Drugs

Nov 29 2013

According to a statement by the publicity department at CMS, Medicare beneficiaries saved about $3 billion in drug costs this year due to the reform law's gradual closing of the "donut" hole.

http://cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Press-Releases/2013-Press-Releases-Items/2013-11-26.html

Nov 25 2013

Specialty Drug Trends

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

A new report from CVS Caremark indicates that specialty drugs will continue to grow as a portion of total drug spending, with little relief in sight.

Nov 18 2013

A report from Evaluate finds that around 30 new drugs will be approved by the FDA this year, down from 43 last year. Many of these drugs, as with the ones approved last year, will be very expensive specialty drugs.

http://www.evaluategroup.com/public/Reports/EPVantage-FDA-Approvals.aspx

Nov 11 2013

Medication Adherence Determinants

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

Research published at the National Bureau of Economic Research examines factors related to patients compliance with their medication therapies.

Nov 05 2013

In a truly baffling decision, HHS has decided to allow drug manufacturers to offer copay assistance to purchasers of commercial health plans on the health exchanges. The practice raises costs for everyone by encouraging inappropriate use of very expensive drugs.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303843104579172090415391168

Oct 16 2013

OIG on Medicaid Drug Pricing

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

The Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General found that many state Medicaid programs are not taking full advantage of provisions that could lower their drug spending.

Aug 05 2013

Preferred Pharmacy Networks in Part D Plans

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

An analysis performed for CMS looks at the effect of narrower pharmacy networks with preferred providers for Part D plans, finding that generally these networks had lower spending.

Jul 11 2013

Benefits of Medication Therapy

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

Medication Therapy Management is mandated for certain Medicare beneficiaries, but many more patients may benefit from its focus on prescription drugs as a care management tool

Jul 02 2013

Competition and Part D

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

The Congressional Budget Office released a presentation which examines how competition among plans appears to affect pricing for Medicare' Part D drug benefit.

Jun 27 2013

More Billions That Can Be Saved in the Health System

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

The IMS Institute for Health Informatics publishes a report suggesting that using prescription medicines more appropriately would save $200 billion annually in health spending in the United States. Really?

Jun 26 2013

cbo

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

A Congressional Budget Office presentation suggests that greater use of drugs reduces medical spending slightly for Medicare.

Jun 11 2013

pbm

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

Cigna has signed a ten year agreement with pharmacy benefit manager Catamaran to provide technology for its pharmacy services.

May 15 2013

IMS Report on Drug Use in 2012

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

IMS released its annual report on use of prescription medicines and trends in the industry. The report finds that in 2012 both prescriptions and spending declined, which may be beneficial…

May 01 2013

EMD Serono Specialty Digest III

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

The final post on the EMD Serono Specialty Digest covers oncology, an area which is seeing rapid growth in very expensive specialty compounds, and use of specialty pharmacy providers.

Apr 30 2013