Tell me a Story. If you’ve been reading my stuff for a while, you know that I love a good lawsuit filing. Sometimes the lawyers get a little spicy. Teva filed suit against the federal government for the Inflation Reduction Act and it has a few gems: The suit is different from others that have…
There are some weeks where your long-term success could be impacted if you’re not on top of what’s happening, this isn’t one of those weeks. But these things are cumulative so, if need help on the regular with strategy and health policy (like figuring out what you need to pay attention to, help understanding the…
Is anybody out there? It seems like everyone has disappeared for the rest of the year. And who can blame them? A few odds and ends caught my eye as I got ready to wrap up this year… Rebatable: 2025 should be interesting with now 4 companies pursuing the rebate model and suing the government.…
Methodology Matters. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) released their annual Unsupported Price Increase report and I find the whole process maddening. The inflationary metric they used was medical, not general (CPI-U). You might think that didn’t matter but it does. You know what medical inflation was? 0.48%. So anything over 2.48% increase…
When your job is to stay on top of the news but you also just want to turtle a little bit, there are challenges that eventually have to be faced. Skimming the news, here is what caught my eye… 340B Bonanza. I have been devouring the 340B coverage of J&J, Lilly and BMS suing the…
Broken Crystal Ball. Does the knowledge that RFK Jr might be heading up the Department of Health and Human Services get me any closer to guessing what might happen in the next 2 – 3 years for pharmaceutical health policy? Nope. But it wouldn’t seem like it would be good for innovation. NIH grants? Developing…
Caught my eye .. This week I am struck by connections between 340B and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in terms of being issue areas that need complete makeovers. A glow up won’t do; we’re beyond that. But the trajectory toward change is very different. PBMs and payers (maybe) benefit from the way PBMs currently work.…
Order (Not) Ready. The National Community Pharmacists Association surveyed just under 500 independent pharmacy owners and the results are really interesting. Almost ¾ had not signed 2025 Part D pharmacy contracts as of about a month ago. Of those that dispense GLP-1 agonists, 96% lose money on them; it makes sense why 59% are thinking…
Adding On. So glad to see this research from Avalere conducted on behalf of the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) on the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) negotiation on Medicare Part B provider reimbursement. While in Medicare Part D, negotiated prices do not factor into Average Manufacturer Price, the legislation is silent on whether…
It’s an Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) hangover kind of week. Last week the first Medicare negotiated prices for 2026 were announced and this week is the “what does this mean?” week with everyone catching up and chiming in. What I wrote last week stands but if you want another review, Health Affairs/KFF has you covered.…