Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Recently, the Office of Management and Budget has released new procedures to assess government regulation (Circular A-4) and economic policies (Circular A-94). What is unique about this guidance is that it weights benefits and costs of new regulations and policies based on the income of the individuals impacted. The goal is to help reduce inequality.…
In the U.S., health insurance premiums are tax deductible–if paid through out of pocket expenses–but out-of-pocket expenses are not. However, there are exceptions to this rule. These include two often-used tax-favored accounts: Flexible savings accounts (FSA). These accounts allow employees to set aside a portion of their pretax income to cover qualified medical expenses; however,…
That is the title of a fantastic editorial from Olivença et al. (2024). A lot of people when they look at pharmaceutical prices think they are ‘too high’ or ‘too low’. But the question is, too high or too low relative to what? What are our goals in pharmaceutical pricing. The editorial clearly articulates the…
From Marketplace: It actually started off on January first very early on in the government’s history. In 1842, President Tyler actually shifted it to July 1 to June 30. And then in the 1970s, when Nixon was withholding funds to try and get the budget under control, they shifted it to October 1. The idea…
Medicare drug price negotiation is here. The maximum fair prices (MFP) set by Medicare lead to discounts between 38% and 79%. In fact, the real discounts are larger since the figures listed in the table below are discounts off of 2023 prices (rather than 2024 prices). How did the negotiation process work? CMS’s fact sheet…
What everyone wants is getting new, innovative medicines to market quickly, but at the same time insuring we have enough data to confirm that these medicines are safe and effective. How do we balance these two aims? A paper by Ollendorf et al. (2024) provides some guidance. Some of their suggestions are summarized below. Make…
This is a common question I receive, often with the implicit assumption that prices in the US are too high. One key question to consider is, what are we trying to optimize? Tyler Cowen has a very good and brief post talking about drug prices and makes the case that (i) the supply of new…
The 340B Drug Pricing Program is a federal initiative designed to help certain healthcare providers, known as “covered entities,” stretch their resources to better serve vulnerable and underserved patient populations. Created in 1992, the program requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to sell outpatient drugs at significantly discounted prices (typically 25% to 50% off) to eligible hospitals, clinics,…
Recently, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is getting a lot of attention, particularly for its provision that allows CMS to start drug price negotiation for selected drugs 9 (small molecules) or 13 (biologics) years after drug launch. However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has proposed a number of a number of payment…
What is it? The BIOSECURE Act is a bill seeks to stop firms that receive federal funds from using select Chinese service companies. These include the genomics firms BGI, MGI, and Complete Genomics; and WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics. These firms are deemed by the bill as foreign “companies of concern”. Why does it matter?…