Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Consumer Reports writes that “66% of those polled by Consumer Reports said they found out the cost of a drug when they picked it up at the pharmacy counter, while just 4% said they had a conversation with their doctor about the cost of a drug.” Because doctors do not discuss cost with their patients, these…
Cuba is well known for its high quality cigars and sugar production, but is less well-known for its production of high quality pharmaceuticals. According to MSNBC, “With more than 7,000 scientists dedicated to researching new drugs, Cuba has one of the most sophisticated biotech industries in the developing world. Last year the country earned $350…
How do doctors know which drugs to give to which patients? Of course there are clinical trials giving the relative efficacy of each drug. With less than perfect adherence, however, clinical trials may not accurately predict a drug’s efficacy or the potential side effects. A paper by Chintadunta, Jiang and Jin (2008) look at two…
What percentage of your prescription drug costs should your insurance company cover? You may say “100%, of course!” However, if health insurance cover all pharmaceutical costs this will drive up premiums. One solution to this problem is reference pricing. If generics are available for $10 and name brand drugs are available for $100, the…
Should doctors prescribe pharmaceuticals to patients who have heart disease. Statins and ACE inhibitors are frequently prescribed to patients with cardiovascular problems. These medications have been shown to decrease the risk of heart attack in clinical trials, but could they actually increase the risk of a heart attack in the real world? The answer is…
For many illnesses, Medicare pays physicians a lump sum for the entire episode of care. This is known at the prospect payment system (PPS). But how does Medicare determine the payment amount? How should Medicare determine the payment amount? Medicare generally looks at 1) what treatments are generally used on average to treat a patient…
NPR’s Marketplace reports that the Cleveland Clinic has announced it’s going to disclose its doctors’ ties to the drug industry, upfront, on its website.
The pharmaceutical industry is well known for taking doctors (and medical students) out to nice dinners, giving them presents, and doing whatever they can to entice physicians to prescribe their drug. Now, health insurers are following the pharmaceutical companies lead. The AP reports that in order to convince physicians to prescribe generic drugs, a Rochester…
Placebos are important for medical research. In order to determine if a certain pharmaceutical is effective, researchers compare medical outcomes between one group given the drug and another given a placebo. But should physicians give placebos to patients outside of clinical trials? The Economist magazine reports (“Great Expectations“) on the phenomenon that many physicians are…
In April 2006, I reviewed a well-known article which stated that the cost to bring a pharmaceutical to market was $802 million. This included the the cost R&D, clinical trials, failed drugs, and the cost of capial. The estimate was from DiMasi, Hansen and Grabowski (2003). The $802m figure was an updated from DiMasi, Hansen,…