Attorney generals in 44 states are suing some of the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers, alleging they conspired to artificially inflate and manipulate prices for more than 100 different generic drugs, including treatments for diabetes, cancer, arthritis and other medical conditions. The lawsuit also names 15 individual senior executives. Among those allegedly involved are Teva, Pfizer, Novartis and Mylan. A key element of the alleged scheme was an agreement among competitors to cooperate on pricing so each company could maintain a “fair share” of the generic drug market. (
Associated Press
)
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Innovation & Transformation
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Consumers appear to be warming to Medicare-for-all, but they may not understand what it entails, Dr. Niran Al-Agba writes in a blog post. “Few seem to realize that no other system in the world operates like the current single payer proposals in Congress.” For example, most universal coverage systems incorporate cost-sharing for patients, and private health insurance typically plays an important role. “When it comes to health care reform, our politicians need to stop trying everything else, and just do the right thing the first time. It is not Medicare for all.”
(
KevinMD
)
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The health industry is on the cusp of a major revolution, driven by digital transformation enabled by radically interoperable data and open, secure platforms. Health is likely to revolve around sustaining well-being rather than responding to illness, according to a new paper from Deloitte. It anticipates a bright future. “Twenty years from now, cancer and diabetes could join polio as defeated diseases...The onset of disease, in some cases, could be delayed or eliminated altogether. Sophisticated tests and tools could mean most diagnoses (and care) take place at home.” (
Deloitte
)
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Analysis from the RAND Corporation finds that hospitals are charging the privately insured 2.4 times what they charge Medicare patients, on average.
Forbes
says the analysis, which encompassed hospitals in 25 states, “is in some ways the most important analysis of hospital prices ever done.” The reason: The authors were able to access the actual contracted prices used by employers representing 4 million workers. Normally, the details of these contracts are shrouded in secrecy.
(
Forbes
;
RAND analysis
)
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Old-school health:
T
he New Jersey Hospital Association recently hosted its second “Retro-Activity” event intended to engage college students in health-related activities. Why retro? The students were asked to put down their phone and other devices and remove their earphones.
(
Modern Healthcare
)
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Hold on to your cap:
Guinness World Records officials denied a British nurse a world record for running the fastest marathon in a nurse’s uniform because she wore scrubs instead of a blue or white dress, apron and a traditional cap. Not for long. Amid protests, it reversed the decision. Jessica Anderson, who finished the London Marathon in a time of 3:08:22, now holds that record.
(
Fox News
)
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Naloxone access
:
In states where pharmacists can sell the opioid antidote naloxone without a prescription, fewer people die from opioid overdoses, according to research published in
JAMA Internal Medicine.
Researchers also found these states had an increase in visits to the emergency rooms for non-fatal overdoses.
(
Reuters
)
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MarketVoices...quotes worth reading
“The original sin of the American health care system—the exclusion from taxation of employer-sponsored insurance—has created all sorts of incentives for hospitals, drug companies, and other health care industries to keep raising their prices, knowing that patients are several middlemen removed from the cost and value of the care they receive.”—Avik Roy, writing in
Forbes
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Sandy Mau and Roxanna Guilford-Blake
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