plan to actually negotiate prices on prescription drugs (just as most other countries, as well as the Veteran ' s Administration [VA] already do right now) was going to be omitted because of a handful of PhRMA-bankrolled lawmakers pushed to kill it. That said, it isn ' t over until its over. Although we don ' t know what she might or might not do, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi still has some tricks in her own playbook if it doesn ' t happen a...
Source: Scott's Web Log - November 1, 2021 Category: Endocrinology Tags: coupon-generating websites apps PBM prescriptions Source Type: blogs
Neoatherosclerosis
Neointimal proliferation can occur within a coronary stent. Chronic inflammation within the neointima with infiltration of macrophages leads to neoatherosclerosis and result in in-stent restenosis. Disruption of neoatheroma can cause acute thrombotic occlusion [1]. Hence neoatherosclerosis is a complication of percutaneous coronary intervention and can present with recurrence of angina or acute coronary syndrome.
Occurrence of neoatherosclerosis is earlier in drug eluting stents than in bare metal stents and has a greater prevalence. Late stent thrombosis due to rupture of the plaques with thin fibrous cap is associated ...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 26, 2021 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis Tags: Cardiology Source Type: blogs
Lowering cholesterol protects your heart and brain, regardless of your age
High or abnormal cholesterol levels, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction play a key role in atherosclerosis and plaque buildup, the most common cause of heart attacks and strokes. (Endothelial dysfunction refers to impaired functioning of the inner lining of blood vessels on the heart’s surface. It results in these vessels inappropriately narrowing instead of widening, which limits blood flow.) There are many different types of cholesterol, including high density lipoprotein (HDL, or good, cholesterol); triglycerides (a byproduct of excess calories consumed, which are stored as fat); and low-density lipoprotein (LD...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 24, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Hanna Gaggin, MD, MPH Tags: Drugs and Supplements Healthy Eating Heart Health Source Type: blogs
Latest in lipidology: is lipoprotein(a), Lp(a), "the most dangerous particle you ’ve never heard of"?
Dr Attia's podcast on Lp(a), the link is here:https://peterattiamd.com/tomdayspring6/Discussed:- ApoB as a preferred metric over LDL-P [16:30]; Atherogenic lipoproteins (apoB/LDL-P) as front and center in pathogenesis of CVD. ApoB and LDL-P are used interchangeably, but this is not quite accurate.- Therapeutic goals for apoB concentration [21:45]-Lipoprotein(a)—the most dangerous particle you’ve never heard of [55:00];preferred lab measurements [1:17:45]; Lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), is a distinctive particle with 2 components: - a lipoprotein core that resembles LDL- a shell that contains apolipopro...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 16, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Cardiology Source Type: blogs
