Higher prices drove up Medicare drug spending, advisers say
It was not due to higher volumes of filled prescriptions. More
How Patent Extensions Keep Some Drug Costs High
The Biden administration has a chance to help curb drug costs in naming a new patent office director, some experts say. More
RIP Medical Debt Works with Ballad Health to Abolish Over $277M of Medical Debt
Ballad Health and RIP Medical Debt (RIP) announced today a new agreement that will eliminate $277,974,370.31 million worth of non-governmental payer medical debt (i.e., non-Medicare/Medicaid) for approximately 82,000 people previously served by Ballad Health. More
Trump’s FDA commissioner takes job at Moderna backer
Stephen Hahn joins Flagship Pioneering, which launched Moderna a decade ago and made billions from its coronavirus vaccine. More
Some Hospitals Kept Suing Patients Over Medical Debt Through the Pandemic
Court actions by hospitals to collect patient debt dropped sharply during the pandemic. But a new study says some of the nation’s largest hospital systems kept filing lawsuits, liens and garnishments — and most were nonprofit. More
Early Hospital Compliance With Federal Requirements for Price Transparency
This cross-sectional study assesses compliance within a random sample of hospitals with a federal rule requiring hospitals to disclose the prices they negotiate with insurers. More
If vaccine apartheid exists, vaccine billionaires shouldn’t
Vaccine profits have minted new pandemic billionaires. Only 0.3% of vaccine doses have been given in low-income countries. That's wrong. More
UnitedHealthcare delays ER claims policy following backlash
UnitedHealthcare's new policy, which could reject as many as 1 in 10 claims, was labeled as "dangerous" by the American Hospital Association. More
Pharma funded more than 2,400 state lawmaker campaigns in 2020, new STAT analysis finds
STAT’s findings provide an unprecedented look at drug industry influence in state capitols across the 2020 election cycle. More
These bonuses for doctors create an immoral conflict
Many physicians' bonuses, 73% per data from 2019-2020, are tied to relative value units (RVUs), which measure time, skill and effort for each patient a physician sees. Fewer physician bonuses are tied to quality-of-care measures, or protocols and processes that encourage increased patient safety measures and decreased death rates. More
Fear of the American Health Care System Is Driving Vaccine Hesitancy
People don’t trust an industry known for bureaucratic traps and surprise billing to save them from the pandemic. More
At Georgia immigration jail, warnings about women’s medical care went unheeded
Federal immigration officials failed to monitor medical treatment at a South Georgia detention center where dozens of women say they underwent unwanted procedures, including hysterectomies, newly released documents show. More
‘Outrageous’: why was a US health worker charged with spreading Covid?
Attempt to hold a worker criminally liable for the spread of Covid resulted in Josefina Brito-Fernandez losing her license to work, fearing deportation More
And the ‘Shkreli Award’ goes to …
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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A U.S. company that ruined vaccine doses gave its top executives hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses.
The government has so far paid Emergent BioSolutions $271 million, even though American regulators have yet to clear a single dose of vaccine produced at its manufacturing plant in Baltimore. More
Some Tucsonans report being billed for free COVID-19 vaccines
Some vaccinated at Banner Health sites in Tucson have received $71 bills. Banner says the bills were a mistake and that anyone who paid them can get their money back. More
Covid Killed His Father. Then Came $1 Million in Medical Bills.
Insurers and Congress wrote rules to protect coronavirus patients, but the bills came anyway, leaving some mired in debt. More
Buoyed by Federal Covid Aid, Big Hospital Chains Buy Up Competitors
The pandemic barely dented the financial outlook for some major networks, which continued to acquire weaker hospitals and ailing doctors’ practices. Critics worry consolidation leads to higher prices for medical care. More
‘There’s no way I can pay for this:’ One of America’s largest hospital chains has been suing thousands of patients during the pandemic
One of America's largest hospital chains, Community Health Systems, has filed at least 19,000 lawsuits against patients in the last year, a CNN investigation finds. More
How COVID broke the evidence pipeline
The pandemic stress-tested the way the world produces evidence — and revealed all the flaws. More