Jeanne Pinder
“Take one-half tablet three times per day with meals, increasing by half each week until reaching a maximum of three tablets three times per day,” Kevin R.R. Williams writes over at KevinMD. “Did you get a new prescription from your doctor? If so, there is a 50 percent chance you will not adhere to label […]
Jeanne Pinder
“The financial cost of having a neurological disease such as Parkinson’s or multiple sclerosis is growing,” according to Healthline. “Those are the findings of a new study funded by the American Academy of Neurology and published in the organization’s journal Neurology. In it, researchers say they found the average out-of-pocket costs for a number of […]
Jeanne Pinder
Oatent extensions let drug makers keep prices high and prevent competition, as described in a recent study from the University of California at Hastings College of the Law tracks. “Rather than creating new medicines, pharmaceutical companies are recycling and repurposing old ones,” write the authors, Robin Feldman and Connie Wang. “Every year, at least 74% […]
Jeanne Pinder
This post originally appeared on Forbes, where I am a contributor. If you’re like a lot of Americans, your prescription prices keep going up and up. What to do? Here are eight easy hacks for saving money on meds. Before the hacks though, one important point: If your insurance company won’t pay for something that is recommended by […]
Jeanne Pinder
Summary: “Financial pressures kept cancer patients from filling prescription medications and attending their doctors’ visits, University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers found in a new study,” according to a press release from the center. “More than one-in-four cancer patients surveyed reported they had to pay more for medical care than they could […]
Jeanne Pinder
Summary: Rob Lamberts, a family physician, wrote this useful piece over at his blog, “Musings of a Distractible Mind.” The money quote: “This incident is just one example of the terrible gaming that routinely occurs with the prices of drugs. There are plenty of others. Why, for example, do brand name medications continue having such […]
Jeanne Pinder
Summary: We’ve written a lot on prescription drug pricing; here’s our prescriptions page. Consumer Reports took up the topic recently: “Millions of Americans have been hit with high drug costs within the last year. In fact, a recent Consumer Reports National Research Center poll of 1,037 adults showed that a third of those who currently […]
Jeanne Pinder
Summary: Buying medications by mail from Canada? You’re not alone. A friend from California explained how she started out on this path, and why she thinks this will save a lot of money — although, strictly speaking, the Food and Drug Administration considers the practice illegal, and has reportedly intercepted some shipments of medications […]
Jeanne Pinder
Summary: Extending insurance coverage to all, even those with serious or pre-existing conditions, was one of the promises of the Affordable Care Act. And yet conditions including high coinsurance and high co-pays have put treatment out of reach for insured people. Here’s a new analysis from Avalere Health saying that some insurance plans “place all […]
Jeanne Pinder
Summary: “The Center for Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) at the University of Michigan reports that until 2002, most people with employer-sponsored insurance that included prescription drug coverage were in plans with one or two formulary tiers. As of last year, nearly 25% of insured people were in plans with four or five tiers, and the […]
