UHC's August 2022 Optum Insulin Announcement: More PR Fluff? We Don't Really Know.
On August 1, 2022, United Healthcare Group ' s PBM business known as Optum made a press release of its own related to insulin:Optum to Offer Lower-Cost Insulin for Uninsured People Living With Diabetes on Optum Store https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220801005282/en/Optum-to-Offer-Lower-Cost-Insulin-for-Uninsured-People-Living-With-Diabetes-on-Optum-Store/This comes on the heels of United Healthcare ' s own goodwill-generating PR move made on July 15, 2022 which was as follows:UnitedHealthcare To Eliminate Out-of-Pocket Costs on Several Prescription Drugs, Including Insulin, for Eligible Membershttps://www.busi...
Source: Scott's Web Log - August 4, 2022 Category: Endocrinology Tags: authorized generic UnitedHealthCare 2022 insulin insulin prices OptumRx PBM United Healthcare Source Type: blogs
Sanofi Joins The Ranks of $35/vial Insulin, Adds New Unbranded Insulin to Product Lineup
Yesterday, Sanofi U.S. made an announcement: Effective on July 1, 2022, the company will lower out-of-pocket cost of insulin for uninsured patients and expand access in underserved communities (in reality, the lower prices are available to anyone including those who have insurance deductibles to satisfy). The press release can be viewed athttps://www.news.sanofi.us/2022-06-29-Sanofi-to-lower-out-of-pocket-cost-of-insulin-for-uninsured-patients-and-expand-access-in-underserved-communities.Sanofi has been a laggard relative to its rivals Lilly and Novo Nordisk. For example, in 2019, both Lilly and Novo Nordisk each announced...
Source: Scott's Web Log - July 1, 2022 Category: Endocrinology Tags: Sanofi Aventis Sanofi-Aventis 2022 drug prices Euro API insulin insulin prices Source Type: blogs
The Importance of Getting the Affordable Part of the Affordable Care Act Right
The ACA ' s expansion of Medicaid and the marketplaces that sell subsidized policies have helped decrease the uninsured rate. Research on being underinsured shows that affordability at the point of care is central to keeping people healthy. For example, a new study found a significant relationship between having health insurance and better asthma control. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - June 17, 2022 Category: Health Management Authors: Petra Rasmussen Source Type: blogs
GAO Report Neglects to Mention the Cruelty of Limiting Short ‐Term Plans
Michael F. CannonThe Government Accountability Office has published report examining " short-term, limited duration " health insurance (STLDI). (That ' s what federal law calls such health plans. A better moniker would be "renewable term health insurance. " )Congress exempts STLDI plans from all federal health insurance regulations. As a result, premiums are often 90 percent lower than ObamaCare premiums and ObamaCare ' s preexisting-conditions provisions aren ' tconstantly making coverage worse for the sick in STLDI plans.In 2016, the Obama administration arbitrarily limited the duration of STLDI plans to 3 months. In 201...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 2, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Michael F. Cannon Source Type: blogs
The health care systems in the United States and Canada are failing
There are no two ways about it: The health care system in the United States and Canada is failing. Few want to talk about a dirty little secret, but the facts are clear. Health care costs are rising at an unsustainable rate, and millions of Americans are uninsured or underinsured. The system is not accountableRead more …The health care systems in the United States and Canada are failing originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 26, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/tomi-mitchell" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Tomi Mitchell, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Policy Public Health & Source Type: blogs
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government took steps to help uninsured people get and stay covered, but those measures will expire at some point. What’s next?
(Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - April 21, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Sara R. Collins Source Type: blogs
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Fixing the Affordable Care Act’s “family glitch,” as the Biden administration has proposed, would reduce health insurance costs for an estimated 1 million people and cut the number of uninsured by about 200,000.
(Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - April 13, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Timothy S. Jost 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
Celebrating the 12th Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act in a Pandemic: Where Would We Be Without It?
BY ROSEMARIE DAY
When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law twelve years ago today, Joe Biden called it “a big f-ing deal.” Little did he, or anyone else at that time, realize how big of a deal it was. Just ten years later, America was engulfed in a global pandemic, the magnitude of which hadn’t been seen in a century. Two years after that, the numbers are chilling: over 79 million people were infected, at least 878,613 were hospitalized, and 971,968 have died.
As bad as these numbers are, things would have been much worse if the ACA hadn’t come to pass. The ACA created an essential safety net t...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 23, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Obamacare Affordable Care Act covid19 Life In the Affordable Care Act Medicaid Pandemic rosemarie day Source Type: blogs
When Crypto Comes to Health Care
By KIM BELLARD
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has been called many things. To most of the world, of course, it’s considered an invasion, a war between the two countries. To Russia, it’s a “peacekeeping” mission. The description that I can’t get out of my head, though, is one that I believe The Washington Post first used: it’s the world’s first crypto war.
“There is something about the war in Ukraine that feels different,” a former U.S. intelligence official told Nick Bilton. “We’ve seen wars documented on Twitter and images shared on the internet before, but this time it isn...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 8, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Artificial Intelligence Health Tech cryptocurrency Healthcare Russia Ukraine Source Type: blogs
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By expanding Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, Mississippi could provide approximately 230,000 uninsured adults with health coverage over six years, at no net cost to the state.
(Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - February 4, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Adam Striar, Patricia M. Boozang, Cindy Mann Source Type: blogs
Welcome Back Kotter: New York ’ s next 1115 Waiver
The objectives of DSRIP 1.0 – a laundry list of HEDIS measures – made the program difficult to manage “on the ground” and too tightly tied to medical measures of success.
Too many choices. PPS were given choices about which projects they would work on – and by extension – which projects would be funded and measured. The projects were tactically expressed – and therefore too prescriptive – not just defining goals to be achieved – but presuming that DOH knew how goals would best be achieved. In many cases – this mismatch between what to do and how it would be done was...
Source: Docnotes - January 30, 2022 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jacob Tags: Health Politics Technology 1115 DSRIP VBP Source Type: blogs
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The Build Back Better Act would significantly expand health coverage to the uninsured and reduce the cost of coverage for Americans with low and moderate incomes, but its prospects are uncertain.
(Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - January 20, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Timothy S. Jost Source Type: blogs
Primary Health! Now from Circulo
BLUF – in October, Circulo acquired my little company, Huddle Health. We are now fully integrated into Circulo – and it’s time to describe the rationale for our convergence and some of what comes next.
If you haven’t read my short essay on Primary Health, please go read that first. We’ll wait.
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Ok … back? Great. Now, let’s resume the story.
Years ago, I was on the faculty at Albany Medical College. We had a course called Health, Care & Society wherein students were challenged to learn and think about ethical issues, health policy principles and enga...
Source: Docnotes - January 3, 2022 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jacob Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
My 22 Oldest Jokes and Why they Still Matter in 2022
By IAN MORRISON
I have been studying American healthcare for more than 40 years and I have assembled a large number of one-liners over the years. As we enter 2022, I thought I’d share my 22 oldest jokes and why they still matter.
Coming to America
I grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. In Glasgow, healthcare is a right, carrying a machine gun is a privilege. America got it the wrong way round.
Gun violence continues to ravage the United States. We have more guns than people. Kids get gunned down in school playgrounds and classrooms routinely. ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 22, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Policy American healthcare healthcare quality Source Type: blogs
