Just… wow. Healthcare has a lot of rabbit holes but as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, copay accumulators should be understood at a basic level. I’m not asking about alternative funding and to draw up a case study. Just that accumulators can’t be used in Medicare. Basics. Heck a simple…
It took my until 5 pm on Thursday to figure out why there was a frog on the Microsoft tool bar. Leap year. Frog. Leap. Sigh. I prefer not. Congress seems to have hit the pause button (at least temporarily) on pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform. And that sort of felt okay because, realistically, things…
Orange you glad? Florida got approval from the Food and Drug Administration to import drugs from Canada. Ho-hum. The “how” still has to be figured out and approved and that isn’t easy. Canada has about the population of California. It doesn’t want to supply the United States with drugs. It’s one of those ideas that…
We’re in that last work week before everyone dashes off. My own clients have headed for the hills (Short Hills?) and I’ve been baking and wrapping this week. It makes me appreciate the usual day to day of policy and reimbursement more than I would have thought. Next week I’ll pull out the vision boards…
Patient no more. A few weeks ago I wrote about how thanks to the HIV Hepatitis Policy Institute, the Diabetes Leadership Council and the Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition and their suit against the Department of Health and Human Services, accumulator programs were dealt a blow. They can only be used if it is for a branded…
Patients driving change. I love this story because it involves Carl Schmid, patient groups and copay accumulators. Copay accumulators are when insurance does not allow pharmaceutical manufacturer contributions to count towards patient out-of-pocket spending calculations. Thanks to the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, the Diabetes Leadership Council and the Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition and their suit against…