Through the years, we’ve learned not to underestimate the lengths to which institutions and individuals will go to protect their bottom lines. We like to think that no bad behavior can surprise us anymore—but then we learn better. Last year, we found a pharmaceutical company seeking the financially advantageous “orphan” drug designation for a drug it said was for a rare disease. The disease was COVID-19.
When we put all the examples of Shkreli-like behavior together, they stop looking like anecdotes and start looking like evidence. That’s the point of the awards: to highlight the structural weaknesses in health care that allow this kind of behavior to occur.
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The pandemic stress-tested the way the world produces evidence — and revealed all the flaws.
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This Medical News article is an interview with Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, the Flint, Michigan, pediatrician who discovered elevated blood lead levels among children exposed to the city’s drinking water.
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The quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) attempts to capture the impact of disease. It's a metric worth improving, not discarding.
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CMS has started issuing its first round of warning letters to hospitals not in compliance with the hospital price disclosure rule, a CMS spokesperson confirmed to Becker's May 5.
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Because there are no caps on cost, consumers and insurers often get billed hundreds of dollars for the most reliable PCR covid test. Prices are rising and they can’t fight back.
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An ambitious expansion plan by Mass General Brigham for Westborough, Westwood, and Woburn has set off a fight about the future of outpatient health care in Massachusetts. Competitors worry that the already dominant health care provider could become even more powerful.
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In a draft report, Boston-based ICER cites conflicting data from two trials. The Cambridge biotech says it “does not accurately reflect the possible holistic value” of the experimental treatment.
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In a draft report, Boston-based ICER cites conflicting data from two trials. The Cambridge biotech says it “does not accurately reflect the possible holistic value” of the experimental treatment.
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Supplements — vitamins, hormones, herbs, enzymes and probiotics — are only lightly regulated, and the existing rules are poorly enforced. The pandemic underlines why this is not a good thing, writes Sarah Green Carmichael in an op-ed.
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